The Shopper Report

Browse past and current articles from this publication.

Recession past and present.
In November-December 1991, when the U.S. economy was in a funk that was changing the way people shopped, we conducted a survey titled "The Economy, General Opinions and Personal Impact." In many way . . .

Big, bad food.
Michael Pollan has two books on the NY Times best seller lists for non-fiction paperbacks. Food Inc. is playing in first-run movie theatres - urging viewers to buy local and organic, and painting ug . . .

Nestle doing strange things.
Packaging is getting its share of the blame for what's wrong with the environment. We've just updated a study of what packaging improvements shoppers are still willing to pay more for. We found plen . . .

Coupons and manipulation.
Coupon use is way up, but today's shoppers are determined to use them judiciously, and many are complaining about the requirement to purchase more than one item to get the savings. Most of our respo . . .

Food allergy multiplication.
Approximately eight percent of children under six are believed to have one or more food allergies. Shopping with Shana illustrated how the percentage multiples as family members, friends, and school . . .

Healthy lifestyle realities.
Healthy eating and exercise are giving way to pressure from the economy, but the shoppers we hear from see themselves as more health conscious than ever. I was wondering about that as I walked along . . .

Aging and shopping.
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 Strongl . . .

Coupon feelings run high.
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 . . .

Healtier prepared foods.
Strong agreement with these statements suggests that prepared foods' image remains Jess healthy than food fixed at home. Prepared foods Younger Older "Wh . . .

Eco-concerns remain strong.
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. Eco-concerns . . .

Competing on coffee.
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 . . .

Taking safety in stride.
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 lo . . .

Speed & convenience.
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 associate . . .

A brand is a brand.
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, disb . . .

Eating in, eating out.
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 . . .

Whither convenience?
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 sto . . .

Economy worries.
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 help them hold their j . . .

Smart move from Marcal.
"This tree was not created to become a paper towel. It has bigger jobs to do." The new ads from Marcal challenge shoppers to put their money in something they believe in, even if they are parti . . .

Craving the familiar.
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 . . .

Coke studies shoppers.
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 el . . .

Steak hits home run.
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 los . . .

Adapting to adversity.(briefs)
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 re . . .

Anger fatigue.
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 al . . .

Cleaning out and up.(Brief article)
Responses to the economy's problems include extending spring cleaning to their freezers and pantries. * "We 're eating more from our pantry and freezer." Hy-Vee was advertising 30 meals for $3.0 . . .

Catching the mood.(Survey)
Every language has some words that can't be fully translated. The German word "Zeitgeist" means the spirit of the times, a combination of mood and mindset, perception and attitude, behavior and life . . .

A cool (hot) restaurant.
In conjunction with a series of high-end restaurant focus groups, I gave myself an assignment to personally experience some of the restaurants that 20-and 30-somethings rated the "coolest" restauran . . .

Where you belong.(Viewpoint essay)(Survey)(Brief article)
It turned out that besides feeling like he didn't belong at the stuffy restaurant for white Republicans, the cool young man and others his age felt that they weren't wanted and wouldn't be welcomed . . .

Where young shoppers belong.(Brief article)
Younger consumers are comfortable in convenience stores, and have had lots of convenience store experience by the time they are ready to change formats to supermarkets. It's no surprise that consume . . .

Anxiety outlets.(Brief article)
Anxiety grows with job losses, and many people are looking for ways to cope with it. Smoking cigarettes and slot-machine gambling, which used to help frayed nerves, have become taboo and too expensi . . .

Clean, green, and safe.
Sales and store brands help them save, but consumers also want to feel safe, and that's not so easy to do these days. Clean hands and surfaces keep deadly germs away from digestive tracts. At the sa . . .

Eating with fingers.(Survey)(Brief article)
It's not a coincidence that both convenience stores and Trader Joe's are selling lots of single bananas. Priced at 19 cents each at Trader Joe's, and 45 cents each at Wawa, both chains do a healthy . . .

Food concerns shifting.
Price tops the list of today's concerns, but what follows price in our shoppers' ratings suggests an important change in priorities. Local and corn syrup topped everything price. Hormone free and ec . . .

The dollar meal.(Wegmans Food Markets Inc.)(Brief article)
"McDonald's/Wendy's--The $I meals are a godsend." During this economic downturn, that comment from one struggling shopper is undoubtedly true for a great many. It brought to mind the shopper who act . . .

Changing consumerism.
Consumerism used to be about consumer rights and choices. Today's meanings are more philosophical. Consumers are questioning their own purchase habits and lifestyles. Instead of wanting the best the . . .

Shrinking sizes.(Brief article)
Shoppers who are scaling back and trading down see shrinking sizes as something of a travesty. It's okay if they decide to trade down or make do with less--it's not okay if stores and manufacturers . . .

Nancy agabo's compromises.
An article in last month's Shopper Report described some of the trials, tribulations, and trade-offs made by a Puerto Rican-American working mom whose kids like sugary cereals. One of the shoppers w . . .

Eating vs. cooking.
On a Saturday afternoon in December, I got a call from a shopper suggesting that I look at the eating show on CNN--"It's really interesting that they are doing an eating show during the time that I . . .

Super partnership.(grocery stores)
Philadelphia's Please Touch museum has been reborn in a splendiferous castle built in honor of the Centennial of 1876. Young children, as well as their parents and grandparents, can touch everything . . .

Fighting Wal-Mart power.
This holiday season, consumers flocked to Wal-Mart for low prices, and while there, found a lot to complain about. We asked some of our shoppers how they thought the big stores did this holiday seas . . .

Drinking and thinking local.
My first husband (a nice man and the legal father of my two children) lives on a vineyard and operates a very nice winery called Seven Valley Vineyards. With a glass of a nice red wine in my hand, I . . .

Meet Nancy AGABO.
Latinos are the fastest growing shopper segment in the supermarket, so it's important to learn more about them and it's a special pleasure to introduce Nancy to our readers. Both Nancy and her husba . . .

Calories.
Calorie awareness is one antidote to overloads of pounds and information. Calories are getting more important to more people. They cut through a mind-boggling data stream about diets and nutrition. . . .

Healthy bubbles.
Indra Nooyi, the CEO of Pepsico, was recently quoted as saying that "people still love bubbles." What we hear from shoppers suggests that she is right, and that we shouldn't be surprised to see heal . . .

How dumb are dummies?(Survey)(Brief article)
Over 75 percent of our 50+ respondents and almost 35 percent of our younger respondents said that there are some products "they would like to use but think may be too difficult to learn." Older resp . . .

Cheese for infants?
Meeting my grandchildren for a what turned out to be a soggy-tasting lunch at Applebee's, I stopped to oogle an adorable baby sitting in a high chair on the aisle. I was intrigued to see that she wa . . .

Social media dreaming.
If you are wondering if social media (blogs, Facebook, You Tube and Twitter) have applications for your company, check out a blog called JNJ BTW, which stands for Johnson & Johnson By The Way. The s . . .

"Frugalistas" everywhere.(Column)
Only those hardest hit by our financial miseries are giving up their discretionary spending, but most of the shoppers we talk with or hear from are "frugalistas," shoppers determined to spend less b . . .

How shoppers feel now.
Shoppers' price concerns are quickly shifting from gas at the pump to food prices and home heating oil. They are hoping that some prices will ease off in response to lower gas prices, but so far see . . .

Attack ads gain acceptance.
Shoppers have long held strong opinions on attack ads, and most of those opinions have been (and still are) negative. Referring to Dunkin Donuts' attacks on Starbucks and Campbell's attack ads on Pr . . .

Sustainability versus savings.
A big shift is taking place in shoppers' willingness to pay premiums for better products. Spending less is today's priority--and saving now means not only getting the best buys and bargains, but bei . . .