Consumers are bored with food, and retailers need to stretch their imaginations and create a “wow” experience to keep people coming back to shop, Phil Lempert, the Supermarket Guru and SN contributing editor, told listeners at the Supermarket News Health and Wellness Summit at Expo West in Anaheim, Calif.
Citing a consumer panel is which respondents said supermarkets have dumbed down their selection, Lempert said,  “People want to buy food from companies that stand for something, and retailers have to figure out how to attract business in that environment.”
Manufacturers also have to figure out how to design products that will appeal to a changing consumer base, he added.  “If you’re designing food for white people, you will fail,” Lempert declared.
With an increased number of similar items proliferating on store shelves and  fewer brands dominating each category, “the industry is imploding,” he said — particularly as supermarkets continue to see their market-shares shrinking.
According to Lempert, the market share for traditional grocery stores will fall nearly 3% by 2018, to 36.2%, while non-traditional grocery retailers will increase their share more than 1% to 40.1%; convenience stores will grow share more than 1% to 16%; fresh formats will grow nearly 1% to 2.1%; and dollar stores will grow 0.5% to a 3% share.
For the industry to cope with change, “retailers need to get out in front of trends and capture them — to think about what the consumer is thinking and act accordingly,” Lempert said, possibly by catering to the growing demand for more organic and natural offerings.
He cited studies of what determines where health-conscious consumers shop, which indicated 43% of respondents said they base their decisions on availability of organic offerings; another 43% want whole grain products; 32% look for locally grown foods; 29.5% want non-GMO products; and 28.7% want natural foods.
Lempert also said consumers are likely to become confused once the 2015 revised dietary guidelines go into effect, particularly guidelines about added sugars and those that occur naturally and also removal of recommendations about cholesterol.