What it is
FMI, the food retailers’ association, with fieldwork by the Hartman Group.
The 2014 study surveyed 2,116 US primary shoppers aged 18 to 74 in a 25-minute online questionnaire on the Harris panel, with ethnographic interviews alongside. It recorded the share of trips going to the primary store falling from 77% in 2005 to 73% in 2014 and observed that shoppers were withdrawing from the idea of a primary store altogether.
Its other observation is the one the report uses: that younger shoppers plan a trip around what they want to eat rather than what they want to keep in stock, so a trip is more often about building a meal than restocking the pantry.
What the commerce leader should take from it
- The mission, not the store, was already the unit of the trip a decade ago. The 2026 edition’s 5.4 banners a month is the same story eleven years on.
- Planning backwards from the plate is the dinner mission finding 1.3 is about.
- The data are from 2014. Use the study for the shape of the change, never for a current share.
Where to start
Read it beside the 2026 shopper study to see the direction. The report never cites its numbers as current; it cites the structural point that a trip starts with a meal, which is why the recipe that puts its ingredients in the cart matters.
Keep in mind
Fielded in 2014; the shares are a decade old and are used only for the structural distinction.
Where the report uses it
Read during the report design; not cited in a finding or a perspective yet.