The Grocery Aisle Is Not One Demographic: Baby Boomers Put the Wrench in the Favorite-Grocer List

 

Why Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z Can Walk Into the Same Grocery Store Looking for Four Different Things. Leave it to Baby Boomers to say, “Ah, not so fast.”

A new look at grocery-store preferences by generation demonstrates something food marketers have known for years but too often forget: there is no such thing as the American grocery shopper. There are American grocery shoppers according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

And they are not necessarily shopping for the same reasons, responding to the same messages, discovering food in the same places or defining value the same way.

The latest YouGov grocery research provides an excellent example. Overall, Aldi ranked No. 1 in the referenced study, while the generations disagreed about their favorite grocers. Millennials and Generation X put Aldi at the top, while Baby Boomers selected Trader Joe's.

That difference is not a footnote.

It is the story.

Food retailers and food marketers that lump four generations into one demographic are potentially marketing to an imaginary consumer.

The four major generations—Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z—may share the same grocery aisle, but they don't necessarily share the same shopping journey.

And the data from 2024, 2025 and 2026 makes that increasingly clear.

1. BABY BOOMERS: TRUST, VALUE AND THE POWER OF THE FAMILIAR

Baby Boomers deserve to go first because they are the demographic that most clearly demonstrates why brand trust still matters.

In YouGov's 2025 grocery research, Baby Boomers were particularly responsive to special offers: 84.7% said they are always on the lookout for special offers, compared with 80.5% of consumers overall. At the same time, 74.7% said they are usually looking for the lowest prices.

But Boomers aren't simply "cheap shoppers."

In fact, the same research showed that Boomers were more loyal to their primary store than younger consumers. Research from RRD found 61% of Baby Boomers said they tend to stay loyal to the store they shop at most often, compared with 55% overall.

That is important.

Price matters. Value matters. But trust can turn value into loyalty.

The 2026 YouGov research on brand values makes that even more compelling. Among Baby Boomers, 84% said honesty is the most important brand value, compared with 66% of Gen Z. Across all Americans, honesty and trustworthiness ranked as the two most important brand values.

And Boomers aren't technologically disconnected shoppers, either.

FMI reported in 2024 that 57% of Boomers use smartphones to look for grocery deals, while 52% use digital coupons.

So the stereotype of the Boomer who simply walks into the neighborhood supermarket and buys the same brands every week is increasingly outdated.

The better description is:

A value-conscious, trust-sensitive shopper who is perfectly willing to use technology—but doesn't necessarily need technology to discover everything.

FMI's 2026 beverage research found that 41% of Boomers discover new beverages through in-store shelf signage and 35% simply notice products while shopping.

For Boomers, the store itself remains a media channel.

That helps explain why Trader Joe's can resonate differently with Boomers than Aldi does with younger generations. The issue isn't simply price. It can be the combination of familiarity, perceived authenticity, discovery, product uniqueness and trust.

 

2. GENERATION X: THE VALUE-HUNTING BRIDGE GENERATION

Generation X may be the most interesting demographic sitting between the traditional supermarket shopper and the digitally enabled consumer.

YouGov's 2025 data found 78% of Gen X shoppers said they are usually looking for the lowest prices, the highest percentage among the four generations in that measurement. And 82.1% said they are always on the lookout for special offers.

Gen X also isn't waiting for the retailer to tell them where the deal is.

FMI's 2024 research found 67% of Gen X shoppers use smartphones to look for deals, while 66% use digital coupons.

That creates an important marketing lesson:

Gen X can be reached digitally, but the message still has to make economic sense.

They are also highly capable of switching among channels.

The 2025 grocery research showed consumers increasingly shop multiple retailers to optimize value, while FMI reported that 44% of shoppers were shopping at multiple stores to obtain the best value.

For Gen X, the grocery store is less likely to be a single destination and more likely to be part of a shopping portfolio.

 

3. MILLENNIALS: PRICE IS IMPORTANT, BUT VALUE HAS MORE DIMENSIONS

Millennials are where traditional food marketing gets particularly complicated.

They are highly price-conscious—but price isn't necessarily the entire definition of value.

The 2024 FMI research found that shoppers increasingly define value beyond price and quality to include relevance, convenience and experience.

And Millennials are particularly open to switching.

RRD's 2024 research found 50% of Millennials were willing to change stores for greater savings, compared with 45% overall.

That matters enormously to legacy brands.

A 30-year relationship with a retailer or food brand doesn't automatically protect it when consumers can discover another product, another retailer or another price with a few taps.

The 2025 EY Future Consumer Index found that U.S. consumers were increasingly prioritizing price and quality over brand familiarity. The same research found that 55% of consumers who try private-label products eventually switch back to national brands—but nearly half of those returning cite better quality, taste or performance.

That tells food marketers something important:

Private label isn't merely a cheap substitute anymore.

It can become a legitimate competitor to the national brand on the very dimensions—quality, taste and performance—that legacy brands traditionally used to defend their premium.

 

4. GENERATION Z: DISCOVERY HAS LEFT THE AISLE

If Baby Boomers demonstrate the continuing power of trust and in-store discovery, Gen Z demonstrates what happens when discovery begins before the shopping trip.

FMI's 2024 research found Gen Z shoppers were significantly more likely than average to seek additional information about products and stores before shopping. Forty-five percent of Gen Z used their phones to make grocery lists, compared with 29% overall.

By 2026, the behavior had accelerated.

FMI reported that 92% of Gen Z beverage shoppers use social media to discover new beverages, with 58% using TikTok and 55% Instagram.

And FMI's broader 2026 grocery research found that Gen Z shoppers visit an average of 6.7 retailers per month, more than any other generation. Nine out of 10 use at least one digital tool to plan grocery trips.

That is not traditional brand loyalty.

That is continuous discovery.

The product doesn't necessarily have to be discovered on the shelf. It can be discovered through a recipe, creator, social video, search result, AI tool, friend, review or digital promotion—and then purchased somewhere else.

The implications for legacy food brands are enormous.

 

BUT HERE IS THE BIG DEMOGRAPHIC COMMON DENOMINATOR: PRICE MATTERS TO EVERYBODY

This is where the data gets particularly interesting.

Food marketers sometimes talk about younger shoppers as though they are driven by experiences while older shoppers are driven by price.

The data doesn't support such a simple division.

Price matters across generations.

YouGov's 2025 grocery research found that 75.9% of U.S. consumers said they are usually looking for the lowest prices. The generational numbers were:

·       Gen X: 78.0%

·       Millennials: 75.7%

·       Gen Z: 76.4%

·       Baby Boomers: 74.7%

That's remarkably close.

And FMI's 2026 research reinforces the point: low pricing was the most frequently cited influential factor in choosing a grocery store, at 71%. Seventy-three percent of consumers reported adopting new shopping habits during the previous year to cope with rising costs, while 42% regularly visited multiple grocery stores to find lower prices.

So, yes:

Food discovery matters to every generation.

Price matters to every generation.

But how consumers discover and how they define value can be radically different.

That is the demographic opportunity.

 

FOOD DISCOVERY IS UNIVERSAL—THE DISCOVERY ENGINE IS NOT

This may be one of the most important findings for food marketers.

The consumer wants discovery.

But the discovery mechanism changes with age.

Boomer discovery:
Shelf signage, in-store merchandising, familiarity, trusted recommendations and the physical shopping experience.

Gen X discovery:
In-store merchandising combined with digital coupons, smartphone research, promotions and practical value.

Millennial discovery:
Digital information, social media, convenience, recommendations, price comparison, new products and experiences.

Gen Z discovery:
Social media, TikTok, Instagram, creators, digital communities, recipes, reviews, AI and peer recommendations.

FMI's 2026 research says shoppers still visit stores because they want to select products themselves: 48% said that is what they would miss most if they couldn't grocery shop in person. Discovery itself was cited by 17%.

So the physical store isn't dead.

Digital discovery simply means the shopping journey starts earlier.

 

TRUST MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT WORD IN FOOD MARKETING IN 2026

Now comes the bigger issue.

TRUST.

YouGov's 2026 research found that 74% of Americans consider honesty an important brand value and 71% cite trustworthiness, while 60% value consistency between what a brand says and what it does.

For Baby Boomers, trust is even more powerful.

But trust isn't simply an emotional concept.

In food marketing, trust can mean:

Is the price honest?

Is the package honest?

Is the portion honest?

Is the promotion honest?

Is the food what the brand says it is?

Is the quality consistent?

Is the retailer treating the shopper fairly?

And in today's economic environment, consumers are scrutinizing those questions more closely.

FMI's 2025 research found 70% of shoppers were extremely or very worried about rising grocery prices, while 44% were shopping multiple stores to find better value. Another FMI report said 90% of shoppers expressed concern about rising food prices and 78% were concerned about the impact of tariffs.

That is where economic uncertainty and government-policy uncertainty intersect with brand value.

Consumers don't need a political lecture from a food brand.

They need something much more basic:

Tell me what it costs. Tell me what I'm getting. Give me a fair value. And then deliver what you promised.

That is trust.

 

LEGACY BRANDS: THE REAL RISK ISN'T THAT CONSUMERS HATE YOU

The real risk is that consumers no longer need you.

For decades, legacy food brands benefited from familiarity.

Consumers knew the name.

They knew the package.

They knew where to find it.

They knew what it tasted like.

They trusted it.

But today's consumer has dramatically more opportunities to discover alternatives.

FMI's 2026 private-brand research found that 92% of U.S. grocery shoppers currently have store-brand products in their homes, while private-brand dollar sales increased 2.8% year over year, ahead of national-brand growth. Nearly half of shoppers increased their private-brand purchases during the previous year.

That changes the competitive equation.

The question for a legacy brand is no longer:

"Does the consumer know us?"

The consumer probably does.

The better question is:

"Why should the consumer choose us today?"

That's a very different marketing question.

And the answer can't simply be:

"Because we've been around for 75 years."

 

THE GROCERANT GURU® VIEW: THERE ARE NO DEMOGRAPHIC SILOS IN THE CONSUMER'S MIND

From my perspective as the Grocerant Guru®, the biggest mistake food marketers can make is assuming that demographic differences mean consumers live in separate marketing silos.

They don't.

A 72-year-old Baby Boomer may buy a prepared meal at a grocery store.

A 45-year-old Gen Xer may grab dinner at a convenience store.

A 34-year-old Millennial may order restaurant delivery and pick up groceries on the same trip.

A 22-year-old Gen Zer may discover a food product on TikTok, compare its price online and buy it at a mass retailer.

That's the Grocerant consumer.

The consumer doesn't care which organizational silo produced the food.

They care about price, quality, taste, convenience, portability, discovery, trust and the experience.

And that means the real competition isn't simply Kroger versus Aldi or Trader Joe's versus Whole Foods.

It is every food occasion competing for the consumer's next food dollar.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. DEMOGRAPHICS MATTER—BUT CONSUMER OCCASIONS MATTER MORE.

Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z clearly behave differently. But they can all want the same thing at 6:00 p.m.: "What's for dinner?"

The winning retailer or foodservice operator will understand the demographic without allowing the demographic to become a silo.

2. PRICE GETS YOU INTO THE CONSIDERATION SET. TRUST KEEPS YOU THERE.

The data shows that price matters across generations. But price alone is not a sustainable brand strategy.

Consumers increasingly want proof that the value equation is fair: price + quality + convenience + experience + trust.

3. LEGACY FOOD BRANDS SHOULD STOP MARKETING TO THEIR HISTORY AND START MARKETING TO THE CONSUMER'S PRESENT.

Your brand's history may explain why consumers know you.

It doesn't necessarily explain why they should buy you tomorrow.

In an environment of economic uncertainty, expanding private label, digital discovery, AI-assisted shopping and increasingly sophisticated consumers, trust has to be earned at every transaction.

The grocery consumer isn't disappearing.

The old definition of the grocery consumer is.

And that may be the most important demographic fact in food marketing today.

 

Success Leaves Clues—Are You Ready to Find Yours?

One key insight that continues to drive success is this: "The consumer is dynamic, not static." This principle is the foundation of our work at Foodservice Solutions®, where Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru®, has been helping brands stay relevant in an ever-evolving market.

Want to strengthen your brand’s connection with today’s consumers? Let’s talk. Call 253-759-7869 for more information.

Stay Ahead of the Competition with Fresh Ideas

Is your food marketing keeping up with tomorrow’s trends—or stuck in yesterday’s playbook? If you're ready for fresh ideations that set your brand apart, we’re here to help.

At Foodservice Solutions®, we specialize in consumer-driven retail food strategies that enhance convenience, differentiation, and individualization—key factors in driving growth.

Email us at Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Connect with us on social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

When Bots Do the Buying, Who Gets the Advertising Dollar?

 

The grocery store, C-store and restaurant may still own the customer relationship—but increasingly, the AI agent may own the decision. That changes the economics of food advertising according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

For decades, food marketers have understood a simple proposition: get in front of the consumer at the right moment, create desire, influence the choice and convert that choice into a purchase.

Retailers learned to monetize that proposition through circulars, endcaps, displays, loyalty programs, email, apps, sponsored search and, most recently, retail media networks.

Now comes the uncomfortable question:

What happens to the advertising business when the shopper stops doing the shopping?

That is the question being raised by Instacart's announcement that Meta's new Muse AI agent will connect to Instacart's grocery infrastructure. Instacart already has connectors involving ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Google's AI Mode. Its own Clementine AI assistant can turn a prompt such as “high-protein dinners for two” into a shoppable cart based on real-time store inventory.

This isn't simply another digital-shopping feature.

It is a potential change in who makes the purchase decision.

And that should make every grocery CEO, C-store CEO, restaurant CEO and CPG marketing executive ask a very different question:

If the bot is making the buying decision, who is the retailer selling advertising to?

 

The grocery industry has spent billions building the advertising machine

The retail media opportunity is enormous.

Instacart says its advertising ecosystem now reaches 55+ million consumers, more than 100,000 storefronts, 2,200+ retail banners and 310+ retail media networks and marketplaces.

GeekWire has been documenting the evolution of this business for years.

In 2022, GeekWire reported on Seattle-based grocery technology company Swiftly, which helped brick-and-mortar grocers collect customer data and monetize it through advertising. At that time, Swiftly said more than 80% of retail transactions still occurred in physical stores and roughly 90% of grocery shopping took place in brick-and-mortar stores rather than through an app or browser.

Then the advertising opportunity expanded beyond the store.

GeekWire reported in 2024 that Seattle-area adtech company Symbiosys was targeting a retail-media market estimated at $45 billion, helping retailers sell advertising beyond their own websites and apps.

And in 2025, GeekWire reported that DoorDash's advertising business had crossed a $1 billion annualized revenue rate, while its acquisition of Symbiosys was intended to expand off-platform advertising capabilities for brands and restaurants.

So the food industry has been building something extremely valuable:

First-party data + consumer intent + media inventory + transaction data + closed-loop measurement.

But AI agents introduce a new intermediary between the brand and the buyer.

 

The advertising problem: The bot doesn't need to be persuaded

This is where the food industry needs to rethink the word advertising.

A human shopper might see:

TYSON CHICKEN — $5.99

and think:

"That's a good deal. I'll buy Tyson."

An AI agent may instead process:

·       price

·       package size

·       nutrition

·       dietary requirements

·       availability

·       promotions

·       previous purchases

·       delivery time

·       retailer

·       product ratings

·       household preferences

·       substitution rules

and then select the product.

That is a fundamentally different purchasing environment.

Deloitte describes the emerging “algorithmic shelf” as an environment in which AI agents increasingly analyze data and verifiable claims rather than responding to traditional marketing persuasion. Deloitte reported in June 2026 that 55% of consumers were starting shopping journeys through large language models, according to its cited research.

Circana reported another important 2026 data point: 25% of consumers surveyed had used an AI recommendation to purchase a CPG product.

And Deloitte's 2026 retail outlook says AI-chat referrals already account for 15%–20% of total referrals for some retailers, while some industry estimates suggest AI agents could handle as much as 25% of global e-commerce sales by 2030.

The direction is unmistakable:

The consumer may increasingly tell the machine what they want—and let the machine figure out what to buy.

 

Then comes Meta's Muse problem

Meta says Muse is a personal AI agent designed to actually perform tasks, including opening browsers, filling out forms and completing purchases with user approval.

But here is the important distinction.

Meta says Muse does not share a person's conversations or data in its virtual machine with Meta's advertising systems.

That doesn't mean advertising disappears from the economy.

It means something potentially more important:

The agent's purchasing decision is not necessarily another conventional advertising impression.

That creates a strategic question for retail media.

Suppose a consumer tells Muse:

“Order chicken breasts, vegetables and something easy for dinner tonight for under $25.”

The old advertising model says:

Show Tyson.

The agentic-commerce model says:

Find the product that best satisfies the consumer's criteria.

Those are not necessarily the same thing.

 

So why would Tyson advertise on Kroger?

This is where the industry needs to separate retail media from AI-mediated commerce.

Tyson might still have excellent reasons to advertise on a retailer's platform.

The advertising can:

1.       Reach human shoppers before they delegate the purchase.

2.       Build brand awareness.

3.       Influence a consumer's future preferences.

4.       Promote a new product.

5.       Drive trial.

6.       Communicate price or promotion.

7.       Reach shoppers inside a retailer's physical and digital ecosystem.

8.       Produce measurable sales attribution.

But if an AI agent increasingly determines which chicken goes into the basket, the value proposition of the ad changes.

The question becomes:

Is Tyson paying Kroger to persuade the consumer—or paying Kroger to make Tyson more visible and machine-readable inside an increasingly algorithmic marketplace?

That is a much bigger strategic question.

 

What about Tastykake on Wawa?

The same issue appears in convenience stores.

Wawa has enormous foodservice traffic, beverage traffic and impulse-purchase occasions.

A traditional consumer sees:

Tastykake → display → recognition → craving → purchase.

That is classic food marketing.

But an AI agent doesn't walk through the Wawa store experiencing the smell of coffee, seeing the pastry case and remembering childhood.

The agent receives a request.

“Get me breakfast and a snack.”

Now the competitive battlefield can become:

price + availability + preference + nutrition + convenience + previous purchase behavior + product data.

That doesn't eliminate the value of the Tastykake brand.

It potentially changes where the brand must establish its value.

 

And Budweiser on TGI Fridays?

This example illustrates another important distinction.

Restaurants are not merely grocery shelves.

A restaurant has:

·       atmosphere

·       social interaction

·       menu engineering

·       server recommendations

·       food photography

·       smell

·       presentation

·       entertainment

·       occasions

·       group behavior

·       impulse purchases

A Budweiser sponsorship, promotion or menu placement at a restaurant can influence a social occasion, not simply a product search.

That makes restaurants potentially different from grocery retail.

But even restaurants are moving toward digital ordering, loyalty, delivery, mobile ordering and AI-assisted discovery.

DoorDash's advertising expansion demonstrates how foodservice platforms are already becoming media businesses as well as transaction businesses.

The restaurant of the future may therefore have two customers:

the human customer—and the algorithm that helps determine what the human orders.

 

The biggest mistake would be killing advertising too early

Here is where the Grocerant Guru® sees an important distinction.

AI does not make advertising irrelevant.

It makes bad advertising less relevant.

There is a difference.

If the consumer says:

“I want something inexpensive, high-protein, ready in 10 minutes and under 600 calories.”

the food company that has the best machine-readable product information, price/value proposition, availability, nutrition information and verified attributes may have an advantage.

Deloitte calls this competition for the “algorithmic shelf.”

That means the next generation of food marketing may require two strategies:

Marketing to people

Brand + emotion + craving + experience + value

and

Marketing to machines

Data + attributes + price + availability + relevance + proof

The winning food marketer may need both.

 

Retail media must prove what it is actually selling

Retailers should be asking a harder question than:

“How much advertising revenue can we generate?”

They should ask:

“What decision are we influencing?”

That distinction becomes critical.

If an advertisement appears on Kroger's website and a human sees it, that is one type of value.

If an AI agent bypasses the ad and directly creates a basket from inventory, the retailer may still generate transaction revenue—but the advertising impression becomes less important.

And that could eventually put pressure on retail-media economics.

Instacart itself is already preparing for this transition. Its three-layer AI strategy includes:

·       Clementine, its native AI shopping experience;

·       Cart Assistant, which retailers can put on their own websites and apps;

·       Connectors, which allow outside AI platforms to access Instacart's grocery infrastructure.

At the same time, Instacart is aggressively expanding its advertising ecosystem. It reported more than $1 billion in advertising and other revenue in 2025.

That juxtaposition is fascinating:

The company is simultaneously building the advertising business and the technology that could help consumers shop without traditional browsing.

That is not necessarily a contradiction.

It may be the beginning of the next retail model.

 

The Grocerant opportunity: Stop thinking in silos

The Grocerant Niche has always challenged the industry's artificial boundaries.

Consumers don't necessarily think:

Grocery.

Restaurant.

C-store.

Delivery.

Retail media.

They think:

“What's for dinner?”

And increasingly they may tell an AI agent:

“Figure it out.”

That creates a massive opportunity for grocery stores, C-stores and restaurants.

The future competitive advantage may not simply be having the biggest advertising network.

It may be having the best answer to the consumer's prompt.

That means a grocery store needs to know:

·       what is available right now;

·       what is fresh;

·       what is ready-to-eat;

·       what is heat-and-eat;

·       what can be bundled;

·       what is on promotion;

·       what fits the consumer's budget;

·       what complements another product;

·       what can be delivered;

·       and what can solve the consumer's meal problem.

That's Grocerant thinking.

 

Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling becomes AI-ready

This is where Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling becomes even more important.

A human might see:

rotisserie chicken + salad + bread + dessert

and construct a meal.

An AI agent can potentially do the same thing—provided the retailer's data infrastructure understands the relationships among those products.

That creates an interesting shift:

Yesterday's merchandising strategy becomes tomorrow's machine-readable meal architecture.

The retailer isn't simply selling four products.

It is selling:

Dinner.

And that is a much more valuable proposition.

 

The new food advertising equation

The old equation was essentially:

Attention → Advertising → Desire → Purchase

The emerging equation could be:

Intent → AI interpretation → Product comparison → Recommendation → Purchase

Advertising doesn't necessarily disappear.

But its location—and its job—changes.

The food marketer may increasingly have to influence the inputs that AI uses to make decisions, while simultaneously maintaining enough human brand equity that consumers will recognize, request or approve the recommendation.

That's a very different marketing challenge.

And it could make product data, value and availability the new hand-held marketing.

 

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. The advertising impression is not the purchase decision.

Retailers have spent years monetizing the consumer's attention. AI agents may increasingly monetize the consumer's intent instead.

The next retail-media question isn't simply “Did someone see the ad?”

It is:

“Did the product get selected?”

2. The algorithmic shelf is becoming as important as the physical shelf.

Tyson can win the physical shelf with packaging, placement and promotion.

Tastykake can win the impulse occasion with visibility.

Budweiser can win a social occasion with restaurant merchandising.

But the AI shelf requires something different:

relevance, value, availability and verifiable product information.

The brands that prepare their data for AI may discover that machine visibility becomes a new form of shelf placement.

3. The Grocerant winner will sell the solution—not the silo.

The consumer doesn't care whether dinner originated in the grocery store, C-store, restaurant, deli or delivery platform.

The consumer wants Price + Quality + Social + Portability = Value.

And increasingly, the consumer may simply tell an AI:

“What's the best dinner for me tonight?”

The retailer, restaurant, C-store and food brand that can provide the best answer—not merely the loudest advertisement—may be building the next generation of food marketing.

That's the Grocerant Guru® view: In an AI-powered food world, the most valuable media may not be the advertisement the consumer sees. It may be the product the algorithm chooses.

Tap into the Foodservice Solutions® team for greater understanding of New Electricity or for a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

 

Sources: GeekWire, Meta, Instacart, Circana and Deloitte, with 2022–2026 data and reporting cited above.