The Era of One-Stop Grocery Shopping Is Over

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Grocery prices are up 21% in three years, according to the Labor Department, helping drive the trend toward multi-stop shopping.

Wall Street Journal
By Rachel Wolfe
April 27, 2024

Harking back to the days before supermarkets, Americans are dividing their food shopping among more stores to save money.

Consumers bought groceries from an average of 20.7 different retailers between March 2023 and February 2024 according to data firm Numerator, up 23% from the same months between 2019 and 2020. In addition to visiting more stores, shoppers are also traveling to cheaper ZIP Codes to shop and pursuing loyalty programs and promotions in greater numbers, retail analysts say.

Treasure-hunt grocery shopping is the latest example of consumers changing their behavior in response to the higher of prices in our lives, from the homes we live in to the daycares where we send our kids. Now, with groceries taking up the highest percentage of household budgets in 30 years, more shoppers are driving all over town in pursuit of deals.

(more)
https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/the-era-of-one-stop-grocery-shopping-is-over-32b294cb

[mountaineer]

Considering the price of gasoline, I certainly am not "driving all over town in pursuit of deals" if the deals are too far away.

[roamer_1]

I'm leaning pretty heavy on the Azure truck. Bulk dry goods are saving me, as they do in hard times. Lots of beans and rice in my diet.... Which I ain't complaining about, btw. I could eat red beans and rice every day. But bulk dry goods ain't changed so much in cost. And if you can source cheap meat, you can eat pretty good.

[DefiantMassRINO]

I play supermarket roulette every week to get better meat prices if it's a 15 minute or less drive ... manager's special is cherry on top.

[roamer_1]

I play supermarket roulette every week to get better meat prices if it's a 15 minute or less drive ... manager's special is cherry on top.

I can't wait to get back to fishing and hunting. And raising up my own beef and chicken. I am not used to paying for meat at all. And man! is that an eye-opener.