An Empirical Assessment of Consumers’ Preferences for Coffee

This study examines the purchasing behavior of inner-city and suburban shoppers for more than 265 brands and varieties of coffee. Weekly data for the 2011 calendar year are used for this study and these data represent purchases of shoppers in four stores in Columbus, Ohio. A national supermarket chain provided the data from a common price zone, meaning identical prices across all stores. The major premise of the research is that inner-city shoppers will show greater price-sensitivity toward the purchase of all brands of coffee.