Living for the City: the future of food shopping (110, May 2015)

Where do you go to buy your food? From huge supermarkets and the corner store to the farmers’ markets and specialist shops, there has never been a time with a more varied and diverse number of outlets selling food. You may think that we won’t see many more changes in the sector, but people were probably saying that a decade or more ago when the first out-of-town supermarkets began to appear. Like most business sectors, change is everything here.

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We’ve gathered together a number of experts involved in the business of selling food to talk to them about what they think is going to happen in the sector in the coming years. Is it going to be all about price and the growth of discount retailers or will shoppers begin to look for something other than cheap cheese and salami? What are the trends which key players are noticing here and how do they see these developing?

Has the Irish shopper gone completely promiscuous when it comes to buying food or are they still capable of loyalty? Will the economic bounce mean a change in our consumer habits? Will smaller spaces trump hypermarkets even for the multiples? What’s the role of technology going to be in how we shop for grubs? What about provenence and organics? And what about the kids – how will Generation Z shop for food?

The panelHenry Dummer (director of marketing Tesco), Rachel Firth (general manager Fallon & Byrne), Joe Doyle (founder Donnybrook Fair) and Norman Rides (general manager Dublin Food Co-Op)

The details: Banter on the future of food shopping takes place at the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey St., Dublin 1) on Wednesday May 20. Doors open at 6pm and the discussion begins at 6.30pm. Tickets are available here (please note the event is now sold out).

This event is part of Living for the City, Banter’s ongoing series of discussions about living, working and playing in Dublin in the 21st century. To date, this has featured discussions on transporthousingimmigrationmediaalternative spacescreativityand cafes.