Dinner has been Displaced with Smaller Meals & even Smaller Meal Components

The undercurrents of consumer food consumption have been tracked for 100 years or more.  It was not until Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® identified, quantified, quantified, then coined the word Grocerant did the food industry refocus, renew, and reposition food research on the cultural changes driving that change.

When Johnson later identified the 65 Inch HDTV Syndrome industry legacy media scoffed but time has edified Johnson’s findings and even of the legacy food industry research companies that survived the evolving marketplace have jumped on the Grocerant bandwagon. Here are some insights from one of those legacy companies Technomic;

In Technomic’s 2018 Snacking report they found that “80% of consumers say they snack at least once a day (up from 76% in 2014). And, this trend toward more snacking is here to stay, as 55% of consumers say that in the next 12 months, their snacking habits will not change at all, while 18% say they will snack more often” The team at Foodservice Solutions® calls these occasions mini-meals and or meal components that consumers are finding at new non-traditional fresh food retailers.

The Technomic report found that “The biggest nibblers, it turns out, are young consumers, who are more likely than their older counterparts to snack three or more times per day. Younger consumers are less likely to follow traditional eating patterns, and are more likely to eat whatever, whenever, in order to satisfy their needs.”

In short the Grocerant niche is here to stay as the report continued saying “All this bodes well for the continued growth of grab-and-go meals at convenience, grocery, foodservice and other retail stores—58% of consumers say that a grab-and-go or prepackaged food area would be appealing in a retail store (such as grocery)”

The team at Foodservice Solutions® believes that consumer’s time bound constraints have placed a greater importance on family activities, than the family dinner. Thus the grocerant niche platform of family meal customization with personalization while saving time will drive incremental top line sales and bottom line profits in all sectors of retail offering meals and meal components that are portable.

Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? 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.