More recently, Target has focused on making its grocery assortment reflect the retailer's broader identity around style, trends and product discovery.Bill Wilson
Consumers are becoming increasingly selective about what they eat, putting pressure on retailers and food manufacturers to give shoppers a compelling reason to put a product in their baskets.
Chad Lusk, partner and managing director at Alvarez & Marsal Consumer Retail Group, said at Groceryshop 2026 in Las Vegas on Tuesday many of the forces reshaping food — healthier eating, functional ingredients, smaller eating occasions and increased scrutiny of value — have been developing for years. What has changed is the speed.
GLP-1 medications, Lusk said, have accelerated an existing movement toward consumers eating less while expecting more from the food they do consume. He compared the impact to the way the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated grocery ecommerce.
The result is a consumer increasingly asking whether a food is "worth having."
"Every bite needs to matter," Lusk said.
That shift is influencing Target's approach to its food and beverage business.