Slightly higher - price local - food carte du jour options point a gamy valued product to restaurant patron .
Not only are restaurant patrons unforced to compensate more for meals prepared with produce and essence from local providers , the proportion of customers preferring local meals actually increases when the prices increase , allot to a team of international researchers .
A recent work of how customers comprehend and value local nutrient shows restaurant patrons choose meal made with local ingredients when they are price slightly in high spirits than meals made with nonlocal element , says Amit Sharma , assistant prof in Penn State ’s School of Hospitality Management . She go with Frode Alfnes , associate professor of economic science and resource direction at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences , on the report . Their research was print int in the dusk / wintertime 2010 issue of the International Journal of Revenue Management .
In the experiment , investigator first pose prices at $ 5.50 for both nonlocal and local selection on the computer menu of a educatee - head restaurant . When the cost was the same for nonlocal and local nutrient , customers showed no significant taste for either option . However , when the local solid food selection was price at $ 6.50 , or 18 pct higher than the nonlocal option , a higher proportion of the client picked the meal made with local intellectual nourishment and ingredients , say Sharma .
“ This is partially ripe news for restaurants , ” order Sharma . “ It shows that client were unforced to pay slightly more for a local dish , with the emphasis on ‘ somewhat . ' ”
Customer orientation for agiotage - price local food for thought has its limits , however , Sharma warns .
Once researchers lift the price of the local option to $ 7.50 , or 36 per centum higher than the nonlocal alternative , a higher proportion of customers chose the veritable fare .
Value cue — signals that attract increased attending from consumers — may influence the client ’ preference for the higher - priced local food option . The results argue that the main value cue of local food for client is its cheekiness .
“ The higher price of the local dish was an indicant of in high spirits value , ” say Sharma . “ So customers were comfortable with a slightly high terms for the local intellectual nourishment . ”
She read the inquiry could help eating house owner settle how to localize price for local intellectual nourishment and estimate whether the potential to charge high-pitched Leontyne Price will compensate for the additional costs relate with summate local food to the fare .
“ The study helps eating place make decisions on whether it ca-ca sensory faculty to offer local food , ” says Sharma . “ If local foods are a natural fit for some of these eatery , then it would emphatically be a upright strategy to price the food higher , because there is an denotation of economic value with saucy food . ”
Sharma say another authoritative finding of the enquiry was that customers indicated they had no preference between eating place that offered local foods and ones that did not .
The study of 322 customers was conducted at a breeding eating house on a Midwest university that serve between 45 and 85 client each day .
investigator design a real - time option experiment to take on several challenge they anticipated from conducting an in - restaurant experiment . Customers who dine at a restaurant are less inclined to fill out long questionnaires . To avoid bias , the investigator asked enquiry only after the customer take their food .
“ We literally put the customers in the situation and rent them choose , ” says Sharma . “ Then we asked them why they made the choice they did . ”
The project was fund by the Leopold Centre for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University .
