An old-fashioned habit can still be popular: FMI’s 2025 research found that 83% of grocery shoppers used lists to budget. These ten routines reveal age differences and common ground. Let’s look inside the cart before judging who pushes it.
Read the age labels carefully. Pew defines baby boomers as people born from 1946 through 1964. AARP’s grocery analysis covers 4,216 respondents ages 16–74, so its 50-plus group includes non-boomers and excludes the oldest boomers. Those overlapping categories matter when we talk about who shops which way.
Choosing a staffed checkout
A full cart changes the checkout calculation. NCR Voyix’s 2024 index found that 53% of shoppers ages 18–44 preferred self-checkout. Its older category, labeled “45 to 60+,” favored staffed lanes, mainly because with many items, a cashier seemed like the quicker option.
That bracket also includes plenty of non-boomers. The survey dates to November 2023 and comes from a checkout-technology seller. Choosing a cashier can reflect a practical calculation about speed.
Paying with cash
Cash still has a place in the shopping story. The Federal Reserve’s 2025 Diary, reflecting 2024 behavior, found that adults 55 and older used cash for 19% of their payments. Across all consumers, cash accounted for 14%, versus 35% for credit cards and 30% for debit cards.
These are payments across settings, not grocery-only transactions. They show payment choices, but don’t say anything about counting exact change or waiting in a queue.
Buying groceries in person
Walking the aisles is rarely a solo activity. Gallup’s July 2022 poll of 1,013 U.S. adults found that 97% bought groceries in stores at least monthly; 82% did so at least weekly. Adults 55+ were less likely than younger adults to order groceries online at least monthly.
Keep the date attached: this is historical national evidence, not a fresh local headcount. In-person shopping was a shared routine across the population.
Related: 6 Grocery Staples That Boomers Reliably Stockpile for Convenience and Comfort
Hunting for coupons and discounts
A bargain doesn’t ask your birth year. FMI’s 2025 research found that 60% sought coupons or discounts; AARP’s March 2026 analysis identified stronger discount reliance among consumers 50-plus.
Neither finding establishes a preference for paper coupons. The common thread is seeking a better price.
Reaching for store brands
The famous label doesn’t always win. AARP’s analysis of 4,216 respondents, using Humantel’s December 2025 data, found that store brands were a response to inflation more characteristic of older consumers.
The accessible summary doesn’t give a percentage for every brand-switching measure, and the finding doesn’t establish behavior across every product category. Still, it challenges the idea that older shoppers invariably cling to familiar national brands.
Passing up impulse purchases
Leaving something on the shelf can be a deliberate choice. In that same 4,216-person survey, AARP found that older consumers were more likely to reduce impulse purchases. The sample was weighted to represent ages 16–74, so it cannot speak for all older Americans.
A reasonable reading is that skipping an unplanned purchase may be a form of budget management. The research doesn’t show that younger shoppers don’t understand it.
Shopping from a list
Let the list conduct the trip. FMI’s 83% figure comes from its 2025 research, which combined qualitative and quantitative work with 2,019 shoppers.
Paper versus digital wasn’t specified, nor was a boomer advantage. This habit is mainstream.
Checking the pantry first
Dinner’s first stop can be the cupboard. FMI reported that 79% checked household inventory to stretch grocery budgets. No age breakdown was supplied.
Let what’s already home help shape what comes home next.
Buying around a meal plan
Give dinner a little direction. Meal planning appeared among 69% of shoppers’ budgeting strategies in FMI’s 2025 findings.
The summary gives no age breakdown and sets no rules for scratch cooking, convenience foods, or weekly shopping. Dinner planning has broad appeal.
Timing a senior-discount visit
Thursday can have its own small reward. Harris Teeter’s posted Club 60 policy offers shoppers 60 and older a 5% Thursday discount with a VIC card; eligible customers should tell the cashier. It applies after coupons and VIC discounts, and excludes fuel, pharmacy purchases, tickets, and gift cards. Confirm your store’s current terms before planning around it. The policy provides a reason to choose Thursday, without telling us how many boomers do.
The phone in the pocket complicates the stereotype, too: Pew’s mobile fact sheet reports smartphone ownership among 79% of adults 65-plus, compared with 97% of those ages 18–29. Access differs, but technology plainly belongs in older adults’ lives. A cashier, a coupon and a pantry check can belong there, too. Give the shopper beside you a little room; dinner doesn’t need a generation gap.
