T. Ozbun
Research expert covering food retail and all food topics for Italy and Brazil
Get in touch with us nowStores and buying behavior
When shopping for food, Americans tended to turn to physical stores, despite the recent increase in online shopping, which was further boosted by the pandemic. Supermarkets were the preferred channel, while Walmart was the preferred retailer by a wide margin. On average, consumers' weekly grocery shopping trips have declined from the early 2000s, perhaps due to improved food preservation technology, which allows for longer food store, and consumers’ desire to maximize time spent on purchasing necessities such as groceries. In 2021, the average household in America spent just over eight thousand dollars a year on food, a figure that has steadily increased in recent years. Although the price of food was still an important factor in purchasing decisions, even during the current inflation, it wasn’t the main criteria for buying food, as most shoppers considered the taste and freshness of food to be the deciding factor in their purchasing decision.Online shopping
Food and beverage e-commerce revenues in the U.S. have seen a huge increase in recent years, fueled by the pandemic that forced many to rely on home-delivered food. Despite Amazon’s growth among consumers in online grocery shopping, Walmart remained the leading choice for online as well as in-store groceries. Home delivery was the most popular delivery method among shoppers across all food categories, with in-store pickup still a widely-used second alternative. Unsurprisingly, most foods and beverages purchased online were those in packaging and with longer expiration dates. In fact, among the categories that many shoppers avoided buying online were meat, seafood, and dairy products because freshness was their main concern.
