Jonna Parker, vice president of the fresh foods group at Circana, returned to “The Packer Podcast” to discuss evolving consumer behavior and how retailers’ 20th-century approach of “being all things to all people” is outdated. She says retailers need to stop assuming all consumers buy everything.
“The market is so much more fragmented, and frankly, every part of the marketplace ... is unique and is focused on a specific type of consumer who has a very specific need,” she says.
Retailers and marketers that understand that no two consumers are completely alike are “outperforming in growth and in market share trend versus the ones that are just trying to be all things to all people in the middle,” she adds.
While fresh produce is in the zeitgeist and consumer interest remains high, per-capita vegetable consumption has actually declined, Parker notes.
“That isn’t because people don’t want to eat more vegetables, more plants, more fruits, more all of what we do in produce,” she says. “It’s because they aren’t finding what they want.”
Parker says she’s “horrified” to see that the average produce department purchase includes one and a half categories with such a diversity of fruits and vegetables within the category.
“Given all that variety, there’s a ton of reasons and seasons and recipes and solutions in that one department alone,” she says. “How are we satisfied with each trip only having maybe one, maybe two items?”
Modern demand is driven by digital discovery, Parker says, pointing to the growth in kiwi sales, which has been driven by social media.
“In multiple high-visible platforms, kiwis were being recommended to help you sleep better,” she says.
While it’s exciting to see category growth and sales, Parker cautions that the produce industry needs to understand how to keep shoppers engaged as trends fade. A major consumer myth, she says, is that “nobody’s buying fresh produce online.”
“We found that in survey after survey ... about 8 out of 10 consumers say at some point throughout the year they’ll buy something in fresh produce [online],” she says.
And she says produce industry businesses that don’t capitalize on the online shopper miss out on “a very loyal and vital group in each category that online could be a differentiator for you.”
While agentic artificial intelligence and solutions-based shopping have begun to occupy a lot of the conversations about what the future of the fresh produce industry will look like, Parker says the produce industry needs to think about and plan how it will communicate the benefits of fresh produce to show up in AI-generated results.
“The future of fresh produce demand is about being ready for AI in the digital journey, and I need to make myself ready for it,” she says.
