Grocery store bakeries are often thought of as cake and dessert destinations. However, FMI — The Food Industry Association’s most recent Power of In-Store Bakery report shows that 75% of shoppers “always or sometimes” include bread or rolls in their meal plan while just 62% give bakery desserts the same consideration. The trade group said that these findings indicate that the weekday meal is “bakery’s clearest path to frequency.”
While bread and rolls are the “everyday anchor,” the utility of the bakery department’s offerings is expanding, with breakfast, portable snacks and meal assembly all giving bakery a role in the weekday, not just celebrations, FMI noted, citing insights from cultural intelligence research partner Nichefire.
Over two-thirds of surveyed shoppers said it is “very or somewhat” important for their primary supermarket to have an in-store bakery, and 50% of consumers said they buy bakery items from their main grocery store. But other channels, such as standalone bakeries and coffee shops, are points of leakage for grocers, especially with younger consumers, making it crucial to keep the bakery department evolving, FMI said.
One area grocers can address is the cultural assortment gap, according to the report. More than 60% of shoppers want cultural and ethnic bakery items, but only 44% of surveyed consumers believe their store offers them. This gap is the widest among Generation Z and millennials.
However, the report suggests that grocers lean into comfort classics before diving into cultural ones. Familiar comfort foods like peach cobbler, pound cake, red velvet cake and cornbread have higher consumer demand than cultural staples like baklava and tres leches cake, FMI said. Because consumer demand is regional and format-led, grocers should approach this gap locally when adding cultural items, the report noted.
Though health and nutrition may not seem like a factor in the bakery aisles, FMI’s research found that better-for-you eating trends are influencing everyday bakery purchases. More than three-quarters of surveyed shoppers said health or nutrition shapes daily bakery purchases like bread and rolls, and nearly 60% said the same for indulgent baked goods. More than 70% of shoppers pay mind to at least one nutrition-related callout when buying everyday bakery goods. Whole grains, multi-grains and the absence of artificial ingredients top this list, FMI reported.
The Power of In-Store Bakery consumer report is based on a survey of 1,519 U.S. grocery shoppers that was conducted between Aug. 1-8.
