Research

By: Leslie Sarasin, President and CEO, Food Marketing Institute

I hope your plans will include joining your industry colleagues and me at FMI Connect where we will reveal and explore the new findings in FMI’s 2016 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends.  Among a host of other topics, we will discuss three findings worth your consideration.

More Americans are sharing in food shopping than ever before and men are catching up.

In America, nearly everyone participates in the grocery shopping adventure. According to our most recent U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends data, 85 percent of U.S. adults report they have at least half the household responsibility for grocery shopping.  And the numbers that divide the gender ranks are closing: 90 percent of women (up from 89 percent in 2015) and 79 percent of men (up from 73 percent in 2015) claim a share in the grocery shopping for the household.

The path to sharing in food shopping varies for each shopper and is unique to each household.

While about four out of ten customers food shop for their single household or serve as the sole shopper for their multi-person household, the majority (58 percent) of food shoppers represent one component of a household team who divide up the grocery shopping responsibilities. More than a third of those who share in the shopping have so explicitly divided the role into equal parts that the household has no primary shopper. That leaves approximately two-thirds of households in which there exists a co-shopping role, where one partner takes a lead in some respects, but there continues to be much room for negotiation, arbitration and bartering.

This detail is important. Here’s why. In baseball, the six-month schedule is set up in clusters of three, four, and sometimes five games against the same opponent, a system that has given rise to the concept of “winning the series.” So while in all likelihood a team is not going to win every single game, its reality-based goal should be to win the majority of games in each of the three to four game clusters. If they remain focused on the short term goals of winning the immediate series, they have a better chance of achieving their long term goal of making it to the World Series. In our food world, it is a given that today’s food shopper has a diversity of channels from which to choose and it is a fact that most households have multiple shoppers with different needs, wants and goals. With these two realities in mind, it is critical that food retailers develop a win the series attitude, seeking to be the place that both co-shoppers choose a majority of the time. This requires paying attention to the particular and varying needs of each shopper – even when they come from the same household.

Supermarkets are well positioned within their customers’ circle of trust when it comes to food safety and supporting their health and wellness.

Food retailers have a hard earned and well-deserved reputation for providing their customers with safe affordable food. Additionally, food retailers are perceived as an important and trusted ally in helping customers achieve their wellness goals. While the food retail industry has a solid tradition of commitment to food safety and health and wellness, at FMI Connect, we will examine what it means to maintain and even deepen customer trust in these areas against the American backdrop of growing skepticism, scrutiny and doubt – no easy task.

Meet me at McCormick Place in Chicago, June 20-23, and we’ll discuss these and other crucial matters at FMI Connect and be sure to attend The Ins and Outs of Shopper Thinking: an Exploration of 2016 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends on Tuesday, June 21, 2016 from 4:00- 5:00 pm.