Building on 20 years of shopper research and insights, our newest study to launch examines how Americans shop for and procure foods and beverages today. From in-store to online grocery shopping to foodservice, Food Sourcing in America 2022 examines the impact of the pandemic (and adjustments made since) in terms of food sourcing as well as emerging consumer considerations due to inflation, supply chain disruptions, and global events.

The Hartman Group’s Food Sourcing in America research series has tracked food shopping (and, more broadly, food sourcing) trends over the past two decades. Our most recent Food Sourcing report, released at the height of the pandemic in 2020, found that COVID-19 had introduced unprecedented disruptions to how consumers procure food, including disturbances to the supply chain, changes to how they plan their shopping trips and physically move through the store (Figure 1), and a meteoric rise of online shopping paired with a sudden interruption to restaurant dining.

Figure 1: How Has Food Sourcing Changed?
From 2020: COVID-19 and the In-Person Grocery Shopping Journey
Source: Food Sourcing in America, July/August 2020, The Hartman Group, Inc. (click to enlarge)

Continuing where previous research left off, our newest Food Sourcing study examines the pandemic’s residual impact and emerging considerations due to inflation, supply chain disruptions, and global events.

As many external factors continue to impact consumer behavior, shoppers now traverse a hybrid world of in-store and online grocery shopping, seek inspiration from an ever-growing range of sources, consider a plethora of direct-to-consumer and subscription models, and dip in and out of a changing foodservice landscape. Food Sourcing in America 2022 will serve as a guide to know and understand shoppers’ evolving aspirations, attitudes, and behaviors in this ever-changing world.

Food Sourcing in America 2022 will update relevant data sets surrounding food shopping and sourcing as well as explore external factors that are impacting consumers’ food shopping today.

The study will provide a comprehensive understanding of shopping behavior at the broad level of landscape and culture as well as at the level of channel and retailer, including:

• Basic shopping behaviors and habits
• Cultural context and shopping trip dynamics
• Role of online and foodservice in the hybrid shopping environment
• Channel engagement, perceptions, and performance
• Product discovery in the hybrid world
• Budget management while mitigating inflation