Go Pick me Out a Winner: Visitor Perceptions and Priorities Regarding Operational Attributes at U-Pick Farms in Western New York

Authors

Nicholas Pitas, University of Illinois, Urbana-ChampaignFollow
Ya-Ling Chen, State University of New York, College at BrockportFollow

Volume

61

Issue

1

DOI

10.34068/joe.61.01.12

Abstract

This study seeks to identify visitor priorities for and perceptions of operational attributes at U-pick farms. Using a survey of farm visitors in the Rochester/Finger Lakes region, we applied importance-performance analysis to identify priorities, and the repositioning framework to create strategies for addressing them. Our results indicate that U-pick visitors generally perceive high levels of service quality, especially on attributes that they perceive as most important. Priorities for improvement include produce-related factors (price and availability of specific varieties) and visit logistics (information to plan a visit). Real, psychological, and associative repositioning strategies for Extension professionals and U-pick operators are discussed.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Pitas, N., & Chen, Y. (2023). Go Pick me Out a Winner: Visitor Perceptions and Priorities Regarding Operational Attributes at U-Pick Farms in Western New York. The Journal of Extension, 61(1), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.34068/joe.61.01.12