SG Survey: Store Brands and Coupons

The turbulent downturn the nation’s economy took in 2008, has inevitably created a shift in the way Americans approach spending money. And more and more data is building to support the fact that people have “saving money” on their minds. A report from the market research firm comScore looked at words used in the Google search engine, and found that when it comes to cost-cutting, “coupons” was the most popular term used in internet searches, more than doubling to 19.9 million queries in December, compared with 7.6 million last year. “Discount” grew 26% to 6.3 million. But, even more specifically, a SupermarketGuru poll conducted over the last two weeks examined how this translates to shoppers turning to store brands and the actual use of coupons. As a starting point, SG asked readers how much of an impact the current recession has had on their household. Fifty-two percent said, “it has had a slight impact”, and 42% said, “it has had a major impact” on their household. Only eight percent reported “no impact”.

The turbulent downturn the nation’s economy took in 2008, has inevitably created a shift in the way Americans approach spending money. And more and more data is building to support the fact that people have “saving money” on their minds.

A report from the market research firm comScore looked at words used in the Google search engine, and found that when it comes to cost-cutting, “coupons” was the most popular term used in internet searches, more than doubling to 19.9 million queries in December, compared with 7.6 million last year. “Discount” grew 26% to 6.3 million.

But, even more specifically, a SupermarketGuru poll conducted over the last two weeks examined how this translates to shoppers turning to store brands and the actual use of coupons.

As a starting point, SG asked readers how much of an impact the current recession has had on their household. Fifty-two percent said, “it has had a slight impact”, and 42% said, “it has had a major impact” on their household. Only eight percent reported “no impact”.

Last November a Supermarket Guru/Readers’ Digest survey showed that brand name was only the #5 reason people selected a particular food in the store. It was named by fewer than half of respondents (46%), and it significantly trailed taste (88%), nutritional information (79%), ingredients (75%) and health attributes (65%).

The most recent SG poll, data suggests that although shoppers have not completely traded in taste for price, 81% say that “sometimes” it is normal practice for them to buy the least expensive brand. And on the other hand, 79% in the same survey still say “sometimes” they buy the brand they like most regardless of price.

Store brands are much more appealing to shoppers than they were years ago, measuring up more in taste and packaging. So with these hard economic times in mind, it is no surprise that in the SG poll, 69% say they have seen themselves turn to less expensive store brands more than usual.

And as for those people “googling” the word “coupons”, our survey found that 68% “always” cut coupons to use when shopping, 28% “sometimes”, and only four percent said that they “never” use coupons.