Retailers and customers view shopping differently

In this mornings edition of Supermarket News, editor Mark Hamstra offers a detailed look at the latest supermarket consumer study conducted by SN in partnership with Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine and SupermarketGuru.com - more than 1,200 consumer responses were then compared to responses from SN's retailers, wholesalers and suppliers.

In this mornings edition of Supermarket News, editor Mark Hamstra offers a detailed look at the latest supermarket consumer study conducted by SN in partnership with Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine and SupermarketGuru.com - more than 1,200 consumer responses were then compared to responses from SN's retailers, wholesalers and suppliers.

The entire 3,000+ word story can be found on supermarketnews.com, but here are some highlights to ponder.

The topline illustrates that while the industry has a broad understanding of how customers shop and plan, there are gaps between the way consumers say they behave and the way retailers and suppliers believe they do. 

Hamstra writes that the data indicates, for example, that consumers may be starting to adapt to the economic conditions and adjusting their priorities accordingly, perhaps faster than retailers understand. While 80% consumers ranked quality as the most important reason for buying a particular brand, just a little over 63% retailers said they believed consumers valued price more than quality when making brand decisions.

More than half of retailers - 53.7% -  said they believe loyalty was a main reason consumers selected a brand, while only about 19.8% of consumers themselves said loyalty was a primary reason for selecting a brand.

The survey also highlights some differences among the ways consumers said they are trying to live healthier lives, and how retailers and suppliers view those efforts.

Both consumers and retailers cited "eating more fruits/vegetables" as the No. 1 initiative consumers are taking to lead healthier lives, while suppliers instead cited "reading nutrition labels" as the top consumer initiative. While about 63.6% of consumers said they were using portion control to better lead healthier lifestyles, that initiative was only cited by about half that number by of retailers and suppliers.

Retailers significantly overestimated how much consumers are buying organic foods as a health measure -  59.1% vs. 31.5% - and also how many consumers were switching to vegetarian/vegan diets - 45.2% vs. 6.8%.

As far as what areas of the store consumers shop most often, consumers and retailers agreed that produce was the most highly trafficked department. For the rest of the results just log on to supermarketnews.com.