A new nationwide study of consumers in the all-important 25 to 45 age group indicates that these shoppers are increasingly demonstrating loyalty to the stores they use for household grocery purchases.
The new PLMA study, entitled “The Rise of Loyal Shoppers,” focused on 1,059 men and women ages 25-45, a segment which makes up more than one-third of the U.S. adult population. The 81 million Americans in this key age group are of critical importance to retailers: Their spending on household grocery products is considered to be the highest among all age groups as they engage in family formation and career building.
“This latest study indicates that many long-held assumptions – shaped by years of market dominance by the Baby Boom generation – are no longer true,” says Brian Sharoff, President of PLMA. “Buffeted by a severe recession, a revolution in communications, media and advertising, and a retail landscape that bears little resemblance to what existed less than a decade ago, today’s consumer is not the same shopper we used to know.
According to the PLMA study:
These consumers shop often, but a majority does their regular grocery shopping at only two stores. The rate of shopping trips is high: more than eight in ten of consumers ages 25-45 shop at least weekly. But patronizing just two stores for their regular household grocery needs is by far their most popular shopping regimen and it has been increasing as a habit overall during the past decade. This runs counter to the conventional wisdom that consumers are increasingly shopping across a growing number of stores for different products. In a 2006 PLMA study, a third of all consumers said they shop in two stores, but in the new study the figure has risen to 48%.
To request a free copy of PLMA’s new consumer research study, “The Rise of Loyal Shoppers,” email [email protected].
