What do local foods consumers want?

Lessons from ten years at a local foods market

Abstract

The local foods movement is now firmly en­trenched in the public imagination and as a feature of the larger food economy. With the most recent wave of local food retail markets now in its second decade, scholarly attention has turned to the fac­tors that correlate with success, yet we know very little about local food consumer purchasing pat­terns. In this study, we examine a comprehensive database of all food sales spanning ten years at a pioneering local food market in Wooster, Ohio. Analysis of over 1 million sales data points reveals a number of interesting trends: there are predict­able seasonal patterns in the rise and fall of sales at the market; there is a notable increase over time in the proportion of sales accounted for by takeaway foods produced in the market’s commercial kitchen; co-op members spend more on average per visit than nonmember customers. A success­ful market needs a balance between a small number of large-volume producers, who dominate sales with a handful of products, and a deep pool of smaller-volume producers, who bring a diversity of products to the market shelves. We conclude with a series of points that are of use to local food scholars, practitioners, and policy advocates.