The Seafood Buyer's Shopping List

Who eats seafood? Well, the typical seafood consumer “tends to be affluent and suburban” Steve Lutz, Perishables Group executive vice president, said at a consumer trends seminar yesterday.

The kinds of seafood people eat also depend on variety of factors, such as income, family size, education and part of the country they live in—suburban, cosmopolitan, urban.

“Salmon is a rich man’s fish, at least according to consumers,” Lutz said.

Aside from food staples that everyone buys, like milk, bananas, and eggs, people who tend to buy certain kinds of fish often have similar kinds of shopping lists. The top ten items on the salmon buyer’s list are cheddar cheese, stone fruit, red peppers, spreads, onions, broccoli, cucumbers, raspberries, bakery cookies, and chicken breasts, Lutz said.

The catfish buyer’s list shows a more budget conscious consumer. The top ten items are American cheese, spreads, frozen veggies, chicken thighs, corn, green peppers, onions, grocery aisle cookies, stone fruit, strawberries. “These are not big fruit purchase buying households that are buying catfish,” Lutz said.