Meal Time is Anytime.

Non-traditional fresh food retailers have expanded consumer’s choice in where consumers buy, eat, and enjoy fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat, and Heat-N-Eat food. Fuel by an abundance of newly created part time jobs, irregular working hours, free time today the food landscape filling with non-traditional retailers.  Those retailers simply put have seized the opportunity directly from existing operators.  Creating havoc for legacy food retailers that continues today.  

The prized millennial consumers are breaking legacy stereotypes forcing old school food marketers to adjust offerings. The food industry must redefine the very definition of “meal occasion” for expanding consumer choice combined with new avenues of fresh food distribution have created a platform new was for consumers to prepare meal on the go, at home, or when out and about. This new platform is focused on consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization.

Gone are the days of “three square meals a day”.  A recent studies finds that millennial's are eating as often as five times a day.  That baby boomers are now eating four meal periods a day.  These new meal periods are comprised of smaller meals or what was once considered snacks are evenly split in both groups between AM and PM day-parts depending to individual lifestyle and schedules.

Food marketers are not unaware and have followed the customers into this new era growing at 6.9% these new “meal occasions” add up to over 420.3Bn  occasions across the quick-service, full-service, mobile carts and trucks, vending and other new non-traditional points of distribution.

Here are some chain restaurant examples garnered from reports by both NPD Group and Mintel International:   Boston Market’s “Market Sliders,” Subway’s 6-inch sub, Long John Silver’s Lobster Bites Snack Box, Caribou Coffee’s calorie-laden chocolate specialty drinks,[2] and McDonald’s Big Mac Snack Wrap and smaller McFlurry ice cream cup. Taco Bell is riding its Fourthmeal promotion (the meal between dinner and breakfast). Full-service restaurants are countering with small plates (also known as appetizers or tapas) in conjunction with happy hours. “

Meal time is anytime, what are you doing to capture a larger share of stomach? How many day-parts do your customers leverage at your outlets? Is your brand consumer interactive, inviting and offering convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  Visit the global leader in the Grocerant niche www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  or Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant, twitter.com/grocerant Call: 1-253-759-7869