Mix & Matched Meal Components Drive Dinner Day-part Sales

Regular readers of this blog know that grocerant niche mix and match meal component bundling is now the cornerstone of retail foodservice success.  Mix & Match bundling continues to drive customer migration from legacy CPG products, restaurants, and grocery stores to new fresh food products and new avenues of fresh food distribution according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson.

Yes, "the new normal" in food retail requires a shift away from traditional food packaging, points of distribution, and a focus on fresh prepared food rather that pantry stocking according to Johnson. Meal components that focus on healthier choices are an invitation Millennials cannot seem to pass up. .

Our Grocerant Guru® identified, quantified, and qualified the vital role of portability as a major driver of the growth of the grocerant niche and subsequently Technomic revalidated our findings.   of the snacking trend, obvious not only at the drive-thru window, but also with packaged offerings at convenience stores like 7-Eleven, and at "boutique" establishments, like Starbucks.

Today traditional mealtimes are less frequent, less important, less likely than the convenience of fresh prepared meal components that can be consumed immediately, used later as a mix and match meal components for the perfect family meal, cocktail compliment, or meal replacement as a small meal. 

New Non-traditional "dayparts" are emerging.  This is creating quite a conundrum for legacy retailers in both the restaurant sector focused on selling complete meals and legacy grocery stores focused on collecting slotting fees rather than providing consumers incremental fresh food options.

Recent research by InfoScout looked at 77,820 American households who provided daily receipts to the company to determine which off-hour consumers are most apt to head to a restaurant in those times, as well as the overall percentage of visits made by consumers during off-hour dayparts and the basket size during those visits and how that compares with the basket size of traditional mealtimes finding “off-hour meals make up 35 to 48 percent of all trips”.

Food retail has become a battle for share of stomach. The battle for that share of stomach is taking is between all retailers sell food including the ilk of: Convenience Stores, Supermarkets, Dollar stores, Drug stores, Ikea, Liquor stores to name but a few.

In research from CocaCola they found that Millennials average 4.2 meals a day. Clearly Millennials are evolving as food consumers here are some additional facts from the Coca Cola survey: 

1. More than half eat breakfast outside of morning hours. 

2.  30 percent replace one or two meals daily with snacks. 

3. 35 percent eat dinner at restaurants offering "happy hour" deals.

4. 43 percent say they snack more today. 

5. Members of the 18-to-24 age group reported they would go to restaurants more if they stayed open later.

Packaging fresh food meal components and placing those components in avenues of distribution that are representative of the products target market is more important now than ever according to the team at Foodservice Solutions®.    Can your meals be turned into meal components?  Success does leave clues.

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.