More than 12 million Australians buy fresh fruit and veg during the week, according to Roy Morgan Research, and 72 per cent buy these products at the supermarket, up from 68 per cent in 2001.
More than 1.5 million Australian grocery buyers (aged 14+) buy fruit and vegetables from a market or stall during an average week, but even the majority of these locally and organically minded, anti-GM, farmer-friendly shoppers take their totes to a supermarket’s produce section, too.
The data found 11 per cent of grocery buyers bought fresh fruit and vegetables at a market or stall in an average seven days in the 12 months to March 2015, unchanged over the past few years. For most of them, though, the brightly lit convenience of the supermarket remains a lure: 54 per cent also bought fruit and vegetables at a supermarket, including 29 per cent at Coles and 25 per cent at Woolworths.
A reverse of the inclination toward Coles among market shoppers, Woolworths has a slight lead among the general grocery-buying population: 5.2 million (36 per cent) buy fruit or veg at Woolworths in an average week, while 4.7 million (33 per cent) do so at Coles.
“It’s a clear indication of supermarkets’ ever-increasing dominance of the category that even people shopping at produce markets during the week can’t help but find themselves also buying some fruit and veg on their next supermarket trip,” Roy Morgan Research General Manager – Consumer Products Andrew Price said.
“Those buying their weekly fruit and veg at a market stall tend to be socially aware, higher-earning younger couples in their late-20s and early-30s, often without kids. They enjoy cooking, eating healthily and trying new things. They are cautious about genetic modification and almost 50 per cent more likely than the average to try to buy organic food when possible.
“To be truly competitive and generate satisfaction and long-term loyalty, supermarkets need to know not just what shoppers look like, do and buy once inside but where else they go, and why. Only by combining external, all-inclusive and multichannel research with internally collected data can retailers get a more comprehensive picture of their fruit and veg consumers in order to build strategies to attract and target them.”