More and more Quebecers and Canadians are using loyalty cards to pay for food, another sign that inflation is hurting the middle class.
More than 33% used points from one or another supermarket chain to pay for groceries, reveals a survey by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytical Sciences Laboratory in partnership with Caddle.
With the food inflation rate hovering around 10% for the past year, three out of four Canadians have changed the way they buy food.
“We see that consumers are struggling, they find all sorts of ways. There are many people who do not shop in the same way,” observes the director of the Laboratory, Sylvain Charlebois.
We also learn from the survey that more Canadians are now growing their own food. In Quebec, 13.7% have started to do so.
Flyers are also more popular than ever, with 32.1% of people saying they read them.
Loyalty as a weapon
While Canadians and Quebecers are turning more to loyalty programs, they are not all created equal.
In the supermarket sector, Loblaws ranks first, according to the firm R3 Marketing, which keeps an annual list.
PC Optimum ranks third, while Metro’s, metro&moi, ranks 10th.
The generosity is of course calculated in the prize list, but even more, we study the level of commitment of the customers as well as their affection for the said program.
“One of the best examples in the world is the Morrisons chain in England. It uses the data obtained on their customers to give more points on the basic products”, illustrates Hans Laroche, of R3 Marketing.
The supermarket chain has indeed recently modified its loyalty card system in the context of the cost of living crisis.
Some everyday necessities, such as dairy products and meat, allow you to obtain more points, for example.
“All the chains would benefit from doing the same thing, because it greatly increases people’s loyalty to the brand,” says Mr. Laroche.
“Troubling” data
The most “disturbing” conclusion of the survey, according to Sylvain Charlebois, is that there are many people who have decided to eat less to save money.
“We are talking about 30% of women and 18% of men. Some have taken extreme means, ”he notes.
In the “troubling” data column, we also find the fact that 6.6% of Canadians pay for their groceries with a credit card without knowing when they will be able to reimburse it.
Some of the habits that have changed
- 11.9% visited $1 stores more often to buy food
- 16.24% visited discount stores to buy food
- 20.6% used more coupons at the grocery store
- 28.86% used more loyalty program points to pay for groceries
- 26.68% read flyers more often
- 5.11% visited a roadside stall to buy directly from farmers
- 6.07% go to farmers’ markets more often
Source: Agri-Food Analytical Sciences Laboratory/Caddle Survey