Organic food products, which have been sold traditionally at natural food stores, have become increasingly available through mass marketing channels. This study estimated an almost ideal demand system (AIDS) model using 2008–2010 retail scanner data to examine consumer demand for organic fluid milk products sold at conventional and natural marketing channels. Asymmetric cross-price elasticities were found suggesting relative stickiness in demand to switch from organic milk to conventional milk and from natural stores to food, drug, and mass merchandiser stores. More generally, demands shifting toward products with higher expenditure elasticities in a differentiated market can be explained by relative budget shares and expenditure elasticities.

The beverage sector plays an important role in consumers' daily diet. Recent declines in fruit beverage and soft drink consumption may be a reflection of changing consumers' lifestyles and perceptions. This study uses recent scanner data to develop a demand analysis to examine the competition of various beverages. To obtain reliable demand and elasticity estimates, we test for valid aggregations using the generalized composite commodity theorem. Results suggest that while consumers substitute refrigerated juice with low calorie drinks, a larger proportion of consumers substitute regular soft drinks with fruit drinks.

Estimates of demand parameters for disaggregate finfish and shellfish products were obtained using scanner data from a retail food firm in Houston. Demand for the various products was elastic (except for oysters); in general, cross-price effects play a statistically significant role in pounds sold per 1000 customers. Own-advertisement effects are important, but cross-advertisement effects are generally marginal. Seasonality is a key factor in purchases of most finfish and shellfish products.

We use rich IRI household- and individual-level data sets to examine the relationships between heart disease and type 2 diabetes with alcohol consumption. We control for a wide variety of potential confounders, including diet quality and lifestyle choices. Beer has long been studied in related literature to ambiguous outcomes. We explore the role of beer consumption in detail by separating craft beer from macrobeer and imported beer. The results indicate that most alcohol types could have protective effects against heart disease and diabetes, with the strongest effects occurring for craft beer and wine. Treating beer as a single, homogenous category in health studies likely leads to measurement error. (JEL Classifications: D12, I12, R20, L66, P36)

“Buying local״ has become one of the most important trends in food marketing. Despite widespread public attention, the influence of the “local״ attribute on food prices is not well understood. We aim to begin to fill this gap in research by exploring the presence of a price premium for “local״ in actual market transactions. Using scanner data on fresh packaged lettuce in the Honolulu market and hedonic modeling, we investigate consumers’ revealed preferences for the attribute. Contrary to the positive willingness to pay for local food widely reported in previous studies, we find no local premium for fresh lettuce in the Honolulu market.

A 2007 food-borne illness incident involving peanut butter is linked with structural change in consumer demand. Compensated and uncompensated own- and cross-price elasticities and expenditure elasticities were calculated for leading brands before and after the product recall using the Barten synthetic model and weekly time-series data from 2006 through 2008. Statistically significant differences in price elasticities for the affected brand, Peter Pan, were absent. After a period of 27 weeks, this brand essentially recovered from the food safety crisis. Significant differences in price elasticities were evident among non-affected brands. Hence, spillover effects and heightened competition are associated with the recall.

This article utilizes the 2011 Nielsen scanner data for the Honolulu fresh tomato market to explore the existence of price premium for local food. Hedonic analysis is conducted to delineate the price impact of the local attribute. Contrary to the widely perceived local price premium in the consumer preference literature, mixed results of price premiums and discounts are discovered for local tomato products. Additional investigation suggests that the prices of local tomatoes are likely influenced by seasonal output fluctuation. The limited market distribution capacity facing local producers may have contributed further to the retail discounting.