Gen Z Loves Store Brands: America’s youngest consumers speak out on grocery shopping, stores & brands

2022 was a banner year for store brands across all U.S. retail channels. Powered by a double digit increase in dollar sales, nearly twice the rate of national brands, store brands set new records in annual dollar sales as well as dollar and unit shares. PLMA’s 2023 Private Label Report provides information on store brand and national brand sales in departments as well as select categories and subcategories. Members and retailers who want to dig deeper can go to IRI Unify's portal on plma.com.

Following unprecedented double digit dollar gains of 2020, and predictions from some experts that sales would inevitably fall in the year ahead, store brands held serve in 2021, as the products improved by 1%, according to IRI. Store brands’ annual dollar volume increased by $1.9bn, setting a new record of $199bn for sales in all U.S. retailing channels. National brands gained 2.7% in dollar sales, or $926.9bn, bringing overall industry revenue to $1.13tn, up 2.4% vs the previous year.

The Private Label Manufacturers Association has conducted what is believed to be the first nationwide survey on the habits and attitudes of SNAP participants towards shopping for food with their monthly benefits, with a particular focus on their purchase of store brand products. The purpose of the survey is to create a roadmap of ways retailers can encourage SNAP customers to spend more of their benefits on store brands with aggressive promotional strategies, especially during the first two weeks of each month when most states reload recipients’ EBT cards.

Private label and mass merchandisers were the big winners in a PLMA survey of consumer attitudes towards kitchenware and cookware products. Kitchenware and cookware sold by mass merchandisers, club stores and supermarkets under their own store brands have built a strong following among consumers.

It may be biggest strategic question facing food retailers today: How do you appeal to a huge new generation of grocery shoppers and turn them into loyal customers? PLMA’s new report “How America’s Eating Habits Are Changing” examines the ways millennial consumers are changing the rules for food marketing, and what store brands can learn from this important consumer group.

A new PLMA consumer study of buying behavior and preferences in deli, dairy and bakery shows that retailers and their store brands suppliers could be big beneficiaries of current trends in these fresh grocery departments.

The complete survey results

PLMA’s new landmark report “The Rise of Loyal Shoppers” shows a new generation of consumers has arrived and their views will change everything. Coming out of recession and living in tough economic times, today’s consumer is not the same shopper we used to know and many long-held assumptions are no longer true. This report, prepared exclusively for PLMA by Surveylab, examines those changes.

They have revolutionized the way we communicate with each other. They have created a world of “likes” and “friends” larger than all television audiences combined. And only 40% of them have reached the family-building, grocery-shopping age. Who are they? They are the Millennials and they are coming to a store near you – today, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future. For those who run supermarkets, drug chains and mass merchandisers, they are still enigmatic. Only the tip of the iceberg has surfaced. But waiting to see more is not a strategy.