These days, there is no such thing as the average grocery shopper.
That’s according to three research reports released April 30 by media agency Schaefer that separate shoppers into social-first, TV-first and streaming-first food and beverage buyers.
“These three categories of buyers are not a spectrum. They are three structurally different advertising problems, each one requiring a different channel strategy, a different creative approach and a different measurement framework,” said Sidnee Schaefer, the agency’s CEO. “Most 2026 F&B media plans treat them like one.”
CPG and food and beverage brands are a quarter into their 2026 media plans and finding that they are wrong in three different ways at once, according to Schaefer.
They are overspending on linear TV where their audience is leaving; underspending on streaming where their audience has already arrived; and measuring social advertising on click-to-purchase metrics when the actual conversion is a store trip that happens days later.
Three distinct shoppers
- Social-first shopper – The social-first food and beverage shopper discovers products through feeds, follows and viral “moments.” These shoppers are impulse-driven, highly receptive to user-generated content-style creative and have the shortest path from discovery to purchase of any segment. What most brands get wrong is measuring this buyer on return on ad spend instead of in-store lift, which understates the channel’s value and leads to chronic underspending.
- Traditional TV-first shopper – The TV-first food and beverage shopper is shaped by decades of broadcast advertising. These shoppers respond to brand familiarity, consistent messaging and the authority signals that come from mass-market presence. This is the audience most big brands are still overindexed on, even as the segment shrinks and ages out of peak grocery spend.
- Streaming-first shopper – The streaming-first food and beverage shopper sits between social and linear. These shoppers have opted out of broadcast television but have not fully shifted to social-driven discovery. They are increasingly reachable through connected TV and streaming ads and represent a growing share of premium food and beverage buyers that most media plans are underfunding.
Seth Waite, chief strategist at Schaefer, said this segment represents the biggest gap between what brands know and what they do.
“The streaming-first shopper represents the most underfunded opportunity in F&B media right now,” Waite said. “Brands know CTV is growing. Most still haven’t moved budget to match.”
About the research
The reports were produced by Schaefer’s in-house research team, covering U.S. food and beverage shoppers and are published free with no email gate. The reports are interactive, self-guided and available at schaefer.co/reports.
Schaefer is a media agency working with CPG brands, restaurant groups and direct-to-consumer food and beverage companies on campaign strategy, paid media execution and research-led creative.
[RELATED: Online Grocery Sales To Reach $452 Billion By 2028, New Report Finds]