Relative Importance of Factors Affecting Customer’s Decisions to Buy Pick-Your-Own Versus Preharvested Fruit at North Carolina Farms

This study identifies the most important factors affecting customers’ decisions to buy pickyour- own versus prepicked strawberries and muscadine grapes at direct-market operations in North Carolina. The relative importance analysis identified the region of location of the operations and prices as the explanatory variable explaining most of the variation observed in the customer’s decision to choose the type of fruit to purchase. The estimated price elasticities indicate that sales of each type of fruit are very sensitive to prices.