Another Consumer Survey

Earlier this month, according to Meatingplace.com, Oklahoma State University did a Food Demand Survey with at least 1,000 individuals online. You always hold your breath with surveys, not knowing which way they are going to go because you can word the questions so the answers will be favorable to your thinking. But this survey, coming from a university, should be pretty accurate, whether you like the results or not.

The survey started out by asking the respondents to pick from a list of 11 organizations and people as to who they thought were most credible. USDA came in first, followed by the FDA, the American Medical Association, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and then the American Farm Bureau. Those in the bottom of least creditability were the New York Times in last, a professor from Texas A&M University next, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a professor from Harvard University and then the American Meat Institute followed by the American Farm Bureau and then the Humane Society of the U.S. 

Never having heard of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, I searched it and came up with a center that researched food and food products for consumers and gave the true story on calories, salt, etc. It was kind of interesting. It was hard to tell if they were for meat or not or biased in any way. Those taking the survey were most likely from an urban setting, or we hope so.   

The consumers taking the survey stated they are more willing to pay higher prices for chicken and steak but less willing to pay more for hamburger and deli ham and unwilling to pay even as much as they did a month ago for pork chops. Well, that is good news on steaks because we hear they are going up in price.

The survey showed that consumers were willing to pay $6.91 per pound for a steak, up from $6.42 a month ago, and they said they were willing to pay $2.26 per pound for chicken wings, up from $1.93 a month ago. Respondents added that they were willing to pay $4.68 per pound for chicken breasts, up from $4.52 a month ago. They were willing to pay the month-old price of $4.21 per pound for hamburger and $2.23 per pound for deli ham

Consumers did say they anticipated eating out less often and spending less money doing so in the coming month, as they expected higher beef, chicken and pork prices. 

In an earlier survey in December, the National Restaurant Association found that four in 10 consumers are not using restaurants as often as they would like, and – you guessed it – the reason is the economy.

“Consumers want to increase their frequency in restaurants, but the key factor holding them back is a lack of confidence in their financial situations,” said the Restaurant Association’s Chief Economist Bruce Grindy. 

Three out of four adults in the survey were concerned about the economy and had to cut back on spending, while only one of four said they felt secure about their finances. 

Hopefully none of them were on food stamps.