Proximity, affordability, and diversity might all be things taken into account when picking one’s favorite grocery store—but the defining factor is something else entirely.
According to the recently published 2026 State of Fresh Grocery Shopping Report by consulting company Logile, American grocery shoppers are looking for freshness above all when picking out a store, and deciding if they will return.
The report’s findings reveal that a store’s reputation and loyalty is mostly built around its fresh departments like produce, meat, dairy, and bakery. Of the 1,000 Americans surveyed in March 2026, 91% said that the fresh departments were a highly influential factor for determining trust in a store.
“The data confirms what we see across our retail partners every day: fresh departments are a trust engine, not a cost center,” Purna Mishra, Founder and CEO of Logile, said in a statement.
Respondents also shared a negative response to produce that looked old or spoiled on display, with 43% of them saying it quickly eroded their trust in the store. Other trust eroding factors include unpleasant odors and dirty displays, underscoring the importance of sensory and visual elements.
The opinions on the freshness is also driving consumer behaviors. The report found that 78% of respondents chose stores with better looking fresh produce departments, with 25% of them doing it frequently. The inverse effect is also true, with 84% of respondents saying that poorly maintained fresh produce departments change their views on the store entirely.
The freshness factor seems to be particularly important to parents, with almost half choosing a store based on fresh departments, whereas non-parents are more likely to use price as a defining factor.
“When shoppers walk into a store and see full, well-maintained displays of fresh food, they make an instant judgment about the quality of the entire operation,” Mishra added. “That judgment drives where they shop, what they spend, and whether they come back.”
