We have a long, admittedly odd, history of learning from rodents here on Consumer Corner.

A few weeks ago, we tackled the Young Sheldon inspired philosophical question of “Why does everybody knowing something make it right?”

Recall in 2020 I (Nicole) suggested that we redefine the standards on what looking ‘awful’ means in order to avoid admitting that my then Zoom-chic self was really falling short of any pre-Covid-era standards.

The challenge with consumers is that they aren’t just walking around as these mythical one-dimensional consumer-bots. Instead, they are walking around as thinking, feeling and ever-changing human beings.

Spending on casual dining restaurants has been increasing during recent years. In the samples from our CFDAS Database, the aggregate netspends on casual dining in billions $ from 2016-2022 were 18.9, 19.9, 22.7, 33.9, 43.3, 44.7, and 45.2.  Those values represent increases annually from 2017 to 2022 of 5%, 14%, 49%, 28%, 3%, and 1%.

Time flies! As we look back on 2022 here on Consumer Corner, we’re excited to have shared and documented insights from consumer and online media research, lessons from consumers in the (unrelenting, still, seriously?) pandemic-era meets post-pandemic era, decidedly non-traditional takes on management and decision-making, market insights, and our commentary on data, data use, and data analytics.

Long, long ago, in springtime, we started into life lessons from Sheldon Cooper.

The eleventh Consumer Food Insights from Purdue University highlights similarities and differences in nutrition beliefs and consumer behaviors based on geographic region.

Written for the United Soybean Board (USB), this recent paper outlines the economic model of the soybean value chain, from farm to fork, that was constructed to identify the effects of shifts in demand for soybean oil for use in biofuels on retail food prices.