A questionnaire explored poi usage, frequency of purchase, and purchasers' buying behavior. The report discussed relationships between socioeconomic variables and consumption patterns. Ethnic Hawaiians were likely to be the most frequent consumers of poi. The authors stated that in 1828 poi was a staple for perhaps 95 percent of the population of Hawaii, and it was still an important food 100 years after that, but at the time of writing it was regularly consumed by only 5 percent or less of the population. The authors speculated that unless changes were made in its form, packaging, and promotion, a package of poi "could become an anachronism." Their prediction that "if poi is to have a profitable and lasting future then the flavor of the bulk of poi must change" had not been borne out in the several decades following the report's publication
