COLUMBUS, Ohio — Cost is king when it comes to deciding what makes up someone’s favorite burger.
A recent survey by Kansas State University found consumers prefer beef over plant-based alternatives.
“About 70 percent of those consumers identified as meat eaters,” agriculture expert Andy Vance said.
“The other 30 percent have a diet that could be vegetarian or vegan or flexitarian or something other than just straight carnivorous, normal meat-eating diet,” he said.
Researchers found that meat-eaters were willing to pay $1.87 more for a beef burger at a restaurant, whereas plant-based-focused consumers were willing to pay about $1.48 more at a restaurant.
At the grocery store however, plant-based-focused consumers are willing to pay $2.32 more for a plant-based product compared to about 20 cents more for meat-eaters when choosing beef at the grocery store.
Vance also explained how these findings could shed light on the future of consumer spending habits.
“There is a cost premium,” Vance said when discussing plant-based alternatives. “That’s maybe been the thing that has held back some of those alternatives from gaining mainstream sway.”
Vance said that overwhelmingly, consumers look to cost as the determining factor when considering what to buy at their grocery store.
“Now, what’s changing is that the pandemic has conflated a lot of these economic factors,” he said. “So if you’re super passionate about plant-based proteins, you might be willing to pay more, that $2.32 additional at grocery for example, but if your finances were impacted by COVID, maybe that has made that more of a luxury than a have to have item.”
