Consumer Insights & Trends

June 6, 2022

Consumer Demand for Convenience Knows No Bounds

Consumers have come to expect convenience in all their dealings--the ‘frictionless transaction’ in online shopping parlance. I recently visited Las Vegas for the first time since before the pandemic. I was driving from downtown to the Strip when I passed the section where all the wedding chapels are. I noticed…

John Stranger, VP/Group Supervisor 0

Retail

December 30, 2021

How Supermarkets Are Dealing With an Unprecedented Rate of Change in the Industry

John Paul Getty said, “In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.” That sentiment certainly applies in the supermarket industry right now. Changes keep coming faster and faster, and thinking that what has worked well in the past will work well now is a recipe for disaster.…

John Stranger, VP/Group Supervisor 0

Consumer Insights & Trends Retail

September 8, 2021

Supermarkets in the Post-COVID World New Shopper Trends Impact Brick and Mortar

At the end of the movie The Candidate, Robert Redford turns to the consultant who just helped him get elected president of the United States and says, “What do we do now?” I think leaders in the supermarket industry probably feel the same way right now. With online grocery sales…

John Stranger, VP/Group Supervisor 0

Consumer Insights & Trends

March 10, 2021

A Trend That Is Here To Stay: Plant-forward Food Consumption

The pandemic has caused many changes in consumer behavior, leading to discussion about how ephemeral those changes are, or alternatively if they are trends that have become 'the new normal'. Will everyone be baking their own bread from now on, or once commuting hours come back, will that fall by…

John Stranger, VP/Group Supervisor 0

Consumer Insights & Trends Retail

November 3, 2020

How Top Food Brands Can Unlock New Opportunity Amid Changing Shopping Habits

In 2009 Phillippa Lally conducted a study, reported in the European Journal of Social Psychology, to determine how long it took people to turn a new behavior into a permanent habit. She found that it ranged from 18 to 254 days. Today’s consumers are fast approaching that 254-day mark in…

John Stranger, VP/Group Supervisor

Chowbotics Sally the Robot Grocery Trends

Consumer Insights & Trends Other

August 20, 2020

The Mother of Invention: Pandemic Induced Innovation in the Food Industry

If necessity is the mother of invention, then the pandemic has produced the mother of all necessities. Innovation has accelerated to levels never even dreamed of in the retail food industry because rapid and dramatic change is currently essential to survival. Forty-five percent of consumers have changed at least one brand preference since…

John Stranger, VP/Group Supervisor

Consumer Insights & Trends Retail

June 29, 2020

The New Grocery Landscape, Is It Fleeting or Here to Stay?

With all the changes wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, only a crazy person would try to predict which of those changes in the grocery industry will stick and which will fall by the wayside. Well ... here I go. In July 1848, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, editor of Le Figaro and a novelist (mostly romances), wrote,…

John Stranger, VP/Group Supervisor

Consumer Insights & Trends Retail

March 31, 2020

Record Sales & Empty Shelves: The Short- and Long-Term Impact of COVID-19 on Supermarkets

Businesses all over the country are shutting down as responses to COVID-19 increase daily. Meanwhile supermarkets are working around the clock. And they are one of the very few remaining places where people can’t avoid coming in close contact with each other. As supermarkets scramble to stay ahead of rapidly…

John Stranger, VP/Group Supervisor

Kroger Mobile Delivery EvansHardy+Young Food Marketing

Consumer Insights & Trends Other Retail

March 5, 2020

Grocers Take Drastic Measures in Effort to Gain Consumer Approval

Supermarket operators are trying tactics to satisfy their customers in ways that even just a few short years ago would have been unthinkable. A store where you just pick up your choices and walk out – with no checkout and no scanning? This model, Amazon Go, is being tested by any number of…

John Stranger, VP/Group Supervisor

Going out of Business Window Sign Grocery Store Forecast

Consumer Insights & Trends Retail

December 11, 2019

Grocery Shopping in 2031: Are you ready for a whole new world?

How will grocery shopping be different in 2031? Consider that the first iPhone was released just 12 years ago, and it has changed everything we do — from getting directions, booking travel, summoning a car, staying in touch with friends, reading the news, getting recommendations. You know what I am…

John Stranger, VP/Group Supervisor