For researchers who study how consumers behave, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a treasure trove of novel data. Their environment changed rapidly and unexpectedly, so observing how they responded provided a kind of natural experiment. What happens when shoppers are suddenly forced to alter their shopping behaviors?
A lot, it turns out, though there are some general and recognizable trends. In particular, when people seek to avoid stores, to limit their risk of exposure to the coronavirus, they buy more, more carefully, and more precisely. Grocery stores saw increased basket sizes but less frequent trips, as people tried to limit themselves to one or two risky trips to the store per week.
As a result of their self-imposed limits on the number of trips they would make, more shoppers started making and sticking to careful lists. They relied on known brands and standard options and were less swayed by promotional offers, unwilling to take the risk on a never-before-tried product. Nostalgia swayed many adult buyers too, giving cereal brands and other childhood favorites a boost.
Purchases of stable goods skyrocketed too. Pastas, canned vegetables, and frozen goods gained massive popularity, because they could be stockpiled for the entire week. Another sales trend might have been a little harder to predict, but it made sense in hindsight: the uptick in purchases of oranges. Faced with great threats to their health and well-being, consumers seemingly wanted a healthy snack, with proven benefits in fighting other viruses (e.g., the common cold), and in addition, oranges have longer shelf lives than many other fruits.
Of course, online sales increased, but for people visiting the store, certain pandemic-imposed design shifts also appeared attractive. Shoppers noted their preferences for wider aisles and bigger gaps while waiting at the checkout. Such insights should prove helpful for grocery retailers, who likely should consider retaining these elements, even if the pressing needs for social distancing diminish in the future.
Finally, as the bread-baking phase of the lockdown showed, people are growing far more comfortable with cooking at home. Even as restaurants open and serve more people, the pleasure to be gained from crafting a meal by oneself, for the family, seems likely to persist, suggesting new ways that stores can attract, appeal to, and fulfill the needs of its shoppers after the coronavirus experiment reaches some sort of conclusion.
Discussion Questions:
- What are some of the ways that consumers’ food buying behavior has changed?
- How has the store layout been affected?
- What are some other ways that grocery store might meet consumers’ new preferences and needs?
Source: Kim Severson, “7 Ways the Pandemic Has Changed How We Shop for Food,” The New York Times, September 8, 2020