Recessionary Shopper Behaviour a Non-Story in Canada. Sorry.

We're desperate to report some news on how shoppers are making dramatic changes to their their shopping habits because of the recession.

Problem is that they haven't here in Canada.

Sure there are some changes but we are not seeing the kind of channel shifts to supercentre and dollar stores that they see at the moment in America.

We just completed our 2009 World of the Shopper research and do not see dramatic changes to channel choice. We see some more pre-planning (flyer checking has increased) and shifts in trip triggers. We can see some greater focus on pricing and we also see a higher value stock up trip while quick trips remain flat.

Oh, and by the way, in the last issue of Canadian Grocer Nielsen is reporting that that private label is not disproportionately growing here either.

Sorry. I know everyone wants some news about the recession. And I know journalists are trying to fill pages with anecdotal stuff about 'recessionistas' but the fact is that we haven't changed much. When people are skeptical I ask them simply "what have you changed?". Usually there is some micro and in store behaviour but not major shifts.

Synovate Aztec to Challenge AC Nielsen in Canada

Synovate Aztec have been looking at the Canadian market for some time. Their seriousness at mounting a challenge to AC Nielsen's Marketrack has been confirmed by the announcement that they have just hired Dave Mann - who was, until recently Sr. V.P. Marketing & Sales at Nielsen.

IRI looked at the Canadian market in the 1990's and succeeded in forcing Nielsen to remove exclusive contracts that prevented retailers providing transactional data to anyone else.

They eventually were unable to create an alternative to Nielsen's service in Canada. It was reported that they did force Nielsen to improve their service at the time in response to the challenge.

We'll see the result of Aztec's challenge. It comes at an interesting time as Nielsen recently recently restructured in Canada, letting go of a large number of staff.

Whatever happens it'll be fun to watch. These guys are not friends.