Food Sourcing in America 2025: Fragmentation and Focus
Despite pockets of great success, the American packaged food industry is arguably underperforming. Food service has grown twice as quickly as food at retail in the past 10 years, and retailers are battling for their slice of a seemingly shrinking pie.
“Food Sourcing in America 2025” illuminates the shifting world of food shopping, uncovering where stores and brands can better align with evolving shopper needs. The report includes channel- and retailer-specific dashboards, plus a new proprietary segmentation. These rich insights will inform optimized tactics, positioning and planning so you can obtain the right shopper’s attention, attract their food dollars and, ultimately, their loyalty.
Published June 2025 | U.S. market coverage | 111 slides
- Executive summary
- General report (PowerPoint and PDF)
- Demographic data tables (Excel)
- Primary quantitative research: Online national survey fielded April 27-May 1, 2025, n=2,282 U.S. adult primary shoppers aged 18-79. Margin of Error (MOE) ±2.1 pts at 95% confidence level.
- Primary qualitative research: Digital ethnographies: n=14 participants. Week-long immersive engagement (journaling, prompts, photos and videos) via asynchronous virtual platform. Follow-up in-depth interviews: n=7 selected from digital ethnography participants for 60-minute 1-on-1 interviews.
- Methodology
- Executive summary
- Cultural landscape of shopping
- Food sourcing dynamics
- Shopping by channel
- Food Shopping Strategies
- Food shopping styles
- Key implications and recommendations
- Appendix: Channel and retailer scorecards
- Channels:
- Mass
- Grocery
- Discount
- Specialty/Natural
- Drug
- Club
- Dollar
- Convenience
- Online
- DTC
- Retailers:
- Walmart
- Target
- Kroger
- Albertsons
- Ahold Delhaize
- Whole Foods
- Trader Joe’s
- Costco
- Sam’s Club
- Aldi
- Dollar General
- Dollar Tree
- Family Dollar
- CVS
- Walgreens/Rite Aid
- Amazon/Amazon Fresh
- Channels:
- Fragmented sourcing. What are the key reasons for multi-store shopping? Has the possibility of meeting all consumer needs in a single store finally evaporated?
- Value and deal-seeking. Do price-wary shoppers now add trips to find deals, or do they consolidate trips to stores selected for overall value?
- Online shopping. How have digital apps changed trip planning? How has the rise of online browsing altered the pathway to product trial?
- Private brands spotlight. In which channels might private brands be embraced as equivalent to national brands? Which consumers choose where to shop based on private brands?
- Shopper segments. Which shopper segments are most likely to shop certain channels? What sorts of in- and out-of-store communication tools resonate best with each shopper type?
