Consumer Perception of Organic Food Products and Purchase Behavior of Shopping in Outlets of Retail Chains: A Pilot Study of Huntsville, Alabama

Jacob Oluwoye^1*, Duncan Chembezi², and Berneece Herbert¹

¹Department of Community and Regional Planning, P.O. Box 938 Huntsville, Alabama, U.S.A.

²Small Farms Research Center, Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, P.O. Box 938, Alabama, U.S.A.

Accepted September 20, 2017

The organic food industry is becoming an important sector across the world. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and examine consumer’s perceptions and understand the knowledge towards organic food products and purchase behavior. Following the literature review the researchers designed a questionnaire for data collection that took place during the last two weeks of January 2017. Purchasers were approached during their food shopping in outlets of two retail chains in two different areas of Huntsville, Alabama. The descriptive analysis reveals a complete difference of opinion with answers on polar opposite ends of the scale; and the relatively high standard deviation also reflects a divergence of opinion by respondents on most questions, with the possible exception of gender. However, majority of the respondents in the age group of 35-44 years were ready to purchase organic food products. Furthermore, the majority (78.1%) of the respondents were familiar with the term “organic food” while 13% of the respondents were not familiar with the term. With regards to ever been on an organic farm, while 73.9% of the respondents said “no” and 17.4% said “yes”. Furthermore, 73.9% said “yes” and 17.4% said “no” to the issue of having knowledge of where to buy organic food. However, majority of the respondents indicated “yes” to the issue of ever bought organic food or beverage product. It is concluded that there is a needs for marketing and awareness of organic food products across the age group because food selection is an important consumer behavior with many long-term consequences to the individual in the form of health and longevity and to society in the form of health cost. The marketers of organic foods need to be innovative and dynamic in order to compete with the changing purchase behavior in the organic food products market among metropolitan residents.

Key words: Consumer perception, Organic food products, Purchase behavior, Consumer knowledge.

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