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Cost Pass-Through in the U.S. Coffee Industry—Using a rich data set of coffee prices and costs, ERS examined the extent that changes in commodity costs affected manufacturer and retail prices. On average, a 10-cent increase in the cost of a pound of green coffee beans in a given quarter resulted in a 2-cent increase in manufacturer and retail prices in the current quarter. Coffee manufacturers do not appear to take advantage of manufacturing and production cost variation to raise retail prices; retail prices respond the same to both increases and decreases in costs of coffee beans. (March 2007)
The Impact of Big-Box Stores on Retail Food Prices and the CPI—This report focuses on retail food market dynamics and how they affect food price variation across store formats. Because the current CPI for food does not fully account for the lower price option of nontraditional retailers, a gap exists between price changes estimated from scanner data versus the CPI estimate, even for the relatively low food inflation period of 1998-2003. (December 2006)
Supermarket Characteristics and Operating Costs in Low-Income Areas—Do the poor pay more for food than other income groups? Stores with more revenues from Food Stamps (and more low-income shoppers) are generally smaller, older, and offer relatively fewer convenience services for shoppers. They also offer a different mix of products, with a relatively high portion of sales coming from meat and private-label products. If the poor do pay more, factors other than operating costs are likely to be the reason. (December 2004)
How Much Do Americans Pay for Fruits and Vegetables?—One argument for not consuming fruits and vegetables is that they are too expensive, especially when fresh. Yet among 154 forms of fruits and vegetables priced using Neilsen Homescan data, more than half were estimated to cost 25 cents or less per serving. Consumers can meet the recommendation of three servings of fruits and four servings of vegetables daily for 64 cents. (November 2004)
Exploring Food Purchase Behavior of Low-Income
Households: How Do They Economize?— Comparing purchases
by U.S. households of different income levels, ERS found that low-income shoppers
spent less on food purchases despite facing generally higher purchase
prices. Households can economize on food spending by purchasing more discounted
products, favoring private-label products over brand name products, pursuing
volume discounts, or settling for a less expensive product within a product
class. (August 2004)
Taxing Snack Foods: What to Expect for Diet and Tax Revenues—Health policy advocates have proposed excise taxes on snack foods as a possible way to address the growing prevalence of obesity and overweight in the United States. Using household scanner data to examine the likely impacts of such a measure on consumption of salty snacks, the study finds that relatively low tax rates of 1 cent per pound and 1 percent of value would not appreciably alter consumption—and, thus, would have little effect on diet quality—but would generate $40-$100 million per year in tax revenues. (August 2004)
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