Stressed-out American consumers are coping with continuing high food prices by permanently changing their grocery shopping habits. Even households making more than $100K per year are worried about being able to afford groceries…
Bless Lending Tree (LT)for its socio-economic survey program. This week’s contribution to our collective wisdom is a shocking report on American consumers’ attitude toward grocery chopping – and what they’re doing to keeping their weekly shop within eroding budgets.
The news isn’t good – but society as whole needs the information to remind it of the ongoing food price crisis…
Making bigger changes
The key finding of the latest Learning Tree survey can be boiled down to one statement: A majority of Americans are worried about affording groceries. That’s easy to say, but hard to swallow. And its im-plications are staggering.
In parallel with that ominous tread, there’s hard proof that more Americans are making even more tough decisions about what they buy and how they shop.
Key findings
LT analysts fave filtered out the following statistics as most telling about the current situation:
Change now the rule rather than the exception
- 88 percent of Americans of all income levels have changed their grocery shopping habits, up slightly from 85 percent in 2022.
When asked how,
- 44 percent said they’re buying more generic brands,
- 38 percent are sticking to their lists, and…
- 29 percent are paying closer attention to prices.
A majority of people are worried about affording groceries
- About 3 in 5 shoppers (61 percent) cited stress over paying for groceries in the past month.
- Among respondents making less than $30,000 a year, about 3 in 4 (74 percent) reported feeling anxious.
Restaurant dining continues to decline
- An overwhelming 85 percent say inflation has impacted their dining out habits.
- 59 percent are eating out less frequently,
- 29 percent are paying closer attention to menu prices, an…
- 24 percent are using coupons and hunting deals.
Tipping protocols are shifting dramatically
Over half (55 percent) of U.S. consumers say inflation has impacted their approach to food tipping.
- That number includes a particularly notable 72 percent of Gen Zers.
When asked what’s changed,
- 29 percent said they’re tipping less than normal and
- 20 percent aren’t tipping on takeout or delivery. And, that said,
- 9 percent are tipping more than normal.
Inferred if not implicit…
Previous trends in grocery shopping are continuing in their same respective directions:
- More shoppers report being mindful about food prices.
- More shoppers are lowering their expectations about the variety and quality of the foods and brands they choose.
- More shoppers are saying they’re making grocery shopping lists – and sticking to them.
- More shoppers report they’re buying groceries only with debit cards – not credit cards – to keep themselves from spending too much and giving in too easily to impulse buying.
- Many shoppers are saying they are more mindful about food waste – an the money wasted as a result.
My take
I’m not surprised to see the previously identified trends in consumers’ attitudes towards shopping and grocery prices persisting and intensifying. After all, food prices have stabilized only shakily. And on the whole, they’re still rising at an average rate of 2.8 percent, in line with general inflation.
As depressing as it might seem, confirmation that more shoppers are now reporting greater aware-ness of food prices an food waste is a good thing in relation to the big picture.
One point I think needs more emphasis is, more shoppers are using techniques like paying for gro-ceries only with cash or debit cards, rather than credit cards. That’s an indication they’re keenly aware of all the ways supermarkets and food producers/manufacturers try to influence them to buy more when they’re trying to spend less…
~ Maggie J.