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This study investigates the determinants of consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for black walnuts in the US.

The study uses data from a 2023 survey of 916 US consumers and applies an ordered logit regression analysis to assess the determinants of WTP.

Income, consumption frequency and awareness of the health benefits of black walnuts significantly influence WTP. Moreover, 57% of individuals in our sample are willing to pay more for black walnuts than the current market price for English walnuts, the main competitor, highlighting a substantial market opportunity for black walnuts.

The demand for nuts, both domestically and globally, has seen a remarkable increase in recent years, largely driven by their perceived health benefits across various consumer segments. However, not all nut varieties have experienced commensurate growth, leading to a need for detailed analysis of consumer preferences, particularly for nuts with slower growth trajectories, such as those within the walnut industry. Within the walnut industry, black walnuts (Juglans nigra) stand out with unique production and commercialization dynamics – sourced predominantly from wild trees, boasting distinctive flavors and health benefits, yet facing significant challenges such as limited commercial scale, lower yields and the presence of only one processor in the US. These factors highlight the substantial market potential for black walnuts and make studying this unique crop essential for stakeholders across the nut industry who are interested in enhancing the competitiveness of the black walnut industry.

The objective is to determine if consumer preferences for grocery purchasing are impacted by the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and whether these preferences differ by demographic and psychographic characteristics.

The authors conduct an online discrete choice experiment (DCE) with 900 U.S. consumers to assess grocery shopping preferences under various scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e. decreasing, constant and increasing cases). The attribute of interest is the purchasing method (i.e. in-store purchase, in-store pickup, curbside pickup and home delivery) with minimum order requirements, time windows and fees as secondary attributes. Heterogeneity in individual-level willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates for the main attribute is analyzed by means of mixed logit and quantile regression techniques.

The mixed logit model reveals heterogeneity in WTP estimates for grocery purchasing methods across participants. According to estimates from quantile regressions, the heterogeneity is partly explained by the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the home delivery purchasing method is less preferred when the number of cases is decreasing. The results also show that consumer preferences for grocery shopping methods are affected more by psychographic characteristics than demographic characteristics. Consumers who comply with COVID-19 directives (e.g. wear face coverings) have stronger preferences for curbside pickup and home delivery, particularly at the tails of the WTP distributions.

Although there is much data on food consumer behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic at the aggregate level, there are few analyses of grocery shopping preferences at the individual level. The study represents a first attempt to relate individuals' demographic and psychographic characteristics to their grocery shopping preferences during the COVID-19 pandemic, thus yielding numerous recommendations in terms of consumer segmentation.