The COVID-19 pandemic itself constitutes an environment for people to experience the potential loss of control and freedom due to social distancing measures and other government orders. Variety-seeking has been treated as a mechanism to regain a sense of self-control. Using Machine Learning model and household-level data with a focus on the wine market in the United States, this study showcases the changing variety-seeking behavior over the pandemic year of 2020, in which people’s perception of the status of restriction measures influences the degree of their use of variety-seeking behavior as a coping strategy. It is the shopping pattern and store environments that drive the behavioral responses in wine purchases to freedom-limited circumstances. Coupon use is associated with a lower variety-seeking tendency at the beginning of the stay-at-home order, but the variety level resumes when more time has passed in the restriction periods. Variety-seeking tendency increases with shopping frequency at the beginning of the social distancing measure but decreases to a level lower than all the non-restriction periods.

Research has demonstrated growing public interest in local food and that this interest is driven by a number of factors including supporting local farmers, reducing the distance food travels, sustaining the environment, and food safety and quality. However, there has been very little research relating factors to actual purchase behavior. This study begins to fill that gap by relating consumer beliefs and values toward local foods with activities that support local foods as well as the actual purchase behavior for 22 fresh produce items. Data were collected through an Ontario-wide, web-based survey that is part of a longitudinal panel regarding food issues. Results from 1879 completed surveys indicated consumers had positive perceptions of local food and felt responsible for buying local, but also experienced barriers when trying to do so. Positive perceptions toward local food and a greater sense of personal responsibility to buy local were positively associated and higher barriers negatively associated with the likelihood of engaging in activities related to supporting local food as well as buying fresh produce items that were produced in Ontario. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context that consumers seem to have an overall orientation or schema to buying local in general, rather than a highly specific schema directed to one or a few particular products.