What’s for Dinner? More and More it’s Meal Kits

Tired of staying home and cooking from scratch, consumers are seeking and faster fresher way to get a full-flavored meal than cooking from scratch.  Today, consumers are seeking out meal components and meal kits to save time, money, while adding flavor to their menu according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

In case you did not know close to 66% of consumers purchase grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat prepared food meal or meal components items from a retail location at least three times a month. Let’s look at some more recent facts:

 

1.       Our new 2021 Grocerant ScoreCards found 82.3% of consumers don’t know what’s for dinner at Noon, and 61.1 don’t know what’ s for dinner at 4PM %.

2.       83.1% all dinners have at least 1 grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal component and 68.4% have two meal components.

3.       When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 90.4 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 82.7% chose meal components.

4.       Seventy-three percent of retail prepared food purchases are taken to go

5.       Prepared food purchases are frequently a planned purchase among 59% of shoppers, while 41% of shoppers said they buy prepared foods on impulse. Dinner has the highest amount of prepared food buys with 79% of respondents making purchases for that meal, while lunch comes in at 77% and breakfast at 62%.

6.       55% of consumers would like to try autonomous EV delivery

According to Nielsen research, the 52 weeks leading up to Jan. 4, 2020 only saw 0.6% growth of retail meal kit sales. During the 52 weeks leading up to Jan. 2, 2021, however, the meal kit category grew by 18.7%, totaling nearly $132 million more in sales year over year. Importantly, a vast majority—77%—of consumers say they expect to maintain or increase their frequency of meal kit purchases after the pandemic, according to Technomic’s May 2021 Industry Insights report.

It is at the intersection of lack of skill-set to cook or prepared many new international full-flavored menu entrees are side orders and What’s for Dinner. That we find consumers more than willing to keep purchasing meal kits, meal components or fully prepared meals.  By focusing on consumers’ current shopping habits and occasions, retailers can develop strategies to tailor their grab-and-go meal kit selection to perfectly suit their shoppers’ preferences.

Identifying shopping occasions that drive grocerant visits can also be a key consideration as retailers craft their grab-and-go meal kit selection. For example, here are some top occasions that Technomic’s team found that include:

·         After work and school: Around the evening rush hour, retailers can highlight family-sized meals with kid-friendly options for busy parents stopping by the store on their way home.

·         Entertaining: Near holidays, retailers can offer seasonal dishes in extra-large meal bundles for consumers feeding a crowd.

·         Daily visitors: With more shoppers purchasing prepared meals from the grocerant on a daily basis than in the prior year, offering variety on the menu is crucial.

Restaurant meal components, fresh prepared meals, and meal kits can be designed to be weeknight meal solutions or they can be picked up at the last minute and become a branded meal solution with craveability.

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared continues to drive growth in every sector of food retail today.  Are you saving customer time? Money? Do you have craveable food that is full-flavored? Gen Z and Millennials are in search of food discovery and new avenues of distribution?  Where are you selling food?

Looking for success clues of your own? Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter