Retailers should be prepared for a modified continuation of some of the habits that have been picked up during this crisis. There will most likely be more price conscious shoppers in your stores looking for those value and dollar types of items that are most often found in center store grocery. Promotional strategies could shift on specific items or segments dependent on the impact the pandemic has had on them. For example, a segment may move from a historical high-low strategy to an EDL approach for a period of time or even longer term.
As far as what types of products may have a longer road getting back to normal supply levels, canned and dry/boxed goods as a whole has been heavily affected by consumer shopping due to the natural stock-up tendency towards products that have a long shelf life. Commodity based items like fruits and vegetables, dry beans, rice, pasta and peanut butter are being hit the hardest and are dependent on the yield of upcoming crops and some cases suffering today from prior poor crop yield. Additionally, dependent on raw materials, high volume value/dollar items like canned meat, canned pasta and ramen could be impacted.
As product selection has been reduced greatly within a lot of categories due to demand, we should expect to see more limited assortment sections as products recover. Manufacturers will evaluate their own portfolio and retailers should do the same to maximize their shelf space and product selection to get to best in class. Less may be more. Consumers will continue to look for many of the same items like value/dollar type items and easy inexpensive meal solutions as they try to recover from the economic downturn. Additionally, club pack and larger pack items could be better received within the grocery channel with the stock-up mentality fresh on their mind.
