- Shopping for food has altered our behaviour according to new market research.
From the start of the COVID pandemic, a number of research institutes and market researchers have examined consumer behaviour during this period. The objective has been to understand just what type of impact the disease has had and then predict what might happen following the easing of restrictions in a post-pandemic world.
One of the main contributors has been the International Food Information Council (IFIC) who have been looking at the behaviours and the concerns of many living in the USA.
It may seem obvious now but the COVID-19 pandemic has brought on massive and unprecedented change to nearly every aspect of our lives. In particular what we eat now, what we need to purchase, whether we have altered the way we make and use food and who we involve in that process. All this has been up for grabs in the new world system. Will it remain though?
The IGD Report Of 2020: Diets
The grocery industry’s research and training charity IGD has examined how shopping has changed with the onset of Covid-19 in the last 6 months.
IGD questioned over a 1,000 consumers in July 2020 to understand how the appearance of the coronavirus, Covid-19 had changed their buying and eating behaviour. Well over half the respondents (57%) had already altered their diets in response to the pandemic. There was further evidence that these consumers would seek to make their diets much more healthy and even sustainable. The principal motivation was to improve health and 63% of the respondents made maintaining health their prime reason.
The main issue it appears is the higher cost of maintaining a healthy and sustainable diet. At least 38% of the consumers thought the changes in their diet meant it was more expensive. There was acknowledgment that people’s behaviour towards a more healthy and sustainable diet was driven by the need to be healthy in combating the virus.
Other evidence shows that obese people are 50% more likely to die from infection by the coronavirus. In the UK, the government has launched new approaches to reducing obesity as a way to reduce death.
Grocery Shopping Effects
If you look at the FOODINSIGHT.org website you can find out what effect the pandemic has done to shopping habits. The sample size was of the order of 320 to 350 people questioned so there was plenty of material to work with.
When asked, many of us began to use online shopping as a way of reducing the risk of catching COVID at the mall or in the shops. It seems that most of us who has taken up online grocery shopping are going to continue this (38% of respondents). That’s high because another 32% will keep online shopping at the current level whilst just a fifth of us (20%) will probably reduce this and only 6% will stop altogether.
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