Maintaining a Healthy Equity Structure: A Policy Change at Producers Cooperative Association

board of directors, cooperative, retains, Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

A RETAIL EVALUATION OF PROMOTIONAL TACTICS IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY

In an effort to ease communication between packaged goods manufacturers and retailers, this study investigates food retailers'Â’ preferences concerning the various promotional programs used in their stores. Through the use of a mail survey, retail executives from supermarket companies shared their perceptions of 22 specific promotional programs regarding each program'Â’s use, effectiveness, and attractiveness for future support. According to retailers, clear and consistent promotional performers include targeted direct mail, shipper displays, in-store coupons, in-ad coupons, and in-store demos and sampling. It is noted, however, that the use and perceived effectiveness of these programs may not always seem consistent. For example, retailers felt that promotions tied to local charities are relatively ineffective for increasing product movement or overall store sales, and yet this promotional tool is used by 92 percent of surveyed retailers. On the other hand, frequent shopper programs received favorable marks regarding program effectiveness, and yet they are not commonly used by retailers in this survey. Ultimately, the value that a retailer places on any given promotion is a function of that promotion'Â’s ability to meet stated retail objectives, which may extend beyond any hard sales statistics.Marketing,

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN GROCERY MANUFACTURER AND DISTRIBUTOR MARKETING PROGRAMS: A SURVEY OF U.S. WHOLESALERS AND RETAILERS

The retail food industry has taken initiatives to improve cost and to return the focus of management to the consumer. Among these initiatives are Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) and category management. A mail questionnaire elicited perceptions on these issues from 95 executives among U.S. food wholesalers and retailers. This study found that ECR category management are being used to streamline costs and to remove logistical inefficiencies. Although it is widely recognized that category management provides a consumer focus, distributors seemingly brush aside tactics that target individual customers in favor of efforts that target logistical efficiency.Agribusiness, Marketing,

RETAIL DEMAND FOR WHOLE VS. LOW-FAT MILK: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LOSS LEADER PRICING

This analysis employed retail scanner data to investigate the demand for fluid mild differentiated by fat content. All own-price elasticities were significant and negative. Demand for low-fat milk was elastic, while demand for whole milk was inelastic. This article addresses the use of milk as a loss leader.Demand and Price Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Virtual Investment Concepts and the Ethanol Industry

The fast-growing US ethanol industry has historically been characterized by large downstream investments made by farmers. The authors assess the value which the stock market may hold for downstream investment by farmers as well as by ethanol manufacturers themselves. The model framework used herein expands on the original VEST framework developed by Siebert, Jones and Sporleder. A word of caution, the model herein is not intended to provide an on-going, risk-reducing business strategy. However, it can and does provide a quick method to calculate the reasonableness of a downstream investment request that a farmer (or any business person) might be challenged to consider. Although virtual stock market investments may certainly assist in value added performance, they (just like brick and mortar processing plants) can provide no guarantee of performance.cooperatives, corn, equities, ethanol, value added, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q10, Q32,

The Decision to Enter Consumer Direct initiatives by Supermarket Companies

R.B. 2000-04IN THE MID TO LATE 1980S, as computer networks grew and online services were developing, companies including supermarkets started to view home shopping as an exciting, new competitive venture. Now, food retailers are struggling with the possibility of providing a home shopping or consumer direct service for their customers. The decision for a supermarket company with traditional land-based stores to enter the online realm of marketing, however, represents a tremendous commitment. Through the use of a mail questionnaire, this report documents the factors and conditions that would motivate a supermarket company to engage in an e-commerce initiative. While questions evaluated retailer perceptions through the use of Likert scales, the survey also elicited written comments from respondents. A comparison is made between the responses of those retailers already engaged in consumer direct, and those who are not currently engaged in consumer direct. A significant finding of this study is that almost all respondents, 92 percent, most of whom were medium to large grocery chains, believed they will eventually involve themselves in consumer direct. The majority of respondents indicated interest in developing a consumer direct service with a third party, whether a consultant or a partner, although the majority of these preferred to fully own their consumer direct service and consult with a third party consultant. Very few were interested in fully developing a consumer direct program on their own. Motivating factors to entering consumer direct varied somewhat. Companies already providing consumer direct services stated their primary motivating factor for adopting consumer direct was “to develop closer retailer-customer relationships,” while non-providers chose “generating incremental traffic/sales” and “to remain the market leader.” When asked the likelihood of incorporating various methods of operation, consumer direct providers may be willing to expand their methods to incorporate alternative ordering methods for customers without access to online ordering. In addition, providers clearly indicated that they would prefer to fill orders from a centralized warehouse facility as opposed to store shelves. Non-providers, however, would be more likely to pick from a retail store, at least initially. A relief to the complexities of routing deliveries could be to develop scheduled deliveries. And according to survey results, scheduled deliveries may appeal more to companies currently providing consumer direct than those not currently providing consumer direct. Clearly most respondents felt that consumer direct had the potential to effect relations. Yet when asked how, they were by no means certain which if any suggested changes may appear. The most strongly felt attitudes were that “more information sharing regarding product movement” would be likely to occur as well as “consumer direct will create an opportunity for expansion of new products.” This uncertainty provides an open field for manufacturers to define relationships which will assist the development of the consumer direct channel including developing new methods of new product introductions, online product displays, ads and promotions, meal solution development, and more. In return, consumer direct providers will have to be willing to provide product movement information to manufacturers to help them develop these strategies and trade relations

REVISITING ENGEL'S LAW: EXAMINING EXPENDITURE PATTERNS FOR FOOD AT HOME AND AWAY FROM HOME

Expenditure patterns were examined for food partitioned into food at home and away from home to test the veracity of Engel's law. The analysis employed several functional forms and a Heckman two-step methodology to account for censored-response bias. Engel's law was verified in every case.Consumer/Household Economics,

OFFERING FOOD DISTRIBUTION-RELATED COURSES IN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS CURRICULA: PERSPECTIVES FROM ACROSS THE U.S.

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

On the Use of Valuation Mechanisms to Measure Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Novel Products: A Comparison of Hypothetical and Non-Hypothetical Values

Willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for novel products are needed to assess consumers' valuation of these products as well as for product adoption and optimal pricing strategies. Using experiments in a retail setting, we compare hypothetical and non-hypothetical WTP values between a Becker-DeGroot-Marshak (BDM) auction mechanism and conjoint analysis. Our results suggest that the auction WTP values are higher than conjoint analysis WTP values. Moreover, the hypothetical WTP values are higher than the non-hypothetical WTP values in both elicitation mechanisms.Conjoint analysis, willingness-to-pay, auction, hypothetical, non-hypothetical, Consumer/Household Economics, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

Suppressed Andreev Reflection at the Normal-Metal / Heavy-Fermion Superconductor CeCoIn5_5 Interface

Dynamic conductance spectra are taken from Au/CeCoIn$_5$ point contacts in the Sharvin limit along the (001) and (110) directions. Our conductance spectra, reproducibly obtained over wide ranges of temperature, constitute the cleanest data sets ever reported for HFSs. A signature for the emerging heavy-fermion liquid is evidenced by the development of the asymmetry in the background in the normal state. Below $T_c$, an enhancement of the sub-gap conductance arising from Andreev reflection is observed, with the magnitude of $\sim$ 13.3 % and $\sim$ 11.8 % for the (001) and the (110) point contacts, respectively, an order of magnitude smaller than those observed in conventional superconductors but consistent with those in other HFSs. Our zero-bias conductance data for the (001) point contacts are best fit with the extended BTK model using the d-wave order parameter. The fit to the full conductance curve of the (001) point contact indicates the strong coupling nature ($2\Delta/k_{B}T_c = 4.64$). However, our observed suppression of both the Andreev reflection signal and the energy gap indicates the failure of existing models. We provide possible directions for theoretical formulations of the electronic transport across an N/HFS interface. Several qualitative features observed in the (110) point contacts provide the first clear spectroscopic evidence for the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ symmetry.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, LaTeX, paper invited and submitted to SPIE Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Materials: Physics and Nanoengineering, in San Diego, California, July 31 - August 4, 200