New research reveals shoppers have pivoted to spend money where it counts.
While sales at big-box retail and department stores have suffered over the last year, grocery store visits have increased. A report compiled by Foursquare suggests the shift in consumer spending habits is the result of shoppers choosing to buy essentials over frivolous items they may not need.
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One-stop-shop concepts like Walmart showed the best performance. On average, customers visit grocery stores such as Kroger and Walmart once a week, while they visit specialty and organic stores like Whole Foods Market once every two weeks, Foursquare reports.
Walmart saw the most success in attracting consumers with 87% of U.S. consumers shopping at the retail giant last year. Despite Whole Foods having a smaller share of the market, its penetration did increase 12% year-over-year, likely due to Amazon's acquisition of the brand in June, which looked to bolster a previously slumping performance.
When it comes to loyal customers, H-E-B came in as having the highest number of repeat visits with customers spending an average of one-third of their total grocery visits at the store.
Stop & Shop came in second in the loyalty category, while Public, Giant Eagle and Kroger tied for third.
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