Paco Underhill, author of “How We Eat—The Brave New World of Food and Beverages” and founder of Envirosell, a behavioral research and consulting firm, outlined six factors that shape modern food shopping during the Winter Fancy Food Show keynote presentation, Monday.
“One thing that makes retail interesting is the evolution of change [in customer behavior],” he said. “Before the pandemic we looked at six things in transition that either morphed or became more accelerated.” They include:
1. The fundamental evolution between our eyes and brains, resulting from screens. “The evolution of the physical and cyber world is getting much fuzzier,” said Underhill, who noted that age impacts the way consumers perceive color in packaging and on websites. “If I’m Abercrombie & Finch, I know my target market but in restaurants and foodservice we need to be cognizant of these differences and adjust accordingly.”
2. A change in gender relationships brought about by birth control. “I don’t mean to make moral or religious commentary on it, but with birth control, the relationship between genders has changed,” he said. “Across America the number of households with female-dominant breadwinners goes up with each passing year. It doesn’t mean there isn’t a glass ceiling but if you look at major American cities, women [in their 20s] are increasingly making more money than men and women are making the choice whether to have children or get married.”
3. Life stage dictates how people will consume. “I have two daughters in their early 20s who have lived in group homes with a fridge in their room and then one in the kitchen were they keep their common food,” he said. “Part of what we’re looking at is that the way someone shops, buys, and interacts with the world is often based on lifestage issues and they’re getting even more acute.”
4. The impact of time. “I can stand at a grocery store doorway and look at someone walking in and guess how loudly the clock is ticking in their heads,” he said. “How many of us are struggling with multitasking issues as we go through life?”
5. What is local and what is global? “I was an exchange student in Korea in my early 20s. When I was there in the ‘70s corn wasn’t a part of their cuisine and today in the East Village of New York, there is a Korean corn dog store,” he said.
6. The role of wealth and ethnicity. “We passed over a very magic moment in the mid ‘90s where up until then the overwhelming majority of wealth was in the aristocracy with a peaches and cream complexion,” he said. “Today that is untrue.” This has led to a more diverse culinary landscape where consumers shop across a broader spectrum of the food chain.
Underhill also observed that:
• Retail is slated for change and store formats will shrink with better supply chain management.
• Buy online, pick up in store will happen with trucking bay to back-of-car innovations.
• Packaging reforms are on the horizon with cardboard and plastic reductions and companies should get ahead of the curve.
• Custom blending from laundry soap to pet food can get the manufacturer closer to the customer.
• The smart home interacting with the smart store and the smart customers is here to stay.
Related: Seen at the Winter Fancy Food Show, Day 1; Livestream Coverage Focuses on What Buyers Want.