Understanding SpartanNash Consumer Attitudes About Egg Labeling 

June 2024

Background

The cage confinement of egg-laying chickens has become a significant social concern throughout the U.S. It’s a rare issue that transcends party lines: red and blue states alike have laws banning the practice of confining chickens in cages, with most of them also prohibiting the sale of eggs from caged chickens.

As cited in these successful legislative advancements, these laws were passed because of voter concern about animal welfare and food safety concerns associated with confining these animals in cages.

Due to shifting consumer sentiment, food companies have also taken action on the issue, with many committing to only sell cage-free eggs.

One such company is the Michigan-based grocer, SpartanNash. It operates under banners including D&W, Fresh Mark, Family Fare, Family Fresh Market, Forest Hills Foods, Martin’s Super Markets, Metcalfe’s Markt, Supermercado Nuestra Familia, and VG’s.

In 2016, SpartanNash announced it would transition to exclusively selling cage-free eggs by 2025. However, in the company’s 2022 ESG Report, it rescinded that pledge, citing “softness in customer demand for cage-free eggs across our footprint” as a reason. It also stated the company will “remain committed to clearly labeling our products to give shoppers the knowledge they need to make informed purchasing decisions.”

Polling Design

We conducted a survey to understand SpartanNash consumer sentiment about cage-free eggs.

From June 1 to 4, 2024, we polled 1,106 SpartanNash customers and the results suggest that the disconnect between consumer sentiment about high-welfare products and purchase decisions is attributable to consumer confusion about labeling.  Due to egg carton designs and marketing claims, many SpartanNash customers believe that eggs from caged chickens are cage-free.

Key Findings

We find strong consumer demand for cage-free eggs; in fact, 80% of SpartanNash customers would rather chickens be housed in open barns without cages (compared to just 5% preferring cages) and nearly half said they’d be more likely to purchase the grocer’s private label eggs if they were cage-free (with only 10% saying they’d be less likely).

Our study results suggest that the disconnect between customers’ support for cage-free eggs and their purchasing is due to customers being confused by carton marketing.

We found that numerous cartons sold at SpartanNash caused more people to inaccurately believe the eggs were from cage-free chickens than to accurately determine they were from caged chickens. For every carton of cage eggs we surveyed, the majority of customers either inaccurately believed they were from cage-free chickens or were not sure.  

In addition to the misleading images on cartons, we find that the words used on these cartons are confusing customers. For instance, 42% of SpartanNash customers mistakenly believe that eggs labeled “farm fresh” mean cage-free, and 51% incorrectly assume that eggs labeled “natural” share this attribute.

We find that 74% of SpartanNash customers think the company should post color-coded tags in the egg aisle identifying which eggs come from caged chickens. 

Conclusion

SpartanNash customers are being confused by egg carton claims on an issue of importance to them, whether the chickens were raised in a cage-free or caged environment. The company would benefit from having all its private label eggs be cage-free (a move supported by a vast percent of its customers and opposed by very few) and by placing color-coded tags in the egg aisle identifying eggs from caged chickens. 

To read the full survey results, click here.

A sample of 1,106 SpartanNash customers was fielded over web panels from June 01 to June 04. The margin of error is +/- 3.0.