The purpose of this study was to obtain information that could help farmers
increase the profitability of their operations and improve the likelihood that they
would continue farming. The specific objective was to empirically evaluate
which socio-demographic characteristics and purchasing behaviors encourage
consumers to patronize farmers· markets, in general and public markets, in
particular. Data was drawn from telephone survey responses from 502 potential
food shoppers in Alabama. Logit model results point to several factors that seem
to be strongly correlated with consumer purchasing behaviors and attitudes
toward shopping at public markets, including income, education, age of
household head, household size, price and quality of produce