Two forces are simultaneously impacting consumer grocery shopping: elevated food prices and the popularity of weight-loss medications. While brands and consumers navigate these trends, Sonoco explored the current behavioral shifts and how they impact brands.
Every Grocery Purchase Becomes Deliberate
Impulse grocery purchases have all but disappeared. No longer seasonally stocking or overloading pantries, consumers are purchasing less and finishing those items before buying more. Creating a new baseline, this move to making smaller but more frequent purchases, reducing waste and scrutinizing items on the shelf has been reinforced by:
- An increase in eating food at home
- A decrease in the consumer sentiment index (consumer sentiment toward personal finances, business conditions and buying conditions)
- A larger increase in price growth than in volume growth
- A 50% increase in steel import tariffs
Today’s consumers, according to Circana’s 2025 tracking, are focused on value per bite. Following consumers’ lead as volume declines, canned food brands have a new opportunity: offering right-size packaging in smaller sizes. Taking advantage of this not only helps brands deliver more value but also positions can-packaged products as the obvious choice on grocery store shelves.
GLP-1s Create an Opportunity for Canned Goods
GLP-1 drugs are known to reduce appetites, decreasing calorie intake by 15-30%. As a result, consumers are eating less, eating less often and buying less food. This change alters their relationship with food and the center of the store. This is actually good news for brands willing to see the commercial opportunity.
GLP-1 medications reduce appetites across all nutrition, protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and empty calories, which provides an opportunity for food brands that offer exceptional nutritional value and empty-calorie snack foods.
Steel Can Packaged Goods Offer Essential Nutrients
When positioned correctly, steel packaged goods, like canned tomatoes and beans, can help consumers on GLP-1s manage their nutrient intake with some of the most nutrient-efficient foods offered in the grocery store due to:
- Being packed within hours of harvest
- Offering nutrient-dense, calorie-efficient foods
- Providing exceptional affordability
Paper Can Packaged Goods Offer High-Value Snacking.
While consumers on GLP-1 drugs may be consuming less empty-calorie snack food, they still desire snacks that deliver on value. Supporting the value-per-bite trend, paper cans offer customizable, smaller formats for snacks.
Sonoco Offers Brands Flexibility and Partnership.
Capitalize with the right format and the right price. Sonoco can help your brand move quickly, test new sizes, adjust pack configurations and scale what works within a single selling season. Equipped with domestic steel- and paper-can production, we can help you serve every part of the consumer shift.
Packaging goods for more than 126 years, we guide brands as strategic partners and suppliers with a deep knowledge of scale, market demands, can formats and commercial needs based on our extensive packaging experience.
