“Health and wellness” has never been more important for Americans and for the suppliers of the foods they eat to help them meet their personal better-for-you goals.
Millennials are thinking differently about their health than older generations, and the shift suggests some interesting potential opportunities for retailers, according to Barrington, Ill.-based consultancy Brick Meets Click.
The pandemic has highlighted tremendous opportunities for technology to solve continuing challenges impacting consumer behavior in fresh, said Muntazir Mehdi, senior product manager for analytics and AI for Toronto-based Invafresh, whose technologies are currently being used in more than 25,000 grocery stores in 15 countries.
Highly perishables now make up 39% of grocery stores, and produce alone is nearly 24%. These items have a short lifespan and are ripe for waste if not purchased. And food waste is expensive: shrink costs retailers $52 billion annually.