Using Actual Versus Hypothetical Choices to Determine Consumer Satisfaction: Are Swedish Consumers Happy with their Choices of Organic Products?

Previously, studies of consumer satisfaction have often used surveys or interviews as the preferred method of choice. In this paper, we suggest an alternative method, using a combination of revealed and stated preference techniques in order to study consumer satisfaction with organic food products in the Swedish retail food market. The results show that consumers in two different choice experiments, in the majority of cases, chose the same basket as the one chosen at the actual moment of purchase. The probability of choosing the original basket in the first choice experiment, comparing the original basket with an all organic basket, depends on the gender of the respondent, the knowledge the respondent has of product labeling, and the price difference between the original and the alternative basket. In the second experiment, the original basket was compared to an alternative basket with less organic products that was more similar to the one actually chosen in the first place. In this second choice experiment, the probability of choosing the original basket depends on the age of the respondent, and the level of knowledge the respondent has of product labeling.