Gen Z Shoppers Partner with Grocery Stores on Health and Wellness

By: Allison Febrey, Specialist, Health and Wellness, Food Marketing Institute

Young adulthood is a time of freedom, discovery and charting your path in the world. Eating balanced, healthy meals is normally a low priority during this time. Gen Z, however, couldn’t be more different—they are young adults focused on personalizing their health and wellness and they trust grocery stores to help in this process.

Gen Z Shoppers and Dieting

It seems like every day there’s a new diet–Paleo, Keto, gluten-free, etc.—and Gen Zers follow many of these different diets. Overall, 22% of grocery shoppers customize meal options for proactive diet regimes. However, according to the 2019 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report, Gen Z is almost twice as likely to customize meal options for dietary reasons. The youngest grocery-shopping generation is independently learning about and adopting dietary approaches. Perhaps Gen Z has learned from older generations the importance of focusing on health and wellness at a young age.   

Gen Z Shoppers Partner with Grocery Stores in Health and Well-being

Gen Z shoppers believe grocery stores are partners in their health and wellness. Almost half (52%) of Gen Z shoppers feel that food stores in general are helping them stay healthy, compared with only 37% of shoppers overall. Gen Zers have grown up with health and well-being integrated in their grocery stores, so maybe that is why they see grocery stores as allies in their health.    

But, Who’s Responsible for Nutrition?

Despite Gen Zer’s focus on personalized diets and their partnership with grocery stores, Gen Z shoppers are the group least likely to see themselves as responsible for their nutrition. According to Trends, only 60% of Gen Z shoppers see themselves as responsible for nutrition, which compared to older generations is a lot less. Interestingly, 43% of Gen Z sees grocery stores as responsible for nutrition compared to 34% of shoppers in general.

Take-A-Way for Food Retailers

Gen Z shoppers are personalizing their health and wellness and feels grocery stores are partners in this effort. What’s more, Gen Zers are more likely to hold grocery stores accountable for their nutrition. Grocery stores have a great opportunity to continue helping Gen Z shoppers on their health and wellness journeys and solidify their value equation with this young group of shoppers.

Download U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends