Recently added articles from The Shopper Report:
Aging and shopping.
Jun 01, 2009 ... We recently asked a cross section of shoppers on The Consumer Network panel to agree or disagree with 63 "Why don't they--" statements about supermarkets. Using a 5-point scale where 5 means Strongly agree, responses to some of the statements differed significantly by age. Some of the age ...
Coupon feelings run high.(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Coupon power has waned as store brand power and reputations have improved, but some of the strongest feelings among both age groups are about their love-hate relationship with coupons. "I still clip coupons, but if I see that the store brand for basically the same product is cheaper than ...
Healtier prepared foods.
Jun 01, 2009 ... Strong agreement with these statements suggests that prepared foods' image remains Jess healthy than food fixed at home. <Pre> Prepared foods Younger Older "Why don't they list fat, sodium, calories, & sugar4.3 4.5 content ...
Eco-concerns remain strong.(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Eco concerns and wishes are right up there with health. On the whole, the "why don't they" eco-statements triggered stronger agreement than the statements about speed and convenience. <Pre> Eco-concerns Younger Older "Why don't they ...
Competing on coffee.
Jun 01, 2009 ... Ready-to-drink coffee competition seems to be hotter than ever, even though some consumers are pulling back because of the recession. One of our consumers wrote: "Starbucks is advertising everywhere but I haven 7 bothered figuring out what they are advertising?" McDonald's McCafe, ...
Taking safety in stride.
Jun 01, 2009 ... Considering the high noise level about food safety problems and recalls, our shoppers are surprisingly less intense about wanting safety improvements than they are about wanting coupons that last longer. The relatively low concern about safety may reflect reports that "the government is ...
Speed & convenience.(price tags)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Many shoppers are agitated about the casual placement of sale price signs. Stores need to take this more seriously. Most shoppers, especially older ones, have had the experience of store associates getting testy when they insist that the sign with the item was less than the ...
A brand is a brand.
Jun 01, 2009; ... We asked some of our shoppers what they thought of new ads from Target claiming that their Market Pantry products taste just as good as any nationally advertised brand. None expressed surprise, disbelief, or irritation with the claim of full taste equality. The idea that store brands are ...
Eating in, eating out.
May 01, 2009 ... The dance between home and restaurant dining is like the kid's game of musical chairs. Consumers are finding their way home, pleased with the money they are not spending at restaurants, enjoying the sacrifice, and hoping to get to a point where they can actually save the difference. Some ...
Whither convenience?
May 01, 2009 ... The question didn't come from one of our shoppers. It came in an email from the managing editor of an industry publication, who wrote: "I noticed that convenience is getting a lot of play in our stories recently. New formats: Giant Food launching a To Go C-store this week, EW James ...
Economy worries.(Brief article)
May 01, 2009 ... Worry about the economy and jobs remains widespread. Many people want to believe in what the Obama administration is proposing and doing but don't really see how it's going to ...
Smart move from Marcal.
May 01, 2009 ... <Pre> "This tree was not created to become a paper towel. It has bigger jobs to do." </Pre> The new ads from Marcal challenge shoppers to put their money in something they believe in, even if they are partial ...
Craving the familiar.
May 01, 2009 ... A good description of what many consumers are experiencing appears in a column called "Pulp Friction" in the NY Times Style Magazine of April 2009. It's about why some expressed outrage at Tropicana's (charming) design change in spite of the (adorable) orange halves they so cleverly used ...
Coke studies shoppers.
May 01, 2009 ... Coca Cola has announced a new program to share its shopper research with the trade in an effort to "enhance the shopping experience and increase same-store sales and profit performance." So, what else is new? Putting the two objectives in the same sentence obscures their real motive, which ...
Steak hits home run.(Brief article)
May 01, 2009; ... Steak is associated with guy things, good times, grilling, being frivolous and environmentally unfriendly, and with restaurants that are outselling the general restaurant slump. Supermarkets are losing their share of the steak market to more and more venues, the latest being the new Yankee ...
Adapting to adversity.(briefs)
Apr 01, 2009 ... The things consumers are doing to adapt to an unknown number of lean years are a mix of age-old ways of doing without to "nouveau poor" reconstructions of the lifestyles that they've developed in recent years. Standing out among the age-old responses is helping other people who are worse ...
Safety concerns spreading.(Brief article)(Column)
Apr 01, 2009 ... * "I'm worried about food safety as well as prices. We're importing more of our food, and safety doesn't seem too important to American manufacturers." * "I don't know what to think. Salmonella now penetrates eggshells. Package seals that used to protect product contamination ...
Anger fatigue.
Apr 01, 2009 ... Anger is exhausting, especially when it's fuzzy rather than specifically targeted. And many consumers are angry at all the business leaders' greed and their willingness and even eagerness to take all the money they could get for themselves and their family without any regard for those ...
Surprise at Hy-Vee.
Apr 01, 2009 ... I was in Kansas City doing a presentation for an International Dairy meeting and took time out to pay a visit to a near-the-meeting Hy-Vee. I haven't been to one of their stores for a while and had forgotten how wonderfully spacious they are relative to stores where the real estate is ...
Revisiting refills.(Column)
Apr 01, 2009 ... Whether or not they think that America is headed in the right direction, a large majority of the shoppers we talk with are trying to hold steady as they pass through treacherous waters. That's not to say they aren't worried. There's a whole normal curve of worry out there. Those on the ...