Dissecting the Decline: Factors That Shifted the U.S. Grocery Landscape in First-Quarter 2017

For U.S. grocery retailers and some of the country’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturers, the year has gotten off to a rocky start. Growth in the first three months of 2017 was slow for many categories across the store, and as a result, manufacturers have trimmed their once-plentiful marketing and advertising budgets.
The softness and slowed growth clearly illuminates how the U.S. retail landscape is in the midst of the fastest transformation it’s seen in modern history. Within the first quarter of 2017 alone, sales of FMCG at U.S. brick-and-mortar retail stores were nearly $3 billion lower than in the same period in 2016. On the positive side, however, employment rates are improving, average incomes are rising and consumer confidence is steadily increasing quarter over quarter. Nielsen – Read more…​