Most Grocery Shoppers Still Wary as Some Ease Cost-Cutting Measures

Food prices may continue to rise, but as grocery inflation slows, some shoppers are beginning to relax on their budgeting measures while most remain looking for ways to trim spending.

By the Numbers

For the October edition of the Consumer Inflation Sentiment study, “Consumer Inflation Sentiment: Consumers Buckle Down On Belt-Tightening,” PYMNTS surveyed more than 2,600 U.S. consumers in September and found that the share of grocery shoppers that reported cutting down on discretionary spending had declined to 58% from 62% the month earlier and 60% in July.

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The Data in Action

Indeed, those in the grocery space are predicting that inflationary trends, as well as other factors shaking up the industry, will normalize in the year ahead.

Scott Crawford, chief merchandising officer at Ahold Delhaize subsidiary FreshDirect, an eGrocer primarily focused on the tri-state area, explained in an interview with PYMNTS that he expects that, in the next 12 months, the category will finally settle into a place where dramatic inflation, ongoing pandemic effects and unusual travel activities will no longer have such a strong effect on consumer behavior.

“I think a year from now, we will … be talking about consistency of how the customer’s using us,” Crawford said. “You compress that also with people traveling, people taking extraordinarily large vacations. I think all that will have washed out of the system by this time next year.”