Supermarket chain Kroger (KR) is still studying the impact of weight loss drugs like Wegovy and its sister drug for Type 2 diabetes, Ozempic, have had on customer food purchases. But Kroger Health president Colleen Lindholz predicted sales will not decrease but, rather, the types of foods purchased will change.
"I believe it just makes sense that people are going to trade up to fresh foods, things that are better for them, because they're feeling good about themselves and they're feeling good about being healthy overall," Lindholz told Yahoo Finance. (Video above.)
Earlier this month, Walmart (WMT) claimed it saw a slight reduction in purchases by customers on GLP-1s. Those are the class of drugs that Novo Nordisk's (NVO) injectables Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly's (LLY) Type 2 diabetes drug Mounjaro, belong to — named for the hormone they mimic which slows down digestion.
Analysts have predicted the success of the newest drugs, which provide greater weight loss than previous iterations and are being studied for their ability to curb addictions, could pressure snacking, alcohol, and a number of other products.
"Calorie and consumption reductions could be in the 1-3% range. There are still many unknowns to clearly understand long-term impact on consumption for patients that use GLP-1’s over time. We see highest risk to alcohol, snacking relative to meals, and non-alcohol beverages," Bank of America analysts said in a recent note.
Kroger's Lindholz said she's been around for all the previous GLP-1 drugs and believes it will simply result in better behaviors and food choices.
"The people that I know that are on them, they're pretty much, when they're able to lose weight — they tried diets over the years that have been really tough —when they're able to lose weight and in a pretty fast amount of time, they start to feel really good about themselves and they start to really change their behavior overall," Lindholz said.
But, she added, the company wants to see what the data ultimately reveals.
Follow Anjalee on Twitter @AnjKhem.
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