Consumer Behavior Influencing the Grocery Industry

Beatrice Teston

Business 1.0
Professor Persily Lamel

The average consumers in the grocery industry have been evolving over the years.  Consumers have been changing their product preference requiring grocery stores to stock their shelves with more products that cater to the growing new consumer behavior towards organic foods. It is not only the products that are changing, but also the physical consumers themselves. The demographic for the average American family has been changing drastically, influencing the choice in products to purchase. Food is an “affordable luxury” which is much of the reason why consumers have been collective bargaining greatly.

Organic food and drinks has been what consumers have been recently opting towards. The average person is now twice as concerned about the delivering safety of their food. As of now, we are in the midst of an organic food movement. Organic foods are now a major sector of the grocery trade. Many worry whether dangerous pesticides and artificial fertilizers have touched the products they are purchasing. The grocery industry is now influenced greatly by organic food and drinks because it offers a wide range of ethical benefits for consumers, producers and the environment. Grocery stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are exponentially growing faster than places like Kroger and Harris Teeter because they offer a wider variety of healthy organic foods.

The average American family demographic has also been evolving over the past decade changing the direct buyer within the grocery store and whom the buyer is acquiring it for. 40% of kids are born to unwed mothers and couples are more frequently have children out of wedlock. Previously, the average American family had consisted of a husband, wife, and one to three children. The female housewife had done all of the supermarket shopping. In the current day, single, divorced and married men share the food shopping tasks. Males shopping alone, which also change the consumer product preference, conduct 30% of shopping trips.

Consumers are also becoming collective bargainers. Enormous deals found in places such as Groupon and Living Social have convinced consumers that they can score deals on everything, including groceries. Consumers have been leaning toward more technological ways of obtaining discounts such as online coupons and bargain deals advertised through email and grocery store websites. Grocery stores are becoming more innovative in ways to sell their products using technology taking into account the convenience of the consumers.

The average consumer has been evolving which has required grocery stores to become more inventive with the way people want to perceive their stores. The way a grocery store is able to keep up with consumer behavior determines its success in the industry as a whole. In order to keep up, marketers must research the specifics from the types of consumers shopping at grocery stores to the types of products people that are purchasing. 

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