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Nutrition Business Journal
In a recent interview with Nutrition Business Journal, Thom Blischok shared his insights and offered some advice for how companies selling “better for you” products can compete during these turbulent times.
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CSP Daily News
IRI's innovation chief urges retailers to work toward rewiring convenience.
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Advertising Research Foundation
The first ORQC Newsletter informs the industry on progress being made against the issues and opportunities addressed by the ARF’s Online Research Quality Council.
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Chain Drug Review
Shopper and market insights designed to drive growth in the current challenging economy will be examined when Information Resources Inc. (IRI) holds a consumer packaged goods (CPG) summit March 23 through March 25 in Las Vegas.
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Refrigerated and Frozen Foods Retailer
The tough economy means your shoppers are buying different products, and may be responding in unexpected ways to your promotions. Here’s what you can do.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
In tough economic times more shoppers are opting for private-label goods.
Twofold Benefit: Customers pay a lot less and stores make a much bigger profit.
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Reuters
Grocery sellers are poised for a hearty holiday season as harder-to-get credit and rising unemployment promise to keep consumers close to home and family.
U.S. shoppers, who have been putting off purchases of clothes, furniture and cars in what could be the worst retail environment in three decades, are stretching their food dollars by visiting fewer restaurants, clipping coupons and trading down to store brands.
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Chain-store champagne accompanied the ringing of tills as hundreds of thousands of British consumers turned out last week for the long-awaited opening of Europe's biggest indoor shopping centre. Yet for all the enthusiasm, the broader global tale has not changed: the crisis on Wall Street is making itself felt markedly on Main Street.
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Wall Street Journal
Many Americans are changing their everyday purchases and abandoning brand loyalty, prompted by the persistent financial pressure of rising food, gasoline and electricity prices. Over the past 24 months, consumer prices have risen 7.8% according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. From coloring hair at home instead of at the salon to trying cheaper laundry detergents, new evidence indicates that Americans are modifying even minor household habits to save money.
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IRI: Private Labels, Big-Box Retailers to Benefit as Consumers Say They're Belt-Tightening
In a survey completed within the past two weeks, respondents said they'll place more emphasis on holiday traditions, family get-togethers and religious observance as a counterweight to the so-called misery index of rising unemployment and prices, said Thom Blischok, president-innovation and consulting for IRI.
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Convenience Store News
This economic downturn is drastically different from prior recessions, agreed Sheila McCusker, editor of Times & Trends, a newsletter published by research firm Information Resources Inc. (IRI). "Inflation has grown so dramatically. While gas prices, energy costs and food costs are up 12 percent or higher in some cases, income has not kept pace. "It's not going to get a lot better soon," she continued. "Commodity costs are skyrocketing. Manufacturer costs, packaging costs -- plastic is up 40 percent -- makes it hard to find places to cut back on. We don't expect the economy to get better until the second quarter of 2009."
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USA Today
Arnisha Keyes admits she's no Rachael Ray. Until recently, she spent $30 a day to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at restaurants. But the high price of gas has her testing her cooking skills to save money, packing lunch for work and experimenting with dinner salads by microwaving frozen vegetables, mixing them with spinach and pouring ranch dressing on top.
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Convenience Store Petroleum
An imperiled economy, gloomy consumer confidence and a weak U.S. dollar are not ideal business conditions by any American's measure. But all that be damned. The next six months offer convenience retailers the greatest opportunity for growth in the industry's history, according to Thom Blischok, president of consulting and innovation for Information Resources Inc. (IRI), Chicago.
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CSP
Is the current economy swaying consumers' purchasing decisions, compelling them to buy more items at a convenience store when they stop to buy gasoline? Do consumers expect to pay more at a c-store? Are private-label products really finding more acceptance? A just-completed c-store research project by Information Resources Inc. (IRI) helps to separate fact from fiction.
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Private Label Buyer
With their budgets stretched to the max by skyrocketing gas, energy and food prices, American consumers are re-evaluating what they buy and where they buy it, according to a recent study from Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. (IRI). The study, "IRI Times & Trends Special Report: Competing in a Transforming Economy," found that escalating prices have created exceptionally high price sensitivity — driving down demand in multiple categories while driving growth in private label, trial of lower-priced brands and accelerated channel migration.
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Wall Street Journal
Wondering how consumers are coping in such a troubled economy? Look at what's selling instead of which sales are tanking. As consumers muddle through all that is plaguing the U.S. economy, they have battened down the hatches and sharply shifted their spending habits, turning to money-saving options that run the gamut from transportation to health as they find ways to pay for dramatic increases in gasoline and food.
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Wall Street Journal
Spurred by economic worries, American shoppers have quickly decided that cheaper is better. They are trading down to store brands from fancy labels, to small cars from SUVs, and to deep-discounters from full-service stores.
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For IRI’s Thom Blischok, these are just the beginning!
‘Carpe Diem’ doesn’t begin to capture this CPG Renaissance Man’s philosophy of life. ‘Seize the second’ is the only way to live, says the pilot, engineer, naturalist, philanthropist, fish ‘medicine man’–– & more.
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Supermarket News
It sounds like a math problem for a college entrance exam: If Shopper X has Y amount of dollars to spend on groceries, how will she choose to distribute it among Retailers A, B and C when the cost of food and gas have increased Z percent?
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St. Louis Today
While most retailers are being hit hard by the tough economic conditions, Wal-Mart reported a record 17 percent increase in second-quarter earnings on Thursday as shoppers turned to the discounter in search of the best deals. Lower- and middle-income consumers stepped up spending at Wal-Mart early in the economic downturn, but upper-income consumers significantly increased the share of packaged goods spending allocated to Wal-Mart during the past six months as gas prices skyrocketed, the report said.
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