Bite-Sized Insights: Parents Agree Grocery Prices Have Increased Post-COVID

Each week we ask our trusted Insights panel of parents a key question. This week we were interested in finding out about parents’ perceptions of grocery prices in the wake of COVID. A recent report from Kantar found that prices shot up when the pandemic hit and have remained high. We wanted to find out if parents agree. Take a quick read of this week’s bite-sized insights to find out what parents think about grocery shop prices.

Would you like business-transforming insights for your brand? Use our tailored panels of engaged parents and our dedicated private platform to gather critical insights to help your decision making and activate customers. Contact us now to find how we can help.

We asked our Insights panel of parents to tell us if they’ve noticed any changes in the price of their average weekly shop since the pandemic hit. Here’s how they answered:

Comments from our panel members included:

“Prices on the way up and availability on the way down.”

“I do my main shop in Tesco as they have wonderful special offers and the points I collect while shopping can be turned into vouchers. Once I receive the vouchers from Tesco quarterly they can be doubled and used as money off my gas bill. It’s a win-win for me.”

“It increased when we were all at home all the time, due to not eating out, constant grazing and baking more than usual. Now that we are back to school/work and starting to eat out occasionally, we are spending less on groceries again (back to pre-covid spending).”

“During lockdown I did online shopping mainly in Tesco and it was very expensive. Since being vaccinated and lockdowns being lifted I have started shopping in Lidl again and doing small shop in local SuperValu find this way better value.”

“Costs have definitely increased over last few months along with petrol/diesel costs.”

“I go between Lidl and Aldi but do a bit in SuperValu because of the coupons that I receive, they really help to bring down the overall cost. Shopping costs have increased considerably since the pandemic and there appears to be less choice and not as many bargains.”

“We do our main shop in Dunnes Stores, but we supplement the shopping with our local grocery store for items like bread and milk. Our shopping has increased as both my husband and I work from home now, so we eat pretty much all our meals at home whereas pre-pandemic we would have eaten out occasionally at weekends or during the week from a local cafe/coffee shop during our lunch breaks.”

“I do my main shop in Dunnes Stores as I use the vouchers and the points earned to buy school uniform, jammies etc throughout the year.”

“I do my main shop in Dunnes Stores & try to utilise the money off vouchers. I also shop in Tesco for own brand products which are favoured by the family over other stores.”

“I do my main shop in Tesco. Everything has gone up in price and I may look at changing to a discount supermarket such as Lidl or Aldi.”

“I think prices in general have risen for all items. My shopping did not increase by as much as €200 but for the same items, the cost would have been less before the pandemic.”

Actionable Insights for Grocery Retailers:

There is a perception amongst many parents that grocery costs have gone up since the onset of the pandemic. In tandem with this, parents feel that the variety of products has decreased. Conducting in-depth consumer research will help you better understand how to craft new messages and offers to appeal to this valuable segment.
While coupons and vouchers off grocery shops are definitely appreciated by parents, they also said they like being able to spend vouchers on non-grocery to help with other items of the household budget, so offering more multi-category voucher options could be attractive to this segment.
High quality content such as meal ideas and meal planning tips to help bring weekly shop cost down is going to resonate with parents. Repurpose and reuse your existing recipe content to bring this message out to parents.

Would you like business-transforming insights from parents for your business? Use our tailored panels of engaged parents and our dedicated private platform to gather critical insights to help influence consumers to deliver long term profitability. Contact us now to find how we can help.