BUFFALO, N.Y. W(KWB) — The high cost of grocery prices has many consumers changing their shopping habits.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, from February 2023 to February 2024, food prices increased 2.2%.
The added expense has many families changing how they shop and what they buy. 7 News anchor Katie Morse has been tracking grocery prices and spoke with Associate Marketing Professor Charles Lindsey with the University at Buffalo's School of Management. Lindsey says he's noticed several things in how people shop.
Changes in shopping habits:
- More people using coupons - Lindsey says there were always people who used coupons - but these days a higher percentage of people are using them, and going through ads and Sunday fliers to try and save some cash.
- More comparison shopping - In the past, many people shopped at just their favorite store. Higher grocery costs have shoppers checking the prices of items they buy in different places, and choosing where to shop based on how much they would spend.
- Less brand loyalty - Not only is brand loyalty changing when it comes to where people shop, but more people are also buying private label or store label products over name brand items. Lindsay says store brands have a greater market share than they used to, and it's proof that people's habits are changing.
Lindsey still says one of the biggest events to change the cost of groceries was the pandemic. Right now, on average, consumers are paying about a third more for chicken breasts per pound and double what they were paying for a carton of eggs pre-pandemic.
He says prices on many items are starting to normalize - and expects within the next five years things will improve even further, although he doesn't anticipate we will ever return to pre-pandemic prices.
