Groceryshop 2026 concluded its three-day run at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on Sept. 24, drawing more than 4,000 retail leaders from grocery, convenience, pharmacy, dollar and club retail, along with brands, technology providers and startups. More than 30,000 co-matched business meetings took place through the event’s Meetup program.
Among more than 150 speakers, one message came through: the grocery basket is being reshaped from several directions at once. Three themes led the conversation: AI becoming the consumer’s first stop in the shopping journey; value being redefined by stretched budgets and GLP-1 medications; and retail media shifting from an advertising channel to a core part of the retail ecosystem.
“What we heard at Groceryshop 2026 is that the average grocery shopping cart is about to change more in the next few years than it has in decades as shoppers lean on AI assistants to support their meal planning and cart building, become more selective with their purchases, and in the rise of GLP-1 adoption, shift what and how much they consume,” said Rocquan Lucas, VP of content at Groceryshop. “That puts real pressure on grocers and brands to make their product data machine readable and deliver the right product and assortment for an evolving consumer.”
AI: from assistant to agent
Instacart CEO Chris Rogers opened the show declaring AI will transform grocery more than any technology shift to date, describing a future where shoppers ask for a healthy kids’ meal under $40 and get a full cart in seconds, built on their budget, usual store and what’s actually on the shelf.
DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang said shoppers using Ask DoorDash, its AI shopping assistant, now have baskets 50 percent bigger than orders placed without AI, check out five times faster and buy 60 percent more unique items, up from 35 percent bigger baskets at its June launch.
Kroger Chief Digital Officer Yael Cosset outlined the retailer’s AI strategy, while Dutch grocer Albert Heijn reported its in-app AI chef, Steijn, has 1.1 million active users who spend 56 percent more than non-users.
Shoppers appear ready: Accenture research found 75 percent of global consumers would trust an AI agent more than their best friend, and 56 percent of loyal shoppers would switch brands if their agent recommended a better option. But the data foundation is lagging. Incisiv research shared at the show found only 7 percent of enterprises have scaled AI throughout the business, and Fang called clean product data a “no regrets move,” noting almost 95 percent of DoorDash customers choose an item with a good product description over one without.
Value and wellness: every trip recalculated
Nicole Kalita, SVP and managing director of U.S. retail at NielsenIQ, said the “average shopper” no longer exists: financially stretched households now make up 33 percent of the U.S. population, up 17 percent since 2022, and grocery has lost $5 billion in trips over three years as shoppers move to club and mass.
“Consumers are no longer hunting for a deal, they’re assembling one,” she said.
GLP-1 medications are accelerating the shift toward protein, nutrition and cleaner labels.
“People are spending more money on food than ever before on less calories and less ultra-processed food,” said Talia Monroe, SVP of commercial growth at Chobani.
Sam’s Club EVP and Chief Merchant Myron Frazier pointed to value beyond price, noting the club charges the same price online as in clubs with no delivery upcharge.
Retail media: the store becomes the screen
Independent analyst Andrew Lipsman called in-store retail media a $20 billion opportunity, noting stores capture 5 percent of consumer time but just 0.1 percent of ad spend. “Grocery is the new TV, or at least it can be,” he said, citing CVS Media Exchange’s 26,000 new point-of-sale devices and a Dove campaign that drove a 51 percent new-to-brand lift.
Measurement remains the sticking point: eMarketer research previewed at the show found only 31 percent of retail media leaders are confident their revenue is truly incremental, and per Kantar, just 22 percent of brands are confident they can measure return on investment. Jacques Hagopian, senior VP of brand operations at P&G, called for 12- to 18-month joint plans lining up supply, in-store display and media: “Where we drive the growth, there is unlimited budget.”
Announcements at the show
News from the event included:
- Gopuff joining the Instacart Marketplace and adopting Instacart’s Carrot Ads;
- Kroger’s AI strategy and “grocery as a managed service” vision;
- DoorDash’s new Brand Center platform for CPG teams; and
- California Pizza Kitchen’s frozen appetizer line with Golden West Food Group, due in stores next year.
Related: Groceryshop Outlook: GLP-1s, Retail Media, AI Top List