Millennial Dads Take on Household Grocery Shopping

DENVER — Men are becoming a more and more common sight in grocery aisles. Millennial dads in particular are taking on the role of chief grocery shopper in their households.

A newly released consumer study from mobile shopping app Ibotta, which analyzed the shopping behavior of more than 90,000 dads since 2013, showed that millennial fathers increased their number of grocery purchases by 62 percent since 2013.

The younger fathers in this age group (aged 18-24) are purchasing 25 percent more groceries than dads in older generations. The share of groceries purchased by millennial moms decreased by 2.4 percent during the same time span.

“The data suggests that millennial dads are playing an increasingly bigger role at home, taking on more domestic responsibilities such as household shopping,” said Bijal Shah, vice president of analytics and data products for Denver-based Ibotta, which pays consumers cash back on their everyday purchases. “This marks a generational shift from older fathers who embraced traditional gender roles, and is bolstered by mobile-enabled commerce and younger dads’ savviness with smartphones and shopping apps.”

Dads in general are making more trips to buy groceries each month — up nearly 5 percent since 2013. The number of grocery trips among moms has slightly increased.

In terms of products purchased, dads are 11 times more likely than moms to purchase Busch Light beer and 10 times more likely to buy golden rum for themselves. Men are also making more protein-related purchases than women, with men being more than six times as likely to buy Johnsonville Sausage Original Brats and more than four times as likely to buy Zone Perfect Nutrition Bars and PowerBars.

The study also found that alcohol purchase behavior shifts amongst fathers as more kids enter the picture. Dads with two kids buy more alcohol than any other group, over-indexing on brands like Samuel Adams, Miller Lite, Bushmills and Belle Ambiance wine nearly 1.5 times more than non-dads.

Some additional insights:

• Dads are 2.5 times more likely to buy Doritos Cool Ranch tortilla chips and Cinnamon Toast Crunch than men with no kids.
• Dads are four times more likely to buy Nicoderm CQ than non-dads.
• Dads are 2.7 times more likely to purchase Fortune magazine for light reading.