Survey Results

The following data was compiled by measuring the responses to our anonymous survey powered by Qualtrics using the built-in Report functionality. Data was collected over the course of roughly 1.5 weeks. Some visualizations were modified to better fit the type of questions and data, but no data was modified in the process.

Notes:

• Some questions have fewer responses. All questions except for an initial consent were optional, so users could opt to bypass some questions. 

• Some questions were iteratively updated or added to the survey over the course of the response period as respondents provided helpful feedback. 

  • None of the changes to the survey caused already-collected data to be removed, but it is possible that some answers may have slightly changed had respondents been able to re-access their surveys after questions or options were added.

  • No response options were changed, but some were added.

Insights

1. Over half of respondents encounter a missing (88%) or expired ingredient (76%) while cooking at least sometimes. (Q1)

2. Respondents were most likely (33%) to use an alternate ingredient when this occurred.  (Q2)

3. 60% respondents do not know which foods or ingredients they have that will expire this week. (Q3)

4. However, respondents were most likely to be confident about what and how much is in their refrigerator (48%), compared to pantries (38%) and freezers (37%). (Q3)

5. Most respondents buy duplicate groceries (77%) or forget to buy groceries (72%) because of a lack of awareness of their current inventory levels less than half the time. (Q4)

6. Meijer (mean rank of 3.84), Kroger (mean rank of 4.61), and local chains (mean rank of 4.15) were the most popular grocery stores among the sample, with 1 meaning most popular. (Q5)

Note that respondents were largely located in or near Michigan. This finding may not able to be generalized to a wider national population.

7. 66% of respondents also store non-food items in their pantry, such as napkins and paper products, bags, foil,  cooking appliances, cook books, and a wide variety of kitchen and cooking accessories. (Q6)

8. 54% of respondents do not use anything to track their pantry, fridge, and freezer inventory. (Q7)

9. Of the minority that did, the most popular solutions were non-specific paper lists (21%),  notes mobile apps (12%), and memory (3%). (Q7)

Taken together, this presents a potential gap that an application could solve for.

10. 88% of respondents have never used a food tracking application to plan their grocery shopping. (Q8)

This means that any app entering that market needs to have a strong differentiator or value proposition to get users to try one.

11. Of respondents who have used such an app, favored features included estimated checkout cost, checklists, meal planning, and specifying where in the store to find a particular item. (Q8a)

12. Of respondents who have used such an app, pain points included mistakes in adding items to carts instead of shopping lists, not indicating where to find an item in the store, the list not being updated by spouses, and how clunky and time consuming using the app is. (Q8b)

This may present an opportunity for a differentiator: ease of use.

13. 73% of respondents HAVE used their phone to scan QR codes, barcodes, and UPCs, and 64% of those users did not encounter issues in doing so. (Q9 and Q9a)

14. Among respondents who HAVE had challenges scanning UPCs, the most common challenge (52% of responses) was when the UPC did not find an item in the inventory. (Q9a)

15. Favored potential features in a pantry management app include (from Q10):

    • Managing non-food inventory items (see question 6)

    • Grocery list

    • Expiration date tracker

    • Barcode scanner

    • Auto-sync to store apps

    • Push notifications when items run out

16. The predominant age groups who responded are 36-50 (48%) and 26-35 (30%). This lines up fairly well with age groups who are more likely to use cell smartphones per statista. (Q11)

This means these are likely the age ranges to target for a pantry management smartphone application.

17. Over 2/3 of respondents identified as women. (Q12)

Women are also more likely to be the primary grocery shopper in multi-person households per statista. Combined with the previous question, our primary target demographic will likely be women between the ages of 26-50.

18. The vast majority (74%) of respondents were employed full-time. (Q13)

19. The mean household size for respondents was 3.88. (Q14)