Fresh & Easy is rolling out a new Express store format, but can the company come out on top after nearly four years of heavy losses? By Erin Rigik, Associate Editor. Tesco’s Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery chain debuted with a bang in 2007, rolling out 20 stores in rapid succession in California, Nevada [...]
Biggest winners include makers/retailers of gift cards, value products, technology and vacations. Online, club, dollar, toy and consumer electronics retailers, as well as categories such as gift cards, technology, vacations and toys, will all perform well this season, according to Nielsen’s fourth-annual Holiday Shopping Sales Survey. Nielsen is a global provider of information and analytics [...]
A survey conducted by Hart Research Associates found 41% of customers are worried about the amount they pay for necessities like food and gasoline, up 18 points from September 2010. A new nationwide survey issued on Aug. 31, by Citibank finds a decline in consumers’ expectations for the economy, even though their assessment of current [...]
Retail markets often change with the U.S. economy. Currently, one popular consumer trend is cross-channel shopping, for its value and quality. Despite gas prices that are more than 30% higher than last year, cross-channel shopping is alive and well in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. In fact, three-quarters of today’s consumers shop across five [...]
“How America Shops” survey shows Walmart shoppers find lowest prices elsewhere. The Walmart shopper’s value perception has dramatically changed, according to a new research report that surveyed nearly 1,500 Walmart Shoppers. A continuing recessionary mindset, coupled with lower priced competitors are driving shoppers to other retail destinations, according to WSL/Strategic Retail’s How America Shops [...]
“Some shoppers are retaining their frugal ways, others are spending more freely across the board and others still are spending more on some types of products, but remaining tight fisted about others,” notes SymphonyIRI CEO. SymphonyIRI has launched its Quarterly MarketPulse Survey Series, which offers consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail and healthcare companies a comprehensive [...]
As the U.S. economic recession continues, it’s no secret that customers are altering their shopping habits to save a few dollars wherever they can. The silver lining for convenience store retailers could be the resulting affinity credit-crunched customers have developed for the prepaid segment. In a credit weary and increasingly online world, prepaid is helping [...]
At the NACS Summit in Chicago this week, Matt McCourt, director of Convenience / Spirits for SymphonyIRI Group, gave insight into consumer purchasing patterns across multiple channels and how to reach shoppers in a changing environment. “Consumers are thinking about daily living costs. We’re seeing a new conservative shopper driven by affordable indulgences,” McCourt told [...]
Nielsen released a list of overall shopping trends hitting the retail market. Among them, the downward trend of consumers shopping less reached a new low in February, with a 4% year-over-year decline in monthly all-outlet shopping trips. (All outlets included: supercenters, club stores, grocery stores, dollar stores, drug and mass merchandisers.) Retailers are focusing more [...]
DID YOU KNOW? After several years of decline, the frozen novelties category was up close to 2% for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 27, 2009. Retailers can expect to see more customers eating at home, searching for value on purchases and buying more healthful food items, according to the International Dairy Deli Bakery Association (IDDBA). [...]
The economy, the environment and the weather. All three are impacting the sale of bottled water this year. From 1997 until 2007, consumers were thirsty for bottles of clear, refreshing water. Between 2003 and 2008, bottled water sales grew 59% to $5.1 billion, making it one of the fastest-growing drinks on the market. Consumers believed [...]
In today’s struggling economy, more than half (58%) of U.S. consumers are “very concerned” about rising food prices, The Nielsen Co. found in a new survey on consumer purchasing trends. As consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and retailers employ options to manage abnormally high cost increases due to raw material and other expenditures, consumers voiced [...]