Canadian Grocers Respond To Consumers
Ray Van Eng (06/03/96)
Recognizing evolving consumer lifestyles and family structures, the Canadian
Council of Grocery Distributors sees the future of grocery shopping to
change dramatically in the coming years.
What used to be a nucleus family with dad as a bread-winner and mom staying home taking care of the kids have largely been displaced by single parent homes or dual income households with both the man and woman working. Time becomes a precious commodities among these consumers. And often, kids are either actually shopping for groceries or have great influence in purchasing decisions as their parents are out earning a living.
At the annual conference held in Victoria, BC at the end of May, speakers from the CCGD and IBM Canada have proclaimed the increasing use of interactive delivery channels like the Internet as a way to establish new relationships with the grocery buying public.
As a matter of fact, more and more food retailers are having web sites set up to entice the consumers with their products, and offer downloadable recipes for the taking. In the future, these web sites may even feature interactive multimedia cooking lessons or you might be able to take part in contest and obtain electronic coupons.
Virtual shopping is also on the minds of many supermarket operators and food retailers. As more and more consumers going online, the CEO of IBM Canada, Khalil Barsoum predicts that retailers would probably use the web to complement their existing supermarket stores and offer the busy households to shop at home via a PCs and have the grocery delivered.
Also in the news, one of the pioneers in the world wide web based home shopping services, Peapod LP, is about to expand their virtual supermarket business from their mainstays in Chicago and San Francisco to other metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Seattle, New Jersey, Boston, Los Angeles etc. Peapod which has associations with Safeway and Jewel Food Stores can be reached at http://www.peapod.com.
