>> Consumers trust supermarkets to deliver what they want but…
In this week’s issue we have tried to get inside the minds of consumers to examine whether they have lost faith in the food they are buying. Judging by the coverage of our industry in recent weeks, particularly over the food and health issue, it would not have been too surprising to discover a crisis of confidence.
So we were reassured to see that consumers remain as rational as ever.
They recognise that the people who should take most responsibility for tackling obesity are themselves - not the government, so-called experts, the food industry nor the supermarkets. The thousands of consumers quizzed on our behalf by HI Europe also understand that even though food scares capture headlines on a daily basis, it is because the national media are trying to create a culture of fear, rather than because this industry is doing a shabby job and supplying unsafe products.
We also tried to gain an understanding of whether consumers are worried about the influence of the big supermarkets. While they do think the multiples have too much power, we found that consumers still trust them to deliver the goods. In the main, they think the overall quality of what they are buying has either stayed the same or improved.
On the face of it, therefore, there is no evidence to support the idea of a nascent consumer backlash against the big retailers. And yet...
In our survey, we only asked consumers for their thoughts on the quality and safety of the foods they buy. Significantly, many would prefer to buy fresh foods from specialist retailers or farmers’ markets. I know consumers often say one thing and happily do the complete opposite. But don’t dismiss our findings out of hand.
At a time when more questions than ever are being asked about the provenance, the quality and the price of the food and drink on sale in our major supermarkets, I believe we may be seeing signs that attitudes are shifting. For some consumers - albeit the wealthier, chattering classes - buying habits are changing too. And as The Guardian’s Felicity Lawrence writes on page 34: “It may so far be mostly the chattering classes who have worked out that low prices means someone paying more in other ways. But where the chattering classes lead, the overall trend tends to follow.”
don’t ignore the chatter
In this week’s issue we have tried to get inside the minds of consumers to examine whether they have lost faith in the food they are buying. Judging by the coverage of our industry in recent weeks, particularly over the food and health issue, it would not have been too surprising to discover a crisis of confidence.
So we were reassured to see that consumers remain as rational as ever.
They recognise that the people who should take most responsibility for tackling obesity are themselves - not the government, so-called experts, the food industry nor the supermarkets. The thousands of consumers quizzed on our behalf by HI Europe also understand that even though food scares capture headlines on a daily basis, it is because the national media are trying to create a culture of fear, rather than because this industry is doing a shabby job and supplying unsafe products.
We also tried to gain an understanding of whether consumers are worried about the influence of the big supermarkets. While they do think the multiples have too much power, we found that consumers still trust them to deliver the goods. In the main, they think the overall quality of what they are buying has either stayed the same or improved.
On the face of it, therefore, there is no evidence to support the idea of a nascent consumer backlash against the big retailers. And yet...
In our survey, we only asked consumers for their thoughts on the quality and safety of the foods they buy. Significantly, many would prefer to buy fresh foods from specialist retailers or farmers’ markets. I know consumers often say one thing and happily do the complete opposite. But don’t dismiss our findings out of hand.
At a time when more questions than ever are being asked about the provenance, the quality and the price of the food and drink on sale in our major supermarkets, I believe we may be seeing signs that attitudes are shifting. For some consumers - albeit the wealthier, chattering classes - buying habits are changing too. And as The Guardian’s Felicity Lawrence writes on page 34: “It may so far be mostly the chattering classes who have worked out that low prices means someone paying more in other ways. But where the chattering classes lead, the overall trend tends to follow.”
don’t ignore the chatter
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