WINNING TOMORROW’S SHOPPERS

January 13, 2022

The success and growth of food retailers often rest on the ability to focus on current and future challenges or, more specifically, to satisfy the customers you need today and tomorrow. For that reason, supermarkets need insights into Generation Z, today’s youngest adults who are becoming increasingly important shoppers.
 

According to Sustainability and Food Retailing, the newest study from the Coca‑Cola Retailing Research Council of North America, all shoppers have a growing concern about environmental issues and the impact of their personal shopping patterns. However, no group is more concerned about the issue than Gen Z.
 

More than any other shopper group, Gen Z wants retailers to support conservation and humane animal practices and employ efforts to limit the environmental impact of packaging, utensils and shopping bags.

While Gen Z may be strongest in their passion for these topics, it’s important to remember their views aren’t opposed to those of other shopper generations. Millennials and Gen X shoppers (those in their later 20s, 30s and 40s) express similar concerns.
 

Gen Z shoppers are also more likely to favor stores that have dedicated aisles to sustainable products, sell carbon offsets, add doors to refrigerated and frozen food sections and offer educational campaigns on a range of sustainability efforts.
 

The same attributes that attract Gen Z shoppers might also help supermarkets better position themselves as employers of choice, a growing issue in a time of labor shortages.
 

For more information on the consumer insights of Gen Z and thoughts on how to address the varied issues of sustainability, download the report for free: