By Jim Brooks, FAPC Business and Marketing Services Manager

It was not that long ago when shopping for food at a local neighborhood grocery store was a weekly routine for families. Most stores were similar in their store structure, and items were in the same location of the store week-to-week.

That has since changed.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, millennials now out number the baby boomer generation. It is estimated the number of millennials, who are characterized as being 18 to 34 years old, has reached 75.3 million versus baby boomers, ages 51 to 69 years old, at 74.9 million.

Millennial shopping habits are more diverse than baby boomers. They have used technology from an early age and are adept at using mobile apps and the Internet to find the items they want to purchase. Large grocers are learning that millennials are different from the traditional grocery shoppers they have served for so many years. These shoppers prefer other options including online shopping.

This is not good news for the retail grocers who have invested decades of building a business model that served the needs of baby boomers, who generally buy the same brands from the same stores every week.

Millennials are not as loyal to specific brands or retailers, and according to a survey conducted by AlixPartners, millennials only make 41 percent of their food purchases at traditional grocery stores.

Traditional grocers are starting to understand in order to maintain their market share of the millennial generation, they must create a new model and provide a greater variety of items that attract them back to their stores.

Today’s grocer has to be aware and focused on where millennials shop, as well as what they purchase to compete with their choices in shopping habits.

Millennials spend as much time using their smart phone apps for researching prices as they do looking at products on the shelves. For them, shopping for food has more to do with the experience of visiting local farmers markets, specialty food stores or mass retailers like Target.

Research also indicates millennials are savvy shoppers and use coupons and shopper loyalty discounts when deciding where they elect to shop, and by using smartphone apps, they make choices before they leave home.

Traditional grocers are taking an aggressive approach in attracting the millennial shopper with instant in-store coupons, developing smartphone apps for weekly specials, self-checkout stations, providing locally grown fruits and vegetables, adding dietitians to assist in making healthy choices and in-store full-service restaurants. Grocers also are reviewing the products preferred by millennials and making those items available on a regular basis.

In order to maintain a strong customer base at the local neighborhood grocery store, traditional grocers must constantly monitor millennials’ shopping habits and be willing to compete in product selections and price.

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Oklahoma State University is a modern land-grant university that prepares students for success. OSU has more than 36,000 students across its five-campus system and more than 25,000 on its combined Stillwater and Tulsa campuses, with students from all 50 states and around 120 nations. Established in 1890, Oklahoma State has graduated more than 260,000 students who have been serving Oklahoma and the world for 125 years.