Most consumers today are just
trying to squeak out enough time to eat dinner. Do you have time cookt, time
for doing dishes, or even time for planning a meal? If you are "Ready-2-Eat" there is a very good chance you are
looking for fresh prepared multi-flavor, multi-ethnic Grocerant meal components
that include Heat-N-Eat and Ready-2-Eat fresh prepared food with portability.
Where are you shopping for you food today is not the same
place your mother was nor is the meal prepared the same way. Think about Kroger’s
new concept store Main & Vine, its full of
fresh prepared food.
As long as
multi-generational family's gather for meals together, the demand for more
divergent flavors continues to permeate. Grocerant mix and match bundled meal
component offerings allow for increased family integration, understanding and
acceptance in less time without a required cook from scratch skill set.
Did you know that
in the 1940's cooking from scratch was the normal. The average home cooked meal
took 150 minutes to prepare. Everyone sat down at the table and enjoyed it or
not but they all ate the same thing. Today's "home cooked meal" takes
on average less than 30 minutes to prepared. In most cases at least two
different entrées are served.
The average time
spent inside a McDonalds in the 2,000 was 11 minutes. Today 65+ percent of all
McDonald's food is sold via the drive-thru. U.S. fast-food chains are
increasingly remodeling restaurants in an effort to garner additional
drive-thru customers inside and increase sales, simple because the drive-thru
can't hold all the cars.
Walgreens
is creating and bundling distinctive differentiated food consumable's as an entity with identity by day part in a mix
and match meal component format in select urban setting targeted at both the
office worker for lunch and meal components for them to take home for the
family dinner. It is a successful program. With over 7,550 units operating in
the United States Walgreens has the potential to become the most disruptive
force in food retailing in 50 years. Walgreens with its modular mid-sized
foot-print is garnering customers from both restaurants and grocery stores.
Consumers Want Easy to Prepare Meals
The grocerant niche continues to grow with companies like Central Market,
Whole Foods, Wegmans and 7 Eleven entering the fresh prepared better for you
space. Meal time is now becoming a time of convenient meal participation,
with differentiation and individualization for the entire family.
Safeway with its lifestyle stores are heading in the right direction however
the stores are so large consumers are forced to spend more time in them than
they want.
More often than
not the multi-generational family today is multi-ethnic as well. Creating a
demand for more varied flavors and additional cooking skill set that is simply
not there. Grocery stores, Convenience Stores, Restaurants and Chain Drug
Stores are all selling ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food. Is your
focus family dinning? Are you selling meals or meal components for Take-Out, delivery or Take-Away?
Lacking the skill
set to prepared fresh prepared multi-ethnic meal components at home coupled
with the time it takes to prepare a home cooked meal it is clear the buying
habits of consumers will continue to evolve. Bundling mix and match meal
components into a meal is one key driver within the grocerant niche. Given that
most American family are comprised of multi-cultural background. The fight for
share of stomach will only intensify.
Restaurants menu's
at one time were very narrow in focus and have moved more upscale with offerings such as Oriental; Chicken Salad,
Southwest Chicken Salad, along with a chef salads. Grocery stores on the other
hand are expected to sell complete lines of reay-2-eat multi-ethnic food. That
places higher expectations on grocers than restaurants or a company like
Walgreens. Walgreens might just be in the perfect spot to expand fresh prepared
food offerings capturing customers from both restaurants and supermarkets.
www.FoodserviceSolutions.us is
the leading foodservice consultancy focused on the Grocerant niche. Are you
ready to have a Grocerant ScoreCard conducted? Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us
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