Grocery stores are experiencing a shift in shopping patterns as more workers return to their offices, according to a report by PYMNTS Intelligence based on a survey of over 2,000 consumers earlier this year.
The study, titled “How People Pay: Consumer Spending Habits Change as Workers Return to the Office,” said that as of early 2025, about 63% of people who previously worked remotely have retuned to the office. As a result, about 80% of employed consumers work either full-time in an office or have a hybrid arrangement. Not long ago during the peak of the Covid pandemic, around 50% of workers were remote.
The survey showed that employees working in an office are 60% more likely than remote workers to shop for groceries on the weekend. And those employees working in an office are 1.8 times more likely than remote workers to subscribe to food delivery services. Among the back-to-office consumers with food subscriptions, 75% signed up within the past six months.
