The Gen Z Consumption Index — July 2026 Edition

The July 2026 Gen Z Consumption Index tracks what a Gen Z panel logged after finishing it — the actual product, brand, and flavor — across food, beverage, and personal care, now with a store-level look at where the basket gets filled. It's published alongside the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index (CPI) while the behavior is still current. This is post-consumption data — what people actually used up and threw away — not point-of-sale; it picks up where scanner data ends. A few things this edition surfaces. Beverage reached the widest slice of the panel of any category, yet stayed overwhelmingly name-brand — and this month that loyalty was finally tested: drink prices turned up in the July CPI, and the panel didn't trade down. Where private label does win, it's almost entirely the store's own house brand, concentrated in the staple aisles. And a new Shopping snapshot maps where the Gen Z basket is actually filled — from mass and grocery to discount and specialty retail — drawn from receipt capture. Every read is framed honestly: category reach is fully rated, while brand and flavor reads are early, directional signal at this panel size — an exploratory pilot, not representative market share. Inside: category reach (share of panel), name-brand vs. private-label share measured against CPI, family-brand portfolio rollups, product velocity (how often a brand comes back), a beverage-led flavor ranking, and the inflation-sensitivity map pairing each CPI grocery group with the panel's private-label position. Built for category, brand, and shopper-insights teams who need to see Gen Z behavior while it's still moving — not a quarter after it's already priced in.

Consumer Insight Managers, Marketing Directors, and Shopper Insight teams at food, beverage, and personal care brands — anyone tracking assortment, pricing, private-label exposure, and Gen Z brand preference against the inflation backdrop.