Grocery Shopper Snapshot: How are Consumers feeling?

<div class="mg-image–circular" style="float:right;margin:10px;"><img sf-custom-thumbnail="true" src="https://www.fmi.org/images/default-source/blog-images/egg-grocery-shopper.jpg?sfvrsn=d5a17578_1" sf-size="100" width="600" alt="woman looking at egg carton" sf-constrain-proportions="true" /></div><p>By: Allison Febrey, Senior Manager, Research &amp; Insights, FMI</p><p>Despite our best intentions at the start of each year, by March, many New Year&rsquo;s Resolutions have fizzled out. Similarly, while 56% of consumers started the year with positive expectations, now only 45% of shoppers feel positive. In fact, 30% have negative expectations for 2025. Looking just at grocery shopping, most consumers (71%) are concerned about the rising price of food from grocery stores; and that&rsquo;s just one of many concerns shoppers have regarding groceries. </p><p>These concerns in the grocery shopper&rsquo;s mind have been increasing since January. Shoppers report being extremely or very concerned about:</p><ul><li>Increased tariffs on imported food (54%, +5 percentage points)</li><li>Bird flu (51%, +8 percentage points)</li><li>Decreased access to accurate information about food safety issues (47%, +7 percentage points) </li><li>Outbreaks of food-borne illnesses at food stores (46%, +3 percentage points)</li></ul><p>Most people have seen the effects of bird flu on the egg supply &mdash; almost everyone (89%) has noticed changes in the egg supply at the grocery store. In response, 84% have made some change to how they purchase eggs. The top changes include: buying fewer eggs due to cost (37%), buying fewer eggs due to availability (22%) and not buying eggs at all (20%). Some shoppers are also substituting eggs with other products (12%).</p><p>[mg-blogcharts ids="1"]</p><p>Despite these worries, shoppers remain optimistic and resilient. Almost eight out of 10 say they feel in control of their household expenditures on groceries. Most consumers (77%) also expect their finances to be better or the same, one year from now. </p><p>As grocery prices rise and food concerns grow, shoppers are adapting in real-time. FMI will continue tracking shopper behaviors and attitudes on a monthly basis, as part of our Grocery Shopper Snapshot series.</p><p><a href="https://www.fmi.org/our-research/research-reports" class="button">Research Resources</a></p>

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