Success does leave clues and how and where consumers obtain dinner is a
key driver of grocerant niche growth and foodservice channel migration
according to Steven
Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.
The Debate
Cook dinner, eat at a restaurant, pick-up a prepared meal and take it
home, or order a meal or meal components delivered. At noon there are 80.3% of
consumers that do not know what’s for dinner. The simple fact according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant
ScoreCards is in 2018 at 4 PM 64.9% of consumers do not know what they are
going to have for dinner.
The undercurrents of demographic change continue to drive the uncertainty
according to Johnson fully 47.0%
of Americans over the age of 18 are single and the need to cooking from
scratch and planning for them is simply not top-of-mind. In fact fast our 2018 ScoreCards indicate
that for singles fully 76.2% top choice is ‘where to pick up dinner’.
The Choice Cook or
Up-Pick-Up Meal Components
Consumers today have a plethora of choices for when it comes to
dinner. Traditionally consumers would
buy food at a grocery store and cook from scratch but that was 1950-1970 and
then the undercurrents of change began with an abundance of great restaurant
choice and increasing fresh prepared food options at grocery stores, drug
stores, and convenience stores. All driven by increasing time constraints on
consumers combined with an increased lack of cooking skill set for new
international flavor profiles consumers have become accustom.
Recent internal research by Albertsons revealed that 80% of its customers
say they want meal kits in stores, according to Pat Brown, the chain’s vice
president of strategic business initiatives, in
an interview with CNBC. He also
said that 85% of online meal subscribers want an in-store option. Albertsons
bought meal kit pioneer Plated last fall and is currently rolling the line out
to stores nationwide.
Hello fresh has followed suit and is now
offering its meal kits at 581 Giant Food Stop & Shop grocery stores. Johnson reminds us that those meal kits are
for customers that want to cook at home and do dishes. It’s important to note that those meal kits
in grocery stores are competing with the service deli where rotisserie chicken
and many other fresh prepared meal components are being sold and many are being
sold for less than the cost of the meal kit.
Bain &
Co. estimates meal kit sales are “$1.5 billion annually” our Grocerant Guru®
reminds us that number is like a cup of water in the Pacific Ocean. Nielsen states that meal kit
spending is growing ‘more than three times as fast as other channels’ which
might be more important number.
Restaurants &
C-stores
Remember that 47.0% of all Americans over the age of 18 are
single and restaurants and fast food drive thru restaurants specifically offer
fast fresh food fast that is portable and priced very competitively has become
a compelling option for what’s for dinner. Fast casual restaurants along with
full service restaurants are increasingly offing delivery, pick-up or third
party food delivery to compete with the drive-thru.
The National Association of Convenience stores as regular
readers of this blog know has tested their own meal kits in stores. C-stores
have a decided advantage to restaurants and grocery stores according to
Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant
ScoreCards. That advantage
identified by 81.9% of respondents was the ability to mix & match meal
components. Speed of service was second with 73.5% of consumers saying it was
faster than either a restaurant or a grocery store.
Food Manufacturing
Conundrum
Manufactures the ilk of Kraft-Hines, Campbell’s Soup, Tyson,
Smucker’s, General Mills, and Unilever all must rethink how they are
selling food. Rethink where food is
being bought? Most important food manufactures must reinvest in who is today’s
consumers. Food manufactures must ask themselves do our products look more like
yesterday than tomorrow.
So just what
is your New Electricity? Success does leave clues www.FoodserviceSolutions.us is the global leader in grocerant niche
business development. We can help you
identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment
opportunities. Has your company had a
Grocerant ScoreCard completed a Grocerant Program Assessment, or new Grocerant
niche product Ideation? Want one? Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us
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