Portioned packages of stocks and broths and single-serve packages of juices and energy drinks stand shoulder to shoulder with jumbo-sized versions and many sizes in between.

It has been decades since expectant parents felt compelled to paint the nursery walls baby blue for boys and cotton candy pink for girls. But gender-specific marketing can be a huge turnoff for many shoppers–particularly Millennials.

Coconut water dominates the burgeoning plant water category. Other healthy new options use sap or juice from birches, cactus, aloe, barley, etc.

Companies are creating and marketing innovative new teas in varieties that range well beyond green, white and black, with some incorporating nutraceutical ingredients such as flowers, herbs and roots.

Whether it’s a grade-schooler tugging on mom’s skirt or a toddler stretching and pointing from their perch in the grocery cart, kids tend to get what they want when it comes to beverages they’ll be expected to drink, says the research.

Amazon.com and Google are expanding into the world of online grocery shopping with convience purchasing and delivery options. How can brick and mortar stores stay relevant and emphasize the benefits and pleasure of shopping in person in this ever changing grocery marketplace?

Remember when the impulse-purchase racks at the grocery store only offered toys, gum and celebrity gossip magazines?

Now single-serve beverage coolers are taking up sizeable real estate ‘front-of-store’ at grocers, convenience stores, drug stores, mass merchandisers and more thanks to a strong and seemingly universal demand for a wide range of grab-and-go drinks.

 

Appearances can be deceiving. Millennials represent the fastest-growing segment of luxury goods-and-services purchasers, according to a recent study by American Express. Yet they are also giving rise to a new lifestyle that can be characterized in two words: frugal and green. 

There’s a kernel of wisdom in that old parental admonition: clean your dinner plate because there are children starving in Africa.