Grocerant Shoppers Continue to Drive Food Industry Change

Well, here we go again. Regular readers know that Foodservice Solutions®, Grocerant Guru® was the first to identify, quantify, and qualify customer migration from legacy food formats to new non-traditional fresh food formats in a plethora of locations including furniture stores, club stores, clothing stores, dollar stores, and coffee shops to name but a few.

So, another industry leading food research house is jumping on the grocerant bandwagon, this time IRI, edifying results that regular readers of this blog have paid attention to since 2009.  Jonna Parker, principal, IRI Fresh Center of Excellence, during the "Balancing the Store Size Pendulum" webinar stated “Shoppers are expanding their consideration set when shopping for fresh foods to smaller and more niche outlets,”  Let’s all say it together, THANK YOU IRI, for edifying Steven Johnson’s findings.

So, get this IRI points out that “Across all outlets, grocery has the lion’s share of perishable and perimeter food sales (64%), but IRI sees that margin eroding as purchases shift to other channels, such as convenience/gas, dollar stores and digital.”  Don’t get us wrong, we are proud of our work and our clients like us; but it is nice to see others coming along.

The IRI report also found that 23% of households purchased fresh foods from dollar stores, 19% from convenience/gas and 10% from Trader Joe’s in the 52 weeks ending March 31. Ten percent of households also purchased fresh foods online.

Here is what is worrisome for legacy retailers “consumers, particularly those in their prime spending years of 40-54, say they are buying more-fresh at smaller format stores and online”.

Parker continued “The fight for fresh dollars is more-fierce than ever,” she said, adding that grocery is “almost at war” with the competition.” Johnson, is the only food industry professional with a fully developed model of the competition with his ‘Share of Stomach’ battle insights.

Last year was the tipping point in fresh sales, which had seen growth of as much as 5% earlier in the decade, but grew only 1% this past year—3% less than in 2014. Fresh is still growing, however, adding $7 billion in sales since 2014.

Foodservice Solutions® team identified that it is at the intersection of Price, Convenience and Time that consumers determine which channel (Grocery / Restaurants / C-Stores / Dollar Store’s / or new non-traditional) that will use to buy ‘What’s for Dinner’. 

For international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit www.GrocerantGuru.com , www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or call 1-253-759-7869