Evolving trends on the high street: How are general shopping trends developing, now and in the future?

Mark Thomson, TNS Worldpanel
March 2006

Over the last 6 years in Scotland, just over 1,200 small local independent businesses have closed on the high street. So what is driving this change? We are increasingly cash-rich and time-poor; as a result we try to redress the balance by spending money to buy time. Hence the growth of chilled convenience foods, where someone else has done a large proportion of the meal preparation for you, at a cost. Increasingly, major multiples are now fulfilling this requirement for consumers.

Mark’s talk highlighted the ways in which consumers are evolving, and how major multiples are increasingly meeting consumer trends with their own private label brands in store. It examined the latest trends in shopper missions, healthy eating and ‘premiumisation’. Are campaigns such as ‘5 a day’ really having an impact on consumers’ consumption of fruit and vegetables? Is eating in, becoming the new eating out?

Mark Thomson is a Consumer Insight Director for TNS Worldpanel, based in Edinburgh. He has worked with many of the UK’s major retailers and manufacturers in developing their customer proposition, and providing insights into their current brands and categories.

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