LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y. — Almost half of all consumers are fighting inflation by buying groceries at stores with lower prices, eating at home more often and buying more items on sales, according to new findings from The Feedback Group, which surveyed more than 1,200 shoppers.
Forty-six percent of grocery shoppers are purchasing more food and groceries at stores with lower prices, 46% are eating more often at home instead of restaurants and 43% are buying more items on sale.
Other common strategies include buying more store brands instead of national brands (38%), purchasing more bulk-pack items to lower the price per serving/unit (25%), buying fewer last-minute or impulse items (25%), substituting similar, less expensive foods (24%), and using a store’s weekly sales flyer to plan their shopping list (23%). Additionally, some shoppers compare prices at multiple stores before buying an item (18%), purchase food for home that is less healthful but also less expensive (15%) and buy fewer organic items and products to cut costs (12%).
“Grocery shoppers are dealing with food price inflation in a number of significant ways, with nearly half moving their purchases for food and groceries to stores with lower prices and eating more at home instead of restaurants, as well as buying more items on sale,” said Brian Numainville, a principal with The Feedback Group. “Further, nearly four out of ten grocery shoppers indicate they have been buying more store brands instead of national brands, and our research shows that 75% of shoppers agree that the prices of private or store brands were a lot less expensive than national brands.”
Shoppers were asked what one item they would like supermarkets to lower the price on. The category with the largest number of responses, meat, had more than double the number of responses of the next highest category, dairy items (with milk mentioned most). Produce had the third highest number of responses (about evenly split between fruit and vegetables).