Anne-Marie Roerink on changing consumer dynamics and their impact on produce

We're delighted to have returning to the show a listener favorite, Anne-Marie Roerink! She’s the principal of 210 Analytics and renowned for her fabulous produce presentations, but in the last couple months she’s actually been at events for all different parts of the store, from meat to seafood to frozen to candy. With that in mind, Anne-Marie is the perfect person to talk with about what’s happening with consumers broadly and what it all means for produce. In this episode, we discuss how continued price sensitivity among consumers is translating in produce; the increasing concentration of produce sales, with a growing percentage coming from the highest-income households; price and value perception of produce compared to “snacks” broadly; the implications of the increase in fixed-weight produce; leveraging trends like fibermaxxing in the marketing of produce; the “changing of the guard” as millennials take over for boomers as the majority shoppers; consumer concern with waste as a financial issue rather than a sustainability issue; social media driving sales; what a continuing lower percentage of sales on promotions demonstrates about retailers' pricing and promotion strategies; the changing dynamics of which grocery channel is the first shop and which is the fill-in; how life stages factor into purchase patterns; how changing demographic realities will influence buying in the coming decade; best-by dates and their effect on consumption; texture as a total-store trend and how produce factors in; and more. Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.