Gen Z Why Cook Dinner

 

The Grocerant niche trend is you friend if you want to sell fresh food to Gen Z or Millennials according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. The most recent Grocerant ScoreCards conducted by the team at Foodservice Solutions® reveled that when asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 91.1 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 83.6 chose assemble meal components.

Do you want to cook dinner from scratch? If the answer is no then there is a very good chance you are looking for fresh prepared multi-flavor, multi-ethnic Grocerant Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat meal components.

Heat-N-Eat and Ready-2- Eat fresh prepared food with portability is driving retail food success across all retail platforms in 2020 according to the team at Foodservice Solutions®.  

Where are you shopping for you food today, is not the same place your mother was, nor is the meal prepared the same way. As long as multi-generational family's gather for meals together, the demand for more divergent flavors will continue to permeate.

Today grocerant mix and match bundled meal component offerings has become a platform empowering increased family integration, understanding, and acceptance in less time without a required cook from scratch skill set.

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.

The simple fat is consumers want easy to prepare/ assemble meals. Today 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.

Battle for Share of Stomach

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 prepared 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 within the retail food space for share of stomach will only intensify.

Supermarkets and grocery stores are expected to sell complete lines of Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food much of it will be 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.

 

Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® a Tacoma, WA based retail foodservice consultancy has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. For international corporate presentations, regional chain presentations, local educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit GrocerantGuru.com, FoodserviceSolutions.US or call 1-253-759-7869