Consumers are coming back to normal—if by normal we mean the more “old-fashioned” way—being responsive to prices and being ­willing to buy less or substitute lower-priced products if the price seems wrong. That may make it harder to sell apples this year than it was last year. “2011 won’t look like 2010,” said Steve Lutz, executive vice president of The Perishables Group. He speaks nearly every year at the U.S. Apple Association’s annual Outlook and Marketing Conference in August. One big change this year is persistently high gasoline prices. Energy for transportation normally costs consumers about 14 percent of their […]