Grocerant Niche Fresh Food to Get you Thinking about 2021

There are few people or companies that have followed, studied, or documented consumers migration to fresh foods and fresh prepared food as Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, based in Tacoma, WA Steven Johnson who has been doing it since 1989 and with Foodservice Solutions® since 1991.

However, a new study from Deloitte reveals how the pandemic is accelerating growth in fresh food.  In fact, that report finds that “Fresh food is more valued than ever—nine in 10 respondents say it literally makes them happy,”.  Let’s look at some of what they found:

1.        (54%) feel stress from shopping in-stores, resulting in less frequent visits.

2.       The emergence of safety as a prominent factor when shopping a store, though price continues to be a primary driver of fresh food purchase decisions.

3.       Nearly 90% of survey respondents said both safety and price were purchase drivers.

4.       And while “a majority of consumers (70%) still value drivers like sustainability and locally sourced foods, they are now less urgent than they were last year,”

5.       The numbers of respondents who shopped for fresh food multiple times a week dropped by half this year (30% in 2019 vs. 15% in 2020).

6.       In fact, based on credit card analysis, grocery stores are seeing less of some of their best fresh-purchasing customers as consumers who shop at least once a week comprise 80% of fresh food sales,”.

“Shifting consumer priorities and new habits brought on by COVID-19 continue to impact the fresh food category,” said Barb Renner, vice chairman of Deloitte LLP and U.S. consumer products leader, in a statement. “With consumers spending less time commuting, they have more time to prepare fresh meals. However, they are conflicted and want to avoid the anxiety of shopping at multiple stores to purchase the fresh items they want.

The survey analysis of American shoppers, Deloitte further identified two different consumer profiles: conventional, which it defines as the 60% of consumers who have a traditional approach to their fresh shopping at the grocery store, and contemporary consumers (40% of those surveyed) who are driving innovation in the fresh food category in a variety of ways. Cultivating the contemporary consumer may be a key factor in continued fresh category growth.

7.       “Contemporary consumers value a new kind of convenience that now includes availability,” says Deloitte. Since the pandemic, that availability has moved increasingly online.

8.       Whereas 68% of contemporary consumers have bought at least some fresh food online, only 9% of conventional consumers have done so.

9.        (68%) of contemporary consumers now trust their assigned in-store shoppers to select the best quality fresh food items available.

10.   Contemporary consumers are also more willing to pay a premium for fresh food, and they’re buying almost twice as much of it as their conventional counterparts (50% versus 27%, respectively).

Now let’s think about what our grocerant guru® has been pointing out for the past 27 years, ‘increasingly consumers do not want to cook from scratch.  New avenues of distribution are important, and Gen Z and Millennials want full-flavored fresh food fast with a hint of discovery.  Are you ready to look a customer ahead?

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869