While shoppers in most areas are back to shopping in stores, the lingering effects of the pandemic — and how they upended shopper habits — continue to shape the retail landscape.
Considering costs
When looking back over the past year, consumers in Fresh Trends 2022 acknowledged that certain shopping habits have stayed the course over the past two years. Perhaps the most noticeable are the higher prices on fresh fruits and vegetables.
Shoppers reported that inflated food prices over the past 18 months had affected their purchasing patterns in several ways. The most popular money-saving strategy respondents named was cutting back on other areas of the budget to be able to buy the same amount and types of food — 43% of respondents said they employed this tactic, while another 30% said they simply bought less overall to account for the increases in price.
Instead of cutting out items, 29% of shoppers said they changed the type of food they bought (buying less-expensive items). Twelve percent of consumers took matters into their own hands, literally, and said they were growing more of their own fruits and vegetables.
Read the entire 2022 Fresh Trends digital edition here.
Outside the store
Other shopper habits that are focused outside the store, such as ordering online, curbside pickup and home delivery, remain part of the picture, as well, although some of these behaviors have lessened since 2021.
Last year, 42% of shoppers said they would continue using online shopping to buy groceries and fresh produce after the initial threat of the pandemic had passed. Fresh Trends 2022 confirms this, as 42% of respondents this year said they used online shopping for groceries over the past 12 months.
The top advantage cited by consumers? The fact that ordering can be done any time was the top benefit. Efficiency was also important to many consumers, who liked that online shopping programs can keep track of their regular items and list or restock them.
Of those who said they had discontinued using online shopping, most (47%) cited their desire to be able to touch and smell the produce themselves as the reason for going back to in-person shopping. One-fifth of respondents said they “didn’t like having other people shop for me” and 17% said they liked being able to comparison shop in-store for prices, quantities and packaging options.
Read related: 2022 Fresh Trends report reveals top 20 fruit and vegetables
More than seven in 10 (73%) respondents said that online ordering has changed the frequency of their shopping, with the majority (58%) saying they regularly schedule their shopping trips now (with more planning and less impulsive shopping). Thirty-seven percent of respondents said they shop more often than they used to thanks to the availability of online shopping; while 19% said they shop less frequently.
A handful of shoppers (9%) said they noticed that, with online shopping, they are more conscious about adding fresh fruits and vegetables to their carts.
Another pandemic trend that was popular during the height of the pandemic — curbside pickup of groceries — has slowed. About a third of shoppers (34%) said they currently still use curbside pickup — but this is exactly half of the number of shoppers who, last year, predicted they would continue to use curbside pickup moving forward. About 31% of respondents said they participated in curbside pickup weekly, while 24% did so biweekly.
The same number of shoppers (34%) said they still used home delivery. Twenty-six percent of respondents said they used this service weekly, and 28% said they opted for home delivery biweekly.
Packaging issues
Keeping produce protected has also been important to some consumers, especially during the pandemic. Over the course of 2020, 79% of respondents said they bought packaged produce, while, in Fresh Trends 2022, that number rose to 82%.
When asked if they had purchased more packaged produce since the pandemic began, 46% of respondents this year said “yes.” Even more people said they anticipated continuing to do so, with 59% of respondents affirming that they planned to continue buying more packaged fresh produce over the next 12 months.
Time will tell whether these pandemic-related shopper habits remain for the long term, or if old habits do, in fact, die hard.