Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses the shift in consumer grocery preferences with Purdue University’s Caitlinn Hubbell.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Caitlin, it’s great to see you. Thanks for joining us this morning.
Caitlinn Hubbell, Purdue University College of Agriculture
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
2025 was certainly an up and down year in terms of markets, the economy, but clearly affordability is an issue for so many Americans. I know you captured a lot of this data, you and the team, I should say, captured a lot of this data in terms of consumer preferences. Let’s just start off with a basic question.
How did or did consumers change their purchasing trends when it comes to the groceries in 2025?
Caitlinn Hubbell, Purdue University College of Agriculture
Yeah, good question. So we know over several years in data and research that top of consumers purchasing behaviors and minds is taste and affordability. So regardless of what’s going on in the environment, affordability is always up there when the consumers are making their decisions at the grocery store.
Specifically in December, we asked them some questions about, you know, what are you looking to change or what did you change over your 2025 shopping experience? And consumers did make changes. They were interested in buying cheaper products, whether that be couponing or, you know, finding deals, switching to generic products.
A large percentage of consumers made impacts or changes to their shopping behavior in 2025.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And, you know, I’m heartened. It reminds me, when I was a kid, my grandparents cut coupons. They actually were in the paper back then.
So in the paper, they would cut them and go to the store. It’s interesting that people are now kind of getting back to that. I’m sure the coupons are now probably digital now, but it’s really interesting that they’re kind of adapting that strategy that my grandparents were from the World War II generation.
You know, they lived through the Great Depression. So it’s interesting to see people kind of adopt those tactics.
Caitlinn Hubbell, Purdue University College of Agriculture
Yeah, there are lots of different ways to do it these days, and I would say more convenient than, you know, cutting. But on your phone, so many different groceries and retailers have programs where you can get discounts for being a part of their rewards program, but also you can go in and select coupons. There are, you know, cashback, lots of programs that can help consumers save a little bit of money or be more strategic in their shopping for groceries.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, well, heck, there aren’t even newspapers that are printed anymore. They’re really, everything’s digital. So certainly things have improved.
I want to also ask you about, you mentioned people moving to more generic types of products. I would think that would be toilet paper, you know, maybe soda, things like that. But what about some of the big chains like, you know, Sam’s Club, Costco, do people see those as value?
So if I’m a member of Sam’s Club or one of these types of member clubs, that was an opportunity to really save.
Caitlinn Hubbell, Purdue University College of Agriculture
Yeah, and I would say from a general perspective and looking at where consumers shop, we haven’t seen a huge change in their breakdown of locations. So whether that be wholesale or grocery store or supermarket, over time, that’s been pretty consistent. I think there are committed wholesale shoppers, and people are certainly using that for bargain shopping, but we haven’t seen a large trend, at least in our survey of people moving from, you know, one to the next.
I think a lot of that is convenience too, right, where you live and what is close to you in terms of what’s available for shopping.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And to that point, does it matter from a geographical point of view, if you live in a suburban area, an urban area, if you live in the north or southern part of the country or the Midwest, did any of that seem to give an indication of maybe some differences between populations?
Caitlinn Hubbell, Purdue University College of Agriculture
Yeah, for this specific study or this specific month, we didn’t look at region or rural versus urban. We definitely could in the future, but we do see changes when it comes to types of products, maybe, right, what’s available in certain areas. But for this specific survey, in this specific set of data, we didn’t dive into regionality or location too much.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And do you think, you know, when it comes to, obviously, preferences, I think people, anecdotally speaking, have cut back from some of the fast food places, the McDonald’s, the Burger Kings, those prices have actually gone up. Did that kind of play out in the data as well, where, you know, people said, okay, well, I’m not going to go out to eat, I’m going to start making food, I’m going to buy, maybe I won’t buy Purdue chicken breast, I’ll buy Sam’s Club chicken breast and make a meal for my family.
Caitlinn Hubbell, Purdue University College of Agriculture
Yeah, a little bit. We are expenditure from food at home, so food that you’re purchasing at the grocery store, and then food away from home has been pretty consistent. We report that every month.
So again, not large sweeping changes from month to month. But in the end, I think people are finding ways to save money, whether that be purchasing the same dollar amount, right, but getting more product for that same dollar amount, or, you know, maybe spending the same amount of money at a restaurant, but going to a cheaper restaurant so they can still have the same experience.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So looking out into 2026, and I don’t want to ask you to be, you know, pull out your crystal ball. But can you talk a little bit about the study? And what you will be looking at?
You know, this month in the month of January? Well, actually, by the time this airs, it’ll be February. So the month of February, March, April, I mean, what are you what are you going to be tracking?
How do you track that against, you know, CPI? Or do you look at the CPI to see if there’s a correlation?
Caitlinn Hubbell, Purdue University College of Agriculture
Yeah, and I think I maybe misspoke earlier and said December instead of November, because we were talking about November results, but we’re currently working on a December report. That will come out here in the next couple of weeks. But we asked consumers what their plans are for 2026.
When it comes to shopping, do they plan to make any diet related changes, or any changes to their shopping behavior? And I think, largely consumers, as you saw in red, are expecting maybe prices to moderate a little bit or the changes that they made in 25, 2025, they’re not expecting to continue into 2026. And so I think that’ll be interesting to follow.
You know, our data and everything that we’re looking at is showing that the CPI and inflation for food specifically is kind of moderating. So it’s kind of it’s back down to 2.4. It was 1.9 back in November. And so that’s kind of a little bit above average, but that’s pretty average for this for food.
And so I think consumers are still adjusting from the really high inflation that we saw in 2020 to 2022, right, when we saw prices that were, you know, 26% higher. If you look today, prices today compared to what they were in 2020, 2022, we’re about 25%, 30% higher than that. And so I think consumers in their mind are still thinking that prices might rally back to what it was before that.
But I think really we’re at kind of a stable, you know, food price inflation over time, and we’re not expecting to see large price drops or deflation, I would say. So it’ll be interesting. Our data year over year and month over month shows that consumers kind of overestimate inflation.
So in 2025, consumers said they were experiencing inflation around, on average, 5.4%. And which is, at least in December, almost double what we’re really seeing. So I think what consumers are experiencing and feeling in their wallets is a little bit different than what we are tracking from, you know, data at our level, but also data, you know, nationally.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, well, I have to think, you know, we all have our own, it’s personalized, right? I mean, what Jeff Snyder buys something very different than what you buy, your family buys or somebody else buys. So I think it’s very personal.
And so our perceptions are obviously going to be different. I think it probably makes it challenging to kind of wrap it all up into one report. But I guess there is some good news.
And we’ll look, we’ll have to bring you back on in the coming months to see how this is all kind of aligning itself. Are things going down? And how are consumers adapting?
Caitlin, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. Excellent analysis.
And we look forward to having you back on the program again, very soon.
Caitlinn Hubbell, Purdue University College of Agriculture
Yeah, thanks. Happy to be here.