It is becoming increasingly difficult for supermarket operators to play to the middle, said Leslie G. Sarasin, president and CEO, Food Marketing Institute, in her keynote address at FMI Connect in Chicago, according to Supermarket News.
“For years there was a case for food retailers to maintain a mid-market strategy — don’t get too high, and offer good value. But today it’s a different day,” she told attendees. “Americans are choosing to go either up or down.”
While some mid-market shoppers are trading up for more quality and variety, value shoppers are forsaking those qualities to meet their budgets.
“These value shoppers may like mid-market stores better, and they may even rate them substantially higher than the store they feel they must shop, but in the end, they feel they simply cannot afford to shop mid-market,” Sarasin said.
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