The Loyalty Exodus, Gerry Shreiber’s Legacy, and the Toilet Paper Truth

Shoppers have stopped being faithful to their grocery stores — the math says they’re not coming back. Plus: a patriotic pretzel, a founder worth remembering, and why toilet paper tells you everything

The social contract between shoppers and their grocery stores? It's officially shredded. ????

For decades, loyalty was a cultural habit — same store, same aisles, same cashier who knew your name. Today's shopper is running a mental spreadsheet on every single trip.

Here's what the data is telling us:

➡️ 70% of consumers now cite price or value as their #1 purchase driver

➡️ Brand-only loyalists have dropped from 21% to just 10% in less than a year

➡️ Private label mix jumped 12 points to 66% of shoppers

➡️ Aldi's store visits rose 8% YOY — vs. a sector average of 3.1%

➡️ 17 million NEW customers visited Aldi in 2025 alone

And here's the kicker: the sharpest declines in traditional grocery spending are coming from households earning $100,000+. When six-figure families start cherry-picking stores for value, the game has fundamentally changed.

Loyalty programs help — but only up to a point. A points program won't keep a shopper from crossing the street when Aldi just opened across from their ShopRite. The retailers who will survive this exodus are the ones who stop thinking about loyalty as a program and start thinking about it as a promise.

Also in this week's Lempert Report:

???? SUPERPRETZEL's limited-edition Star-Shaped Soft Pretzel — and a tribute to Gerry Shreiber, the J&J Snack Foods founder I had the privilege of knowing, who turned a $72,100 bankruptcy auction into one of the great entrepreneurial stories in American food history. He passed away May 9 at 84. His glass-enclosed warming rack innovation alone changed how America discovered the soft pretzel.

???? Toilet paper tells you everything. Kirkland's 30-roll pack is up 38% on a per-square-foot basis since 2021. Charmin? Up 43% — AND the rolls got smaller. This isn't supply chain. This is shrinkflation, and retailers have both the power and the obligation to push back. Albertsons and Carrefour already have. Why isn't every retailer in America doing the same?

The shopper isn't disloyal. They're just doing the math. And right now, the math isn't favoring the players who used to take their loyalty for granted.

Read the full issue — HERE