by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Does this describe you?
• You’re spending less on groceries and making fewer trips to the store.
• You expect that the price of gas will affect what you spend on groceries, especially as it reaches $3.70 a gallon.
• You are buying more store-brand products compared with name-brand products this year than you did last year.
• You continue to use store circulars, coupons, in-store promotions and product tastings to make decisions, but you’re starting to look online for cost-saving enticements, too, especially if you are younger.
If you recognized these habits, know that a Jacksonville-based company has your number, and many more.
Acosta Sales & Marketing, based in Southpoint, represents major consumer products and its mission is to persuade shoppers to buy them. Acosta provides marketing and retail merchandising designed to move products off the shelves and into your cart.
The placement of those juices and products on the shelves is done for a reason, all aimed at increasing sales.
Acosta, with more than $1 billion in annual revenues and 20,000 employees, works with more than 1,000 consumer packaged goods companies, including the majority of the No. 1 and No. 2 brands. It also works with almost every major food and grocery retailer in North America.
For three years, Acosta has produced “The Why Behind The Buy” report each spring and fall. It’s stocked with facts and insights into shopping habits.
“As the recession started really affecting shoppers’ behavior, we thought it was important to keep a pulse on what shoppers were saying and how their behavior may change based on current issues like economy, life stage and technology changes,” said Paul Price, executive vice president of Acosta Sales & Marketing.
An example:
The average American monthly grocery bill is down 7 percent in 2011 from 2010, falling to $279 this year from $298 last year. Also, the average American is spending $94.60 on a routine grocery trip, compared to $98.70 in 2010.
The 22-page spring report’s table of contents hints at the extensive results, including the economy’s impact on shoppers, general shopping trends, and the impact of technology.
Price summarized some of the information:
• Frugality continues to remain prevalent at the grocery counter, with 53 percent of Americans reporting that they are paying more attention to what they buy at the grocery store over the past year, while 43 percent are buying less food, 41 percent are taking advantage of sales and coupons and 22 percent are shopping at less expensive stores.
• Also, 61 percent of shoppers reported that they have cooked more frequently at home over the past year as a way to save money.
• The overwhelming sentiment among shoppers is that grocery budgets will remain the same over the next year, with 63 percent expecting to spend the same amount of money on groceries. Another 23 percent are expecting to increase their grocery spending, while 13 percent expect it to decrease.
• On average, shoppers said they expected to further reduce their grocery budgets and shopping frequency when gas prices reached $3.70 per gallon.
The average price in Jacksonville this morning was $3.62, according to www.jacksonvillegasprices.com.
Price said that traditional sales tactics remain the most influential at the grocery counter, but the rise of digital information over the past year has narrowed the gap significantly.
He said 40 percent of shoppers use digital marketing sources, such as online coupons, social networking sites and blogs, up from 32 percent of shoppers in 2010.
Still, he said, traditional promotional tactics remain the most influential when it comes to grocery shopping, with 84 percent of shoppers saying that store circulars influence what they purchase.
Price said shoppers are influenced by other “old-fashioned tactics,” such as coupons, fliers, product tastings and in-store displays.
Also, the economy has changed how shoppers buy in measureable ways.
“After two years of lean times, store brands have continued to grow and are becoming more entrenched in shoppers’ behavior,” said Price. He said 42 percent of shoppers said they bought more store-brand products over the past year to save money.
“Interestingly, almost 30 percent of shoppers who actively purchase store-brand products plan to stay with these products even when they have more money as the economy improves,” he said.
There is no “average” shopper, however.
“There are many findings common to all age and income brackets, such as the overall decline in the amount of money being spent and the prediction that the grocery budget will not increase any time soon,” Price said.
“Yet there are other findings where certain shoppers have habits unique to their age, income or even geographic location,” he said.
The major shift is in generations.
“We are at a point where heavy buying households are moving from the baby boomer generation to Generation X,” said Price.
Baby boomers are ages 45-64 and represent almost 26 percent of the U.S. population, according to Acosta’s demographics page in the study. Generation X consists of people ages 30-44 and they represent about 21 percent of the population.
“The way that they shop is much different, technology is a common part of their lives, store brands are just another brand and not seen as ‘generics’ like their parents viewed them. The channels they shop are different and loyalty to brands is much lower,” he said.
Acosta uses the report to inform clients and customers about trends and how those trends might affect business.
Those trends continue to be influenced by the economy.
“Our preview is that rising gas and commodity cost will put pressure on the shoppers in the coming months,” Price said.
“Manufacturers are being forced to raise prices and we are seeing food inflation at levels that we have not seen for years. Unemployment is not projected to improve and this will put pressure on the economy as well.”
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