Abstract
This study examines the effect of a consumer's socioeconomic characteristics on market participation and frequency of purchase of snack peanuts. Data are from a household survey of 2,880 U.S. households collected by Gallup in 1997. A hurdle Poisson model is used to represent consumers' participation and purchase level decisions in the snack peanut market. The results indicate that household income, presence of children in the households, geographic location of households, and gender of household meal planner have significant effects on the participation decisions. Along with the variables that affect participation decisions, race, education level, age of household meal planners have significant impact on purchase frequency of snack peanuts. Promotion of snack peanuts on the basis of household characteristics is important to increase participation and purchase frequency in the snack peanuts market.