While some consumers mentioned affordability as a key component of food shopping, this didn't seem to be the main factor when making food choices. This was surprising, given the fact that the majority of our consumers were young and either students or young professionals. Others mentioned that they felt that they were willing to spend more money on food than their friends or coworkers.

People mentioned the cost specifically of organic food. C2 talked about her “uncomfortable relationship” with organic food due to expense, and C7 regularly shopped at the farmer's market, but said: “I don’t really buy organic at the farmers market because I can’t really afford it.” Also, affordability sometimes came into play when deciding whether or not to buy local or organic on each individual shopping trip, for example, C10 mentioned “if I feel like I've spent a lot on other things than I will not necessarily choose the local flour over other plain flour. But if I feel like I haven't spent a lot then I will choose the local organic flour over regular flour."

Although most consumers at least mentioned cost as a factor, they tended to say that slightly higher costs were “worth” feeling good about what they bought.  C8 said “I’m not willing to pay premium in a store but I am willing to pay premium if it’s something I knew came from a local dairy.” C4 said that at the farmer's market “I'll pay full price 'cause now I'm in love with the way good food feels.”  Sometimes it even seemed that as long as they could feel good about one factor of their buying process, other factors didn't matter as much. For example, C7 mentioned “I’ll occasionally buy organic at the farmers market. I often buy the non organic version.. I guess there is a sort of feel good benefit from the farmers market and organic…but don’t need to necessarily do both.”