9A Testing the Hypothesis Part 2

·     Who: With the interviewing of five new individuals and a more in-depth discussion of what hydroponic farming is and truly consists of, I was able to divide the who groups up into a few more categories. As with my previous interviews it seems that lower to lower middle class individuals seem to be more affected by the rise in produce prices and would prefer to shop somewhere that offered lower prices. However, I was able to find middle to upper class individuals who said they would support a hydroponic store that grew and sold their own produce. These individuals consisted of a sub category of the environmentally conscientious. After I explained to these individuals the environmental impacts traditional farming has and then compared that to the impacts hydroponic farming has on the environment, it became evident that there were indeed people in the upper classes who were not as concerned with the financial side of the problem but were concerned with the philanthropic side of the problem. 

·     What: While the original problem/need I had was focused mostly on the price of produce, I do think there is a whole other market to be reached with the environmentally conscientious population. In this market people pay even higher prices for goods sold that are cruelty free or recycled and shop at places like whole foods that upcharge for these types of products. 

·     Why: I believe the needs for the lower and upper class are different, one being financially motivated and the other being more environmentally motivated. However, lower class individuals are still concerned with the environment but the price of a product outweighs that concern. I do think it is possible to meet the needs of both groups of people in the long run but not in the startup phase of the business. The equipment it requires to start a hydroponic farm/store is very expensive so in the beginning phases the products would have to compete with market prices but eventually in the long run prices would be able to be reduced.

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	Inside the Boundary	Outside the Boundary
Who	Lower to lower middle class with a family to support  Environmentally conscientious middle to upper class	Lower to lower middle class single or married with no children  Middle to upper class
What	To have a smaller environmental footprint with hydroponic farming	To greatly reduce the cost
Why	Hydroponic farming is a lot more sustainable and requires less use of natural resources than traditional farming	The equipment needed to start a hydroponic farm/store is specialized and expensive at first.