There’s no place like home for penny-pinching consumers who are eating out less and spending more on perishables. It all adds up to $6 billion in potential market growth.

Like shoppers around the world, consumers across Asia Pacific have become focused on saving and reducing debt this year, and as a result, have become less inclined to spend on bigger ticket items and out-of-home-entertainment.

Top line growth of grocery sales in Britain remained slow at 4.5 percent for the twelve weeks ending September 5th compared to the same period a year ago. Unpredictable weather and fickle shoppers affected food trade, although the late bank holiday did spur sales growth of 7.9 percent on a year-to-year basis for the week ending August 29th, according to Nielsen’s monthly survey. Unit growth continued increased 2.8 percent in the last four weeks of the period.

Consumers are sticking with basic purchases in categories like fresh meat, pasta, packaged dinners along with baking mixes and supplies as meal preparation consumption comes back to the home.
Increases in wine and alcoholic beverages indicate that consumers are opting to consume their favorite beverage at home too. At the same time they are continuing to avoid discretionary items, according to the latest monthly update of U.S. Retailing & Consumer Trends from The Nielsen Company.
The non-edible departments were the greatest contributors to an overall 1.2 percent unit sales decline at food, …

Consumers are continuing to purchase private label products at an increasing rate, according to new research from The Nielsen Company.
The “U.S. Store Brand Development” found that both private label dollar and unit sales significantly increased for the 52-week period ending July 11, 2009 versus the prior year.
Dollar sales grew by 7.4 percent to $85.9 billion within food, drug and mass-merchandisers (including Walmart), with shares recorded at 16.9 percent. This reflects an increase of 0.7 points from the previous year. Growth peaked in 2008 but then slowed slightly in 2009 with …

Although Australia’s economy may have technically avoided entering a recession, almost two-thirds of Aussies believe that it has, and consumer confidence has plummeted to an all-time low.  Concerns about job security and personal finances have led Australians to change the way they shop, with a focus on value.  Like consumers in Europe and North America, Australians are trying to stretch their dollars further: they are eating out less, entertaining and cooking at home more often and buying more private label goods. 
These changes present a range of challenges for retailers and …

As the “great recession” continues and consumers hear conflicting messaging about when the U.S. economy will improve, shoppers from all income levels are increasingly seeking out and taking advantage of deals at the grocery store. Whether in the form of store promotion or deal or manufacturers coupon, deal rates are up more than 8% from a year ago for households earning more than $70K, a faster rise than the 6% uptick for middle-income households ($30K-$69.9K) and 5% gain for the lower income households earning less than $30K per year.

Those affluent …

The effects of the recession may be seen on the BBQ grill this Fourth of July. Sales of hot dogs have been going up in recent months while register rings for more expensive bratwurst and knockwurst have been declining, according to new research from The Nielsen Company. This is a reversal of sales trends the past several years.
July 3rd traditionally has the highest sales volume for all three types of meat. Consumers were 50 percent more likely to buy hot dogs during the four-week period ending on July 12, 2008 …

Retail grocery prices in the U.S. continue to creep higher overall compared with 2008, according to new research from The Nielsen Company. The good news is price increases appear to be slowing compared with the price spikes experienced by shoppers in the spring of 2008 and 2007.
These were some of the findings from the “Supermarket Pricing Trends” study which looked at pricing of the top-selling items across 45 categories over the course of five years. It concluded by measuring the 12 weeks ending May 16 in total U.S. supermarkets.
Overall, …

Tom Pirovano, Director, Industry Insights

For the past several months, we’ve seen sales for U.S. store brands grow at unprecedented rates with annual sales of $85.5 billion, up by $13.6 billion (+19%) vs. just two years ago. (Nielsen Grocery/Drug/Mass including Walmart). At first, this growth was driven by higher prices for milk and other commodities. Then the economy got even worse, and many just assumed that shoppers were switching from national brands to store brands to save money.
But what about the other factor we sometimes forget to mention? Could it be …