Retailers are choosing to promote fresh foods and items from local brands over packaged foods as a way to appeal to the increasing percentage of healthy conscious shoppers. According to the vice president of a Chicago grocery chain, more shoppers are choosing to buy hot, freshly prepared pasta and other items from the deli counter rather than boxed pasta with powder cheese that has been on shelves for weeks at a time. More and more retailers are considering reducing the amount of shelf space in their store to make way for more fresh foods and prepared counters to give their consumers more options in the way they like.
This trend of buyers sudden shift in preference started a few years ago with people switching from buying chips, cereals, and granola bars to buying produce, rice, and fresh meats in an effort to make healthier choices. However, this has had a negative effect on packaged foods, recently showing a 2.4% decrease in sales just in the first quarter of this year. Another reason for the decline in sales for big named packaged producers such as Kraft, Mondelez, and Kellogg, is the competition with the cheaper store named brands that sell similar products for much less. Retailers are putting pressure on these companies to raise their sales numbers, going as far as to demand a lowering of the prices in order to sell more.
What these producers decide to do in order to increase their sales will have to be decided sooner rather than later with the threat of retailers changing the way grocery shopping is presented to the consumers. If retailers reduce shelves and add more fresh stations and products this could be a major economic hit to the producers of packaged foods.
WSJ ARTICLE
This is good to know! The change in sales between packaged and fresh foods shows consumers change of behavior.
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