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For Immediate Release January 29, 2009
Contact: Cristi Allen
callen@decisionanalyst.com
Phone: 817-640-6166

Arlington, Texas—Recession-weary grocery shoppers increasingly are turning to less expensive store brands and to coupons, according to a nationwide survey by Decision Analyst, a leading international marketing research and analytical consulting firm.

Decision Analyst’s Health and Nutrition Strategist™, an ongoing survey of 4,000 U.S. grocery shoppers per year, clearly indicates that consumers are under financial pressure and are modifying their shopping patterns. For example, comparing results from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the same results in the fourth quarter of 2008, it is evident that many consumers are shifting to store brands, and many are relying more heavily on coupons, as shown below:

"With the recession in full swing, consumers are increasingly looking to cut their grocery expenses by either using coupons or buying less expensive brands," said Diane Brewton, Senior Vice President of Decision Analyst and an expert on shopping trends in the U.S. "It is interesting that more consumers appear to be enjoying shopping for groceries because of the recession. We think this is a result of consumers feeling better about themselves because they are taking actions to save money. Shopping is more of a challenge in tough times, and leads to a greater 'sense of accomplishment,'" Brewton said.

"The recession gives retailers a historic opportunity to expand their private label business, if they can create and consistently deliver high-quality private label brands," according to Brewton. "This is often difficult because retailers seldom invest enough money in consumer product testing to optimize their private label brands, and few retailers have adequate private-label, quality control monitoring systems. But if retailers can get their act together, they could achieve major private label gains during 2009, and hold those gains even after the economy improves."

Methodology

Decision Analyst's Health and Nutrition Strategist™ survey is conducted online using its American Consumer Opinion® panel (www.acop.com). This continuous study is based on a statistically representative sample of the U.S. adult population. The survey results reported above are accurate to three percentage points, plus or minus, at a 95% level of confidence. The Health and Nutrition Strategist™ is a massive, integrated knowledge base of food and beverage consumption, restaurant usage, health habits, and nutritional trends.

About Decision Analyst

Decision Analyst (www.decisionanalyst.com), based in Dallas-Fort Worth, is a leading global marketing research and analytical consulting firm specializing in advertising testing, strategy research, new product development, and advanced modeling for marketing decision optimization. The 30-year-old firm delivers competitive advantage to clients throughout the world in the consumer packaged goods, retail, medical, and pharmaceutical industries. In addition, Decision Analyst operates American Consumer Opinion® Online, one of the world’s largest online panels with more than seven million consumers.

For additional information contact:
Cristi Allen
Publicity
Email: callen@decisionanalyst.com
Phone: 1-800-ANALYSIS (262-5974) or 1-817-640-6166
Address: 604 Avenue H East
Arlington, TX 76011

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