Research
Talking Points: How Will the Consumer Hold Up This Year?
How time flies. It’s a little later than normal, but in my first note of the year let me share some of the highlights from the latest annual readership survey. This time around I returned to the “We Didn’t See That Coming” theme by asking the readership: In the world of food, what surprised you the most over the last twelve months?
Three recurring themes from your responses caught my attention: 1) inflation, 2) the resilience of consumer spending, and 3) the collapse of the plant-based meat alternative market. I’ll discuss readers’ reactions to each of these topics in detail, plus share a quick-fire round of quotes on a range of subjects that were less easy to group together.