By: Allison Febrey, Senior Manager, Research & Insights, FMI
Despite our best intentions at the start of each year, by March, many New Year’s Resolutions have fizzled out. Similarly, while 56% of consumers started the year with positive expectations, now only 45% of shoppers feel positive. In fact, 30% have negative expectations for 2025. Looking just at grocery shopping, most consumers (71%) are concerned about the rising price of food from grocery stores; and that’s just one of many concerns shoppers have regarding groceries.
These concerns in the grocery shopper’s mind have been increasing since January. Shoppers report being extremely or very concerned about:
- Increased tariffs on imported food (54%, +5 percentage points)
- Bird flu (51%, +8 percentage points)
- Decreased access to accurate information about food safety issues (47%, +7 percentage points)
- Outbreaks of food-borne illnesses at food stores (46%, +3 percentage points)
Most people have seen the effects of bird flu on the egg supply — almost everyone (89%) has noticed changes in the egg supply at the grocery store. In response, 84% have made some change to how they purchase eggs. The top changes include: buying fewer eggs due to cost (37%), buying fewer eggs due to availability (22%) and not buying eggs at all (20%). Some shoppers are also substituting eggs with other products (12%).
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Despite these worries, shoppers remain optimistic and resilient. Almost eight out of 10 say they feel in control of their household expenditures on groceries. Most consumers (77%) also expect their finances to be better or the same, one year from now.
As grocery prices rise and food concerns grow, shoppers are adapting in real-time. FMI will continue tracking shopper behaviors and attitudes on a monthly basis, as part of our Grocery Shopper Snapshot series.
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