Who spends the most money at farmers’ markets?

Abstract

Farmers’ markets have been booming in recent years and are becoming an important alternative food network. They enable farmers to sell their products directly to customers and thus shorten the supply chain. Market organisers must meet the needs of both consumers and vendors by ensuring customer satisfaction while maintaining profitability for vendors. The present study identified four basic segments at farmers’ markets, as follows: (1) productoriented customers; (2) personal social responsibility-oriented customers; (3) entertainment and emotional-oriented customers; (4) alternative food-oriented customers. These segments were analysed using Structural Equation Modeling in relation to the amount of money spent on average at a farmers’ market. The results indicate that most money was spent at farmers’ market segments that are oriented at entertainment and emotional-oriented and productoriented customers. This indicates that farmers’ markets are no longer just a place to purchase fresh, high-quality food, but also a place that people visit for its atmosphere, for the food that can be eaten on-site, and to buy products not for direct consumption (e.g. flowers). It also proved the negative moderation effect of entertainment-oriented motivation on the amount of money spent with connection to product-orientation, which suggests that entertainment-orientated customers spend more than product-oriented customers.