Seasonal and occasional consumption
Discussions during the group interviews did not reveal any particular difficulty in consuming chestnuts, walnuts and hazelnuts. On the other hand, consumers' interest in these nuts is undoubtedly representative of the place nuts have in their diet, which is secondary. Regardless of the type of nut, consumers have often complained about a lack of visibility in stores. These fruits never take up an entire shelf like apples that have a wide range of varieties. These species are represented by just one variety. With such a limited range, it's hard for consumers to imagine a wide diversity of production, a lack of awareness which is of interest for all aspects of production as well as distribution. With the exception of certain nuts from a Denomination of Origin regions, such as the Ardèche chestnut or the Grenoble walnut, nuts can come from anywhere and nowhere. Very few of the consumers interviewed seem to have ever seen orchards in production.
Participants recognize a seasonal pattern of consumption, particularly for unshelled nuts. This seasonal pattern means short consumption periods, particularly for chestnuts. Peeled and pre-cooked chestnuts, however, extend these periods. The inconvenience of preparing whole chestnuts wasn't a spontaneous topic of discussion. Many of them are satisfied with pre-cooked chestnut purchases. In the case of hazelnuts, the debate between shelled and unshelled nuts seems to have been settled: the difficulty of cracking the nuts, regardless of them taking up less shelf space, means that the majority of consumers opt for shelled nuts, whatever they want to use them for. In the case of walnuts, the difficulty of cracking remains more debatable.