Americans are not feeling very positive about grocery, restaurants

For just the second time in nearly a quarter century, consumers aren’t feeling very happy about grocery stores, according to the latest Gallup Work and Education survey. 

Americans usually express positive sentiment about the grocery retail landscape. On average since the Gallup ratings launched in 2001, the grocery industry averaged 52% positive ratings to 21% negative.

The latest survey paints a different picture. Those surveyed gave more of a negative response (47%) rather than a positive one (33%). Last year, 41% felt very positive or somewhat positive about grocery, while 30% had a negative feeling.

Publishing (seven-point swing), grocery (eight points), and restaurants (nine points) lost the most positive support among the 24 categories tracked this year. Sports claimed the top spot with an 11-point swing upward.

The Gallup survey was conducted between Aug. 1 and Aug. 20 and asked Americans whether their opinions of various U.S. industries or business sectors are very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative, or very negative.

Grocery’s 17-point increase in negative ratings between 2023 and 2024 is one of the biggest year-to-year increases Gallup has measured.

The only other time grocery saw a more negative tone came in 2008 during the Great Recession when inflation was also high.

High food prices and a high rate of product recalls are the two main reasons behind the poor score.

However, at-home food inflation is stabilizing. The latest Consumer Price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed food-at-home prices were flat in August after ticking up just 0.1% in July. Year-over-year grocery prices are up just 0.9%, compared to 1.1% in July, marking the 17^th month in a row in which restaurant prices outpaced grocery prices.

Menu prices moved up 0.3% in August compared to 0.2% in July, but food away from home prices are 4% higher than they were a year ago.

Additionally, product recalls have plagued the grocery sector over the last few weeks. Sliced deli meat is behind the worst Listeria outbreak in over a decade which has claimed nine fatalities so far. Boar’s Head’s plant in Jarratt, Va., produced the contaminated meat and was closed on July 31. The company also decided to stop making liverwurst.