Grocery Shoppers Are Visiting More—But Stocking Up Less

A few years ago, the weekly grocery run was a reliable engine of foot traffic for nonfood retailers across the US. A shopper would arrive on Saturday morning and push a cart through the aisles for an hour or so, then visit the pharmacy, the sporting goods store, or the dry cleaner. The math was simple: one long trip, multiple stops.

That math is changing, and it has implications for how businesses operate storefronts and plan new ones.

New data from market research firm Kantar shows that large stock-up grocery trips accounted for just a third of store visits in the first quarter of 2026, down from 39 percent in 2021. During the same period, same-day consumption trips—quick runs to pick up dinner ingredients or a forgotten household item—climbed to 30 percent of visits from 21 percent. Fill-in trips (the small midweek corrective purchases) now represent the largest single category at 37 percent.

For the regional pharmacy chain, the national coffee brand, or the fitness franchise sharing a parking lot with a grocery store, this shift resurrects an important question: What kind of shopper is walking past our front door?

Location analytics—and the GIS technology that powers it—offers a way to answer that question.

Two Shoppers, Two Different Opportunities

As the grocery experience shifts toward shorter, more purposeful trips, nearby retailers may find that their share of shoppers’ attention quietly erodes.

Location data offers a way to understand what’s really happening. A GIS analyst can use footfall data to explore which types of consumers visit shopping destinations. A site with a neighboring grocery store that draws primarily high-income households for long shopping trips represents a very different opportunity than one that draws middle-income earners who arrive and depart in 10 minutes.

For business leaders who manage existing portfolios, knowing how consumers’ behavior is changing can spur operational adjustments. A location that mainly draws short-errand grocery visitors might introduce promotions focused on speed and convenience—quick-pickup offers and loyalty incentives timed to high-frequency shopping days—rather than in-store experiences designed for browsers.

Location technology reveals the psychographic and income profile of the surrounding neighborhood, helping business leaders create a data-backed strategy.

Understanding What the Shift Means Before Signing a Lease

The Kantar data—combined with location intelligence—could be equally valuable for retailers or commercial real estate companies evaluating potential locations.

Cotenancy with a grocery store has long been treated as a favorable signal in site selection, since it implies a built-in customer base. But the new numbers on shopping habits suggest that the economics of that traffic—not just its volume—are changing. A site near a grocery store that generates 5,000 weekly visits averaging 10 minutes promises a different investment profile than one generating 3,000 visits of 35-minute duration.

One national wellness franchise included elements of this calculus in its expansion strategy. As WhereNext reported, the company used location analytics to score shopping centers on cotenancy suitability—flagging retailers associated with health-conscious habits and grading trade areas based on the concentration of core customer personas.

For retailers evaluating new leases or renewals near grocery stores, location technology can simulate what a continued shift toward short, purposeful grocery trips might mean for each candidate site. Demographic and psychographic analysis of the surrounding trade area can confirm whether a given grocery store draws the kind of shopper who lingers.

For retailers with fortunes tied to the traffic patterns of neighboring stores, location analytics is not a set-it-and-forget-it exercise. As Kantar’s data reminds us, some consumer habits change often, and only the business that regularly studies location data can keep up.