Apple wax and consumer awareness

As I work on an update on fresh cut salad sales, I was visiting yesterday with Steve Lutz of The Perishables Group. As we talked about whether the sales slide in packaged salads and packaged spinach reflects a change in consumer behavior, he brought up the case of wax on apples.

"There is a huge difference between consumer awareness and action," Lutz told me. "It can have a zero impact on behavior." He recalled from his days at the Washington Apple Commission when surveys showed a high level of awareness of wax on apples. In fact, some consumers were "concerned" about wax on apples.
But the correlation of the issue at store level showed that consumers in fact preferred waxed apples over unwaxed apples. They would buy more waxed apples than unwaxed apples if given the choice.

Lutz cautions against drawing too many conclusions about consumer behavior relating to bagged salad and bagged spinach until more time is passed. How much of the current decline in sales is attributable to demand and how much is related to supply? We may be better to tell in a few months, he believes.

Related to consumer confidence, here is a story about how consumers are returning to a Houston restaurant where patrons were possibly exposed to Hepatitis A.

From the story comes a quote from a trusting soul:

“My mom had warned me that there was a problem about a week ago, I guess, but I figured it was probably a pretty safe bet since it was on the news and in the paper that they probably have everything cleaned up by now,” diner Paige Gutierrez said.

TK: The chicken of demand or the egg of supply? In any case, The Perishables Group has figures that show bagged spinach sales for the 19 weeks ending Jan. 20 were down 47.8% compared with the same period a year ago.