an unsteady economy continues to yield savvy grocery shoppers motivated by cost however, for the first time, the share of shoppers opting to buy less meat to cut costs equals the share of shoppers using lists, coupons, and other saving measures. that&rsquos according to &ldquothe 2012 power of meat report,&rdquo the seventh in an annual report series exploring consumer perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors around fresh meat and poultry. the study was conducted by 201 analytics and commissioned jointly by the american meat institute ami and the food marketing institute fmi, with sponsorship by sealed air&rsquos cryovac food packaging div. according to the report, cost continues to be the largest factor on consumers&rsquo minds, with savings just as important to shoppers now as it was at the onset of the recession. since 2008, shoppers have developed and maintained a number of postrecession shopping behaviors to control their food expenses at retail outlets. among them are methods such as preshopping planning and reducing the frequency of shopping trips. another costsaving measure growing in popularity is the purchase of privatelabel fresh meat, with 64 of respondents reporting that they frequently purchase privatelabel fresh meats. however, the report indicates that one previously popular moneysaving strategy that has declined since 2010 is buying fresh meat in bulkfamily packages, from 60 in 2010 to 52 in 2012. among the other significant findings of the report related to packaging and labeling are the following &bull awareness of country of origin labeling cool rose to 39 in 2012 versus 33 in 2011, although this has little reported influence on purchasing decisions if the price of u.s. meat or poultry is higher. &bull twentyeight percent of shoppers said they would purchase more meat and poultry if it was packaged using environmentally friendly materials, even if it costs a little more. fortynine percent said they would only purchase more if there was no price difference. &bull sixtyeight percent of consumers are aware that in some stores, meat is cut and packaged before arriving at the store. &bull seventy percent of shoppers believe that meat packaged in a caseready format is as good as meat processed in the store. &bull fiftyone percent said they would redirect their purchases to leakproof meat and poultry packaging versus 26 in the 2011 report. the sample size for the survey was 1,340 individuals who were surveyed via an online questionnaire in november 2011. respondents were evenly distributed throughout the u.s. and were selected through an online consumer database.
