NEW YORK — Consumers are increasingly turning to online tools to compare prices on grocery items, according to Deloitte’s 2010 Consumer Food Safety Survey.
The survey found that 33% of respondents subscribed to receive emails, recipes and/or coupons directly from food manufacturers and companies, a 6% increase from Deloitte’s 2008 Consumer Food Safety Survey.
Twenty-three percent of respondents said they visited a food company's website to find product information and 23% also made a food purchase as a result of something they read online. In line with the 2008 results, 36% of consumers said they have visited a food company's website to get recipes, compared with 35% in 2008.
Seven percent of people who took the survey said they have used their mobile/smart phone while in a store for a variety of reasons including to: compare prices (53%), get/redeem coupons/discounts (44%) and obtain nutritional information (28%). Women were more likely to focus on using their phones to receive further nutritional information, while men were more aggressive in bargain hunting and redeeming coupons using their phones.
The survey also found that store brands are preferred over name brands, with 52% of those surveyed saying they frequently or always purchased store brands when shopping packaged or bottled food items.
Among respondents who purchase store brands, 75% currently purchase them because they are less expensive than national-brand food products.
Fifty-five percent of those surveyed currently purchase store brands because the quality is believed to be comparable to national-brand food products, an increase of 14% since 2008, while 6% say the quality is better than national-brand food products.
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