An American consumer study turned up some interesting factoids for mushroom growers in the US to digest. The Packers' Fresh Trends 2003 consumer study is a look at how customers view the shopping experience.
Information is gathered from grocery stores and interviews with customers. Questions include why shoppers purchased unplanned items, what determines planned purchases and what prevented shoppers from purchasing an intended item. Mushrooms were included in several topics.
10 % of respondents said that mushrooms were one of the items not purchased because of poor quality.
17% of respondents said that mushrooms were in the top ten items typically purchased only for specific recipes or special occasions
73% of households have purchased mushrooms at some time.
What a shopper wants: Fresh mushrooms in half the packager size they are sold in now.
Maybe some food for thought there for the Irish mushroom industry too.
