Target Executive Speaks to Grocery Trends

Following the pandemic, Target has worked to revamp its grocery offerings to cater to shoppers looking to indulge while on a budget, according to AP News. Rick Gomez, Target’s chief food, essentials, and beauty officer, spoke with the news source about some trends he’s seeing in the aisle.

He remarked on some of the pandemic-era trends that have persisted in grocery.

“Snacking and indulgence,” he said. “During the pandemic, people were looking for a little bit of happiness as we were all quarantined at home. And so we developed [our private label] Favorite Day. And it’s really about savory, indulgent delicious treats. Well, we’re out of that pandemic, and we see that trend continuing.”

Gomez said that the retailer is embracing globally inspired flavors and recent innovations in trail mixes.

“We’ve got some fun new trail mixes, dill pickle-flavor trail mix, barbecue-flavor trail mix. We have some innovation in the space of global flavors. It started in the pandemic, and they were trying to get out of the food rut and were looking for new flavors. And we’ve seen growth in areas like Korean food, Indian, [and] soul food.”

Under Gomez the retailer plans to introduce up to 2,000 new food and beverage items this year, across national, emerging, and private-label brands, according to the report. Full Story