<o:p></o:p>
Quality matters to holiday food shoppers, who are willing to pay more for it. According to an annual survey from Accenture, which for the first time included food-shopping questions, 86 percent of shoppers cite quality as "important" or "very important." Consumers are also likely to "trade up" when shopping for food this holiday season, with more than half likely to shop from a high-quality retailer and nearly as many likely to buy premium brands instead of the market's own label.
The survey results also indicate that millennials are more likely to trade up on the quality of the food brands they buy and the grocers from which they buy. They're also more likely than other age groups to purchase from a grocer they normally don't shop at if that provider offers access to food at different stages of preparation, from raw ingredients to chopped-and-diced ingredients and ready-to-eat products.
When it comes to hosting, younger millennials are 50 percent more likely than Baby Boomers to say they plan to host a Christmas meal or party (60 percent vs. 40 percent) and to host a Thanksgiving meal (62 percent vs. 41 percent), and more than four times as likely as Baby Boomers to say they're planning to host more holiday meals this year than last year. According to Accenture, this might help to explain their trade up on both groceries and grocer, and why they're looking for grocers who can offer access to food at different stages of preparation.
Overall, the representative sample of 1,500 U.S. consumers found that Americans will spend an average of $658 on holiday shopping this year, up from the average $632 in last year's survey. Older millennials will spend $779, on average, while nearly four times as many younger millennials compared to Baby Boomers say they plan to spend more this holiday season.
Related: Product Roundup: Gifts That Keep Giving; Foodservice Profile: Urbanspace at 570 Lex.
from Specialty Food News https://ift.tt/2Nh56oe
No comments: