To reduce food waste at the retail and personal consumption stages, discounts are offered in retail channels to encourage consumers to buy goods that are less attractive or close to their expiry dates. While discounts can encourage consumers to accept and purchase suboptimal foods, previous studies find that low prices or price discounts will make consumers produce positive or negative perceptions of product values. Consumers may increase their purchase intentions due to price concessions, but will think that price reductions are caused by quality degradation and thus reduce their purchase intentions. Additionally, the literature rarely explores the interaction between original prices of suboptimal products and discount presentation modes. This study thus contends that the interaction between original prices of goods and discount types will lead to significant differences in consumers' attitudes and purchase behavior toward suboptimal products. For research goals, this study employed a full factorial between‐subjects experiment designed with 2 original prices (High and Low) × 2 discount presentation modes (Discount percentage and Discounted price). An anonymous web-based questionnaire posted on the popular PTT forum and in Facebook and Instagram related communities is used to collect the data, and then a total of 328 valid questionnaires were finally collected. The findings indicate that attitudes and purchase intentions toward suboptimal food with a low original price is significantly higher than that of a high original price. Among the interaction effects, the means of attitudes and purchase intentions on the level of the low original price of suboptimal foods presented by discount percentage are higher the other three types. For the high original prices of suboptimal foods, the means of attitudes and purchase intentions on the level of discounted price are higher than for discount percentage. Based on these findings, this study demonstrates that consumer attitudes and purchase decision-making toward suboptimal foods are shaped by original prices and discount presentation modes. In Asia-Pacific countries such as Taiwan, consumers are price-sensitive but once a food item belongs to the category of suboptimal foods, their perceptions of discounts become different. Consumers’ attitudes toward that food and their willingness to buy may be moderated by the high or low original price of suboptimal food with the levels of discount presentation mode. Thus, based on the analysis and results of this study, we offer fresh findings and make both theoretical and managerial contributions to the related field of suboptimal food marketing and price discounts.

• Tzu-Chiao Kuo(National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan R.O.C)
• Long-Chuan Lu(National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan R.O.C)
• Hsiu-Hua Chang(Feng Chia University, Taiwan R.O.C)