Following the report that Dollar Tree stores is evaluating promotion of cage-free eggs, Supermarket News ran a simple single-question survey in a recent posting.  The result was that 90.9 percent of respondents replied in the affirmative to the question, “I am seeing shopper interest in cage-free eggs” with 7.8 percent in the negative and the remainder uncommitted.

At face value it would appear that there is an overwhelming “interest” in cage-free eggs but not necessarily demand.  This finding is a direct result of a simple questionnaire that provided a misleading answer.  Currently approximately one-third of the nation’s flock is housed in other than cages with the majority in aviary or barn units.  Many of these cage-free eggs are however diverted into the generic stream with estimates of up to 50 percent in some regions given prevailing retail prices.

Statistics produced by the Agricultural Marketing Services confirm a plateau in production of cage-free eggs, responding to market demand. It is axiomatic that “everyone is in favor of cage-free eggs, but few are willing to pay for the difference over conventional generic eggs.”

The most valid method of determining consumer demand for a product is to conduct a survey applying conjoint analysis incorporating price, housing system and possibly other variables in orthogonal comparisons.  This enables investigators to clearly determine the motivators for purchase of eggs with specific attributes and to accurately determine the value assigned to one or other quantifiable or intangible factors.

Simple surveys produce inexpensive, rapid and invariably misleading results.