Grocery Store Shelf Labels, Nutrition and Pricing Information, and Consumer Choice

Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program, U.S. Department of Agriculture (Amount $237,039, Dates 10/1/05-9/30/07).

Project Directors

• Jill McCluskey - School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University
• Hayley Chouinard - School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University
• David Sprott – Department of Marketing, Washington State University
• Kenneth Manning - Department of Marketing, Washington State University

Objectives

The proposed research focuses on the effects of shelf label information on consumers’ information preference, information usage and purchasing behavior. The specific objectives include: (1) to analyze consumer preferences for shelf label information, (2) to measure the effects of including shelf label-based nutritional information on purchase decisions, (3) to examine the tradeoffs between displaying nutrition information, unit price, and price in more and less prominent formats while accounting for the interactions between these factors, consumer characteristics, and community characteristics, and (4) specific policy recommendations regarding the format and content of shelf label information.

Approaches

Two experiments are proposed to test the research objectives. Although each study makes use of distinct methodologies, both experiments manipulate the nature of nutrition and unit price information on shelf labels. The first study is a choice-based conjoint experiment wherein consumers are presented with a series of shelf labels for a single product and asked to select the labels they would prefer to see at the store(s) where they conduct the majority of their shopping. The second study is a product choice experiment in which consumers are presented with a single shelf label for multiple product categories/brands and asked to shop for a small basket of grocery items.

An example of a choice set containing four different labels is presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Example Choice Sets for Choice-Based Conjoint Experiment

INSTRUCTIONS: Below are various shelf labels from grocery retailers throughout the region. In today’s survey, we are interested in which of these shelf labels you would most prefer to see at the retailer where you do the majority of your grocery shopping.

PAIR #1 – Place an X in the space below the label you prefer the most.

PAIR #2 – Place an X in the space below the label you prefer the most.