Is anyone 100% loyal to their grocery store?

I mean, we’re all creatures of habit, right? And brand loyalty is what we’re all after, right?

Well, The Hartman Group asked 2,000 Americans where they bought their groceries in the past month. In particular, which channels they shopped. (Grocery, mass, dollar, club, natural, etc.)

Turns out most people (2 in 3) shopped between 3 & 6 channels. Only 7% of Americans shopped just one channel in the past month. And an equal number shopped 8, 9 or 10 channels. 

And that’s channels, not individual stores. So maybe someone only got groceries from the grocery channel, but they shopped at Safeway AND King Soopers.

And that’s just in the past 30 days, not the whole quarter, or year.

Which means 100% loyalty for a store, across a whole year, might easily be as low as 3% of the population. 

So some lessons for all of us:

🍊 As usual, don’t expect 100% loyalty: it’s very much the exception, not the rule.
🍊 Get used to sharing your customers with your competitors.
🍊Follow The Hartman Group for great food & grocery research.