SURVEY SAYS TASTE STILL DRIVES ORGANIC SHOPPING TRENDS

BARBARA MURRAY

BALTIMORE -- Sixty-eight percent of respondents to "Consumer Trends 2000," the annual study by the Food Marketing Institute, said they buy natural and organic items in their primary supermarket, while 19% buy them in a specialty market, which includes the "supernaturals" like Fresh Fields.

Janice Jones, research manager for FMI, Washington, D.C., gave newly pulled organic shopping facts at a session at the recent Natural Products Expo here to an audience evenly divided between retailers and product manufacturers.

Nutrition concerns have eased, with 65% answering in 1994 that they were very concerned, down to 46% now, except for organic shoppers, 72% of whom answered affirmatively. One-third of consumers say their diet is "healthy enough." Health statistics show that Americans continue to be overweight, and our restaurants are famed worldwide for their oversized portions. "Is concern with nutrition falling? Do you go on the high-protein diet? Do you eat butter, or switch to margarine, or switch back again? One response to the confusion is to say, 'I give up,' and just 'eat whatever,"' Jones said.

What's very important to consumers has stayed consistent, and that is that 89% said taste is important in a food. Seventy-one percent said nutrition, 71% also said product safety and 69% picked price. Price was also the leading factor in a shopper's decision to try a food for the first time. Thirty-nine percent of the shoppers would purchase a food for its health benefit, and, again, a high number -- 85% -- said they were unaware of nutraceuticals or "functional foods" as a term.

Top organic foods were vegetables (35%) and fruit (31%), with cereals, grains, meat and poultry lower.

"How consumers shop the supermarket" was the main theme, with information also pertaining to the organic- product shopper in particular. Organic/Natural Products shoppers were not asked if they bought organic products exclusively, but rather if they ever bought them or bought them frequently in the past year. Probably for that reason, Jones said, the group was not very different from all grocery shoppers in terms of household size, whether children are in the household, male shoppers (men buying organic/natural foods were 34% of those who responded, vs. 29% of all grocery shoppers); employed full time, college-educated and amount spent per week on food, which was $88.10 for the organic/natural shoppers and $84.90 for all grocery shoppers. Household size was marginally bigger for the organic/natural group, 2.9 persons vs. 2.7. They were somewhat, but not greatly, more likely to be employed full time and to have college educations. The group that seemed to be missing was consumers over age 65, which Jones said could be retired and therefore increased the size of the group not employed full time.

"Consumer Trends" is a study done annually by FMI, from a random sample of 2,000 people interviewed by telephone, and asked this year if they frequently or ever purchase organic products. This year, this was 29% of the total responding, and vegetarians were 7%.

One caution Jones pointed to was that this survey was done in January, "when everybody was feeling just marvelous about the economy," so some of the consumer optimism trends, such as "Let's eat out," are likely to be lower now.

Top factors in selecting a supermarket, which Jones said has not changed much over the years, is a clean, neat store as No. 1, high quality fruits and vegetables, high quality meat, and the "use by" date marked. Courteous employees and accurate shelf tags were also mentioned.

Accurate shelf tags, low prices and speedy checkout were rated as most important, with the last one most important to working mothers. But these were also the "low performance" issues, Jones said. and although the survey expressed a 8.2 (out of 10) for satisfaction, three things need improvement. They are customer service, more variety and store facilities. Jones said this is the first year customer service has been found lacking.

More than half of shoppers shop alone. One-fourth shop with another adult in the household, and less than one-third bring the children, especially those under age 6. Shopping with an adult not in the household indicates a transportation issue, she said. Reasons given for people to go elsewhere than their primary supermarket are: price, convenience, variety and quality, in that order.

Where are shoppers going? To discount stores like Wal-Mart and Kmart, to category killers like PetsMart or warehouse clubs, and to limited assortment stores, where 11% said they go.

When asked where they bought a certain item, such as non-prescription drugs, they said discount stores. For natural and organic items, 68% said in their primary supermarket; 19% in a specialty market, "like Fresh Fields," as Jones explained.

For Internet shopping, 10% of on-line shoppers said they buy grocery products. Some 25% of the population thinks the Internet is important, whether or not they have access to it. Similar to findings in other studies, the younger, more affluent people living in suburbs on the East or West coasts tended to use it more.

Jones said 76% of consumers are eating their main meal of the day out. It's the youngest age group, those less than 40 years old, who eat out the most. "Eating out often is really a part of the lifestyle," Jones said, and a trend that those in the grocery business always find "a little scary."