Americans have become value-driven when it comes to what goes into their shopping carts at grocery chains.
“Consumers aren’t necessarily buying less. They’re becoming more strategic. With 75% indicating that they’re stressed about grocery bills (up from 73% last year), it makes sense that shoppers are looking for ways to maximize value from every trip,” according to Algolia’s The state of grocery shopping: inflation.
The survey showed that many consumers, but not a majority, have been willing to trade down.
- Forty-two percent (42%) have switched to private labels to save money (up from 40% last year).
- Thirty-six percent (36%) have traded their favorite brands for cheaper alternatives.
- Forty-one percent (41%) have cut back on premium cuts of meat/seafood, and 39% have purchased fewer non-essential food items, like snacks and treats.
That value-seeking behavior puts traditional grocery chains such as Kroger, Publix, and Albertsons under pressure from lower-priced competitors including Walmart, Aldi, Lidl, and Costco.
Location is no longer driving grocery purchases
When I was a kid, my mother shopped at the Star Market closest to our house. No other grocery chain was convenient, so the choice was clear.
At our current home, Publix is the closest grocery option, but Walmart and Target are only a little farther away, and there’s an Aldi nearby, as well as a Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.
Now, with more choices readily available to more Americans, value has, in many cases, trumped convenience.
“That value-seeking mindset extends to where and how consumers shop. Forty-four percent (44%) don’t necessarily have a go-to grocery store,” wrote Algolia exec Piyush Patel.
“Instead, 28% compare prices across multiple retailers to maximize value. Sixteen percent (16%) compare prices across multiple retailers before picking one grocer with the best prices overall. Twenty-eight percent (28%) have a preferred grocer but still compare prices across brands and products before deciding what to buy. Just 6% say they’ll stick with their favorite brands even when they cost more,” he added.
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Loyalty is a problem for grocery chains
GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders thinks there’s a very clear reason why shoppers have become less loyal.
“Among mainstream grocers, the reason there’s a lack of loyalty is because there’s a lack of differentiation. A Kroger is basically replaceable by an Albertsons, which is replaceable by a Hannaford,” he wrote on RetailWire.
He noted that among traditional grocery chains, price is rarely a differentiator, as competitive prices are table stakes.
“The loyalty rates for Wegmans, H-E-B, Aldi and so forth — all players that are strongly differentiated — tell you all you need to know. But, even then, the idea that loyalty rates will return to where they were a decade or so ago is fanciful: Grocery trips are too fragmented, and consumers have too many digital comparison tools to allow for that,” he added.
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Cathi Hotka, a retail consultant, thinks that price is not the only way to differentiate your brand.
“Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have clearly differentiated themselves from the competition and enjoy loyal customers as a result. Aldi too. Create an identity, figure out how to present it, and let customers find you. Avoid being middle of the road,” she posted on RetailWire.
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Kroger CEO sees the pricing problem
Kroger’s new CEO Gregory Foran admitted his company has a pricing problem
“Over time, our promotions have gotten too complicated, and our price position has not kept pace where it needed to,” he said during Kroger’s first-quarter earnings call.
His feelings on price, however, focused on lowering the gap between Kroger’s various nameplates and their rivals.
“Let me be clear on what this means. We do not need to be the lowest-priced retailer. We need to be more competitive, more consistent, and easier for customers to understand,” he added.
That’s an important admission in a market where Kroger is fighting to win more of the spend, even from customers who enter its stores. That’s because many people aren’t looking to do all their shopping in one location.
“In an effort to fulfill their unique definitions of value, consumers visit more than five separate grocery store banners on average per month despite growing omnichannel grocery shopping trends,” FMI CEO Leslie Sarasin said in The Association’s (FMI) U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends 2026 report, which was released in May.
RTM Nexus CEO Dominick Miserandino believes that Foran is right to focus on overall value, but also worries that Kroger simply can’t give some shoppers the prices they need.
“Consumers don’t make decisions exclusively [based on] price; it’s a number of factors. So he’s not entirely wrong, but the worse the economy gets, the more pricing does become a factor,” he told TheStreet.
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