Lambert & Ewers Smoked Meats

More consumers in July said they are spending less on food than a year ago than said so in June, according to a monthly survey by investment firm Janney Montgomery Scott.

The firm said 25 percent of consumers in July said they are spending less than a year ago on food, up from 15 percent in June. In a note to investors, analyst Jonathan Feeney said in addition to buying more private label, going out to eat less and using coupons, the survey showed more consumers buying food at Wal-Mart and they continue to change their diet by choosing lower-priced kinds of foods.

“An increasing number of food dollars are apparently being diverted to Wal-Mart across all geographic, income and household size segments of our survey,” the report noted. For wholesale clubs, the trend has been largely stable, with higher income groups increasing their visits and low income groups decreasing their food shopping trips to places like BJ’s, Sam’s Club and Costco. During the first quarter, low income groups were increasing their club store food purchases.

Nearly half the consumers surveyed said they are spending less on food at both restaurants and convenience stores.

Specifically, the survey showed:

• Consumers are still aggressively foregoing restaurant dining, but at a less severe rate, with 40 percent to 45 percent of consumers reportedly eating at restaurants less than a year ago, compared to 50 percent to 60 percent in the three prior months.
• While the shift to store brands continues, fewer consumers in July said they were buying store brand cereal, soup, cookies, crackers and frozen entrees than said so in June. For frozen entrees, 24 percent said they were buying store brands versus 27 percent in June.
• Consumers are increasingly responding to price reductions, promotions and coupons. In July, 96 percent of respondents said they are buying food with coupons and other promotional offers, a steady increase since April when 87 percent said they were doing so.
• Consumers continue to trade down to lower priced kinds of foods with 92 percent saying they are doing so in July, about the same as in recent previous months.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 11:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.