Understanding the Effect of Product Displays on Consumer Choice and Food Waste: A Field Experiment
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This study aims to discover the link between product displays, consumer choice, and food waste at the retail level. To discover this connection, field experiments were conducted which occurred in the fall of 2015 in northern Delaware. In the study, participants were free to choose one apple from three different product displays, while being filmed in order to observe their behaviors during the selection process. However, no product display was perfect in appearance. One product display (“single”) only had one apple in it that did not have any blemishes or marks. The second display (“blemished”) was organized in appearance and fully stocked, but had blemished apples along with apples with no imperfections. The third display (“disorganized”) was fully stocked with only perfect looking apples, although it was disorganized.
Our results showed that the disorganized display was the most popular option, followed by the blemished display and then the single display. Furthermore, participants rated the apple in the single display as having the lowest quality, even though it was free from any imperfections. The results obtained from this study can assist in explaining the reasoning behind why retailers keep their product displays fully stocked, and why food waste occurs in the retail sector, particularly with fresh produce. Because the product supply is greater than the consumer demand, all of the items cannot be purchased in time before they become unsellable – and thus they are thrown out and contribute to overall food waste.