Another survey – but one with special significance at this time of tremendous food industry flux… Consumers say food prices need to be explained better. Price perception issues show a breakdown in consumer ‘trust’…
The new survey is brought to you by The Feedback Group. It’s a straight-up Q&A with consumers’ about their primary grocery stores, and how good a job grocers are doing keeping shoppers informed about the causes and effects of tariffs, inflation and related issues…
A few key issues
Key issues addressed by the new survey include, “shopper perceptions surrounding prices, inflation, and tariffs, and how these concerns are impacting consumer behavior in supermarkets.”
The key word in that official description, of course, is ‘perceptions’. Which often differ dramatically from the ‘facts’ and realities of a situation…
Key takeaways clear and ‘pronounced’
Shoppers Stressed Out
“A significant 61 percent of US supermarket shoppers report feeling stressed about rising grocery prices,” the survey report leads off. No kidding.
Perhaps surprisingly, food price stress is highest among the younger gens: Generation X (70 percent), Millennials (67 percent), and Gen Z (65 percent).
Among the top tactics being employed by stressed shoppers to cope: buying more items on sale (62 percent), eating more often at home (50 percent), buying more store brands (42 percent), and using a store’s weekly sales flyer (40 percent).
Doug Madenberg, Chief Listening Officer at The Feedback Group, characterizes the current food shopping experience as ‘a balancing act’.
Government Policies
Shoppers place the lion’s share of the blame for high food prices (4.11 out of 5.0) on the government. Product manufacturers and suppliers came in at 3.49 / 5.0. Wars and worldwide conflicts scored 3.39 / 5.0 pm the responsibility scale. Surprisingly, supermarket retailers scored a relatively low 3.22 / 5.0). Only Farmers and growers scored lower in the responsibility hierarchy, at 2.69 / 5.0.
Tariff Awareness
Trump’s tariffs – and their related consequences – are indisputably the top discussion foci around food prices these days. A full 95 percent of shoppers said they were already well aware of proposed tariffs before being surveyed. Nearly of shoppers asked (47 percent) said they were ‘very concerned’. more than 4 out of 5 (83 percent) expect tariffs to drive up already-high food prices even further.
Shoppers Prepare for Tariff Fallout
As predicted a couple of years back, when prices started to skyrocket, ‘house brands’ and ‘off-brands. are increasingly percieved as viable alternatives to more-expensive ‘national brands’.
Retailers Must Strengthen Communication
Given the foregoing, you might expect shoppers to score their supermarkets relatively low on the overall satisfaction scale. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. the survey says, “most shoppers remain satisfied with their overall supermarket experience.”
But, “shoppers gave supermarkets relatively low ratings for ‘being on their side’ when it comes to inflation (3.34), explaining price increases (2.97), and discussing tariff impacts (2.46).”
My take
“Supermarkets have an opportunity to enhance transparency with their shoppers,” the survey concludes. “Clearer communication around price drivers can help rebuild trust during uncertain economic times.”
And there’s an angle that probably should be accorded higher priority in the discussion: As the prison warden, played by the legendary Strother Martin (see photo, left), famously said, in the 1967 Hollywood blockbuster Cool Hand Luke starring Paul Newman: “What we got here is a failure to communicate.”
Trust is the most important long-term issue associated with Tariffs and high food prices, overall. And, as in most issues of trust, communication will be central in resolving the attendant misunderstandings…
~ Maggie J.