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COVID-19 Research to Support Tasting Room Owners in Pennsylvania. Part 1

The article is the first in a series developed to explore how wine consumers' attitudes and behaviors have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Updated:

July 23, 2021

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COVID-19 Research to Support Tasting Room Owners in Pennsylvania. Part 1

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The wine and grape industry, like many others, had to adapt quickly to changes in how they conduct business and serve consumers during the COVID-19 crisis. While still considered an “emerging" industry, there are more than 300 wineries in the Commonwealth (Pennsylvania Winery Association, N.D.). In 2018 more than 2 million consumers visited Pennsylvania wineries with total activities (e.g., vineyard, retail, wholesale, tourism economic impact), generating $476.5 million in tourism revenue (John Dunham & Associates, 2018).

Before the pandemic, the wine industry was facing the possibility that consumption would be significantly impacted by changing attitudes and behaviors, in particular, that of the Millennial generation (consumers age 24 to 39 years) and Gen Z (those age 23 and younger) (Pew Research Center, 2019). Several sources reported that consumers in these generations are likely to either consume less alcohol, select low-or no-alcohol options, or switch from wine to other alcoholic beverages (Siegel, 2019; Taylor, 2018). In response, wineries and tasting rooms were investigating and investing in alternative goods (e.g., creating recipes to address the growing interest in cocktails) and services (e.g., greater emphasis on festivals) that appeal to these audiences (Swartz, 2019). However, because of the COVID pandemic, these plans were likely put on hold.

COVID-19 Impact on The Pennsylvania Wine Industry

All Pennsylvania winery tasting rooms were closed for late spring 2020. They shifted, or pivoted, took orders online and by phone, and depended on either pickup or delivery to sell their wines. Additionally, the Fine Wine and Good Spirits website was overwhelmed with demand. It did not accept any new orders, including those for Pennsylvania wine, shortly after the website reopened in early April 2020. However, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCP) started with its curbside pickup on April 20, 2020, and between April 1 and May, the PLCB made $16 million in e-commerce sales (excluding sales tax or shipping costs) (PennLive, 2020).

Based on a COVID-19 impact survey (Schmidt, Kelley, and Centinari, unpublished data) conducted March 24, 2020, to April 15, 2020, tasting room owners were very concerned about how they would need to adapt to the post-COVID-19 environment. They provided comments that showed their worry about consumers not returning to the tasting room because they are small and enclosed environments and/or attending festivals with large groups of people.

COVID-19 Impact on Wine Consumers

While the COVID-19 focus in the United States has shifted from shelter-in-place orders, reduced or no access to restaurants and bars, and increasing e-commerce and no-contact purchases to vaccines being available and some states only requiring those who are unvaccinated to wear masks inside public settings, there is still much to learn from data collected from consumers during more restrictive times. Though many consumers are returning to their “normal way of life," certain procedures adopted by retailers during the peak of the pandemic to reassure consumers that their facilities “were safe" are still important to consumers during the current COVID-19 phase. Especially with the new, and potentially more contagious variants, the near future remains uncertain, and lessons learned during 2020 and 2021 may prove useful in the future. Market research companies have conducted customer surveys across the U.S. about their perceptions of returning to premises to enjoy once again food and drink outside their homes. For example, CGA (2021) surveyed customers in Florida, Texas, New York, and California at the beginning of July this year and found that over half (53%) ventured out to visit restaurants and bars during the long July 4^th weekend. In addition, over 88 percent of visitors stated that changes in service due to COVID did not impact their on-premise experience negatively.

Penn State Wine Consumer Research Efforts

Penn State faculty received funding from the Pennsylvania Wine Marketing and Research Board (Project No. #239695) to conduct research that would provide more targeted information for the Mid-Atlantic region about the impact of the pandemic on consumer wine purchasing, consumption, and tasting room visits. The first of two internet surveys was developed and launched in winter 2021 to learn from wine consumers about how their wine consumption may have changed during the pandemic, their concerns about contracting COVID-19, and new variants, if they were hesitant about visiting tasting rooms, and what measures they would like tasting rooms to implement to help them feel safe.

Conducting two surveys during 2021 will allow researchers to measure any changes in attitudes and behaviors over time. The first survey, launched in March, coincided with the period when most activities occur indoors. The second, which is planned for early fall, will be conducted during a time when outdoor activities are planned at many tasting rooms, which provides ample space for social distancing.

While each tasting room may have access to a list of loyalty club members or frequent visitors, our ability to survey a larger population of wine consumers will provide greater insight into these consumers' attitudes and behaviors about wine consumption, purchasing, promotional messages, and tasting room visits impacted by COVID-19. Survey data will be analyzed based on several variables (e.g., frequency of tasting room visits, wine consumption frequency, Pennsylvania wine purchasing behavior). These are just a few of the expected outcomes that can positively impact Pennsylvania winery tasting rooms and wine brands.

The following are more details on the data collected during the first survey. We will present analysis highlights in the upcoming parts.

A 15-minute internet survey (15 to 28 March 2021) was administered to consumers who lived in the Mid-Atlantic (New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) and states that share borders to the east and south of the region (Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia) and Washington D.C. Participants were allowed to access the survey if they were not a member of the wine industry or trade; were not involved in conducting consumer or marketing research; were between 21 and 75 years of age; and purchased and drank wine at least once within the previous three months. Of the responses collected, 847 of the surveys were considered complete and used for analysis.

All survey participants answered questions about:

their concerns about COVID-19,
if they are not visiting tasting rooms because they were concerned about getting infected,
what safety measures and procedures tasting rooms should take to encourage them to visit,
wine consumption and purchasing, and
socio-demographic characteristics.

Of the participants, 495 (58% of these respondents) had visited tasting rooms in the states listed previously since January 2018, and 352 (42%) had not. Having these two groups allows us to further investigate issues specific to each. Consumers who had visited any tasting room in the Mid-Atlantic region since January 2018 responded to questions based on these experiences. In addition, participants who had not visited a tasting room within the past three years but were “somewhat likely to very likely" to visit a tasting room in the Mid-Atlantic region participated and responded to questions about intent and what would encourage them to visit a tasting room during the current pandemic.