Soymilk is one of the fastest growing categories in the U.S dairy alternative functional beverage market. Using household-level purchase data from Nielsen's 2008 Homescan panel and the Tobit econometric procedure, we estimate conditional and unconditional own-price, cross-price, and income elasticities for soymilk, white milk, and flavored milk. Income, age, employment status, education level, race, ethnicity, region, and presence of children in a household are significant drivers of demand for soymilk. White milk and flavored milk are competitors for soymilk, and soymilk is a competitor for white milk. Strategies for pricing and targeted marketing of soymilk are also discussed.

U.S. cheese consumption has grown considerably over the last three decades. Using a censored demand model and Nielsen Homescan retail data, this study identifies price and non-price factors affecting the demand for differentiated cheese products. Own-price and expenditure elasticities for all of the cheese products are statistically significant and elastic. Results also reveal that a strong substitution relationship exists among all cheese products. Although demographic influences are generally smaller than those related to prices and expenditures, empirical findings show that household size, college educated female heads of household who are age 40 and older, residing in the South, Central, and Western regions of the United States, as well as Black heads of household, have positive statistically significant effects on consumers' cheese purchases.

This study analyzes consumer purchasing behavior of organic fresh fruits and vegetables using the 2006 Nielsen Homescan panel. An ordered logit model was estimated to quantify the impacts of economic and socio-demographic factors on the probability of a household belonging to a specific organic user group—devoted, casual, or nonuser. Results suggest that price and income, to some extent, affect consumer purchases of organic produce. Additionally, the profile of an organic produce user is most likely to consist of an Hispanic household residing in the Western United States with children under 6 years old and a household head older than 54 years with at least a college degree.