FMI’s December Grocery Shoppers Snapshot measured overall expectations, as well as household finances and food prices in the year ahead.
By: Steve Markenson, Vice President, Research & Insights, FMI
As we all turn the calendar from 2025 to 2026, we can now look forward to the new year and the second half of this decade. We checked in with shoppers one last time in 2025 and, in doing so, asked them to look ahead to 2026.
Our final Shopper Snapshot of 2025, conducted from December 2 to 7, surveyed 1,521 grocery shoppers regarding their overall expectations and those for their households in 2026. Here is what they told us:
2026 Expectations
- When asked about 2025, shoppers closed out the year offering their lowest levels of sentiment for the year, with 38% having negative feelings and 36% having positive feelings.
- However, shoppers’ expectations for the year ahead are much more positive. Just over one-half (53%) have positive expectations, such as hope, optimism, or excitement, while only 23% offer negative expectations, including concern, pessimism, nervousness, anxiousness, or worry.
Personal Finances
- Shoppers were twice as likely to say their personal finances are worse off, as opposed to better off, than they were one year ago (39% worse, 20% better).
- However, their expectations for their personal finances in the year ahead are more likely to be positive than negative, as 39% expect their personal finances to be better off by the end of 2026 and only 25% expect to be worse off financially by year’s end.
On Paying for Food
- Over the course of the past year, shoppers say their ability to buy the food they need has gotten worse (36%) as opposed to better (17%).
- But shoppers’ expectations for their ability to buy the food they need are more likely to be better (34%) than worse (24%) in the year ahead, with 42% expecting things to remain the same.
- Most shoppers (70%) do agree that grocery retailers try hard to provide options to help them stay within budget.
On Perceptions of Their Diet and Nutrition
- In retrospect, shoppers are divided as to how their diet and nutrition changed in 2025, with about one quarter (23%) saying it got better, about one quarter (27%) saying it got worse, and half (50%) citing little change in their diet and nutrition in 2025.
- As we are all making our New Year’s resolutions, 38% of shoppers expect to improve their diet and nutrition in the year ahead, and only 14% expect their diet and nutrition to be worse.
- Most shoppers (80%) say they believe their grocery stores do at least a good job at supporting their health and well-being, with an equally high proportion (84%) saying their store’s services in this area are valuable.
As we kick off this new year, like many of our shoppers, I am also choosing to try to stay optimistic that 2026 will be a better year. How are you feeling about the year ahead?
FMI will continue to monitor grocery shopper trends throughout 2026. Our first U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends Tracker will be released in just two weeks, coinciding with our Midwinter Executive Conference. Our annual comprehensive U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report is scheduled for release in May.
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