Summer Snacking is for Groups and Meal Replacement

 

Small meals, or snacking has become a mainstay lifestyle for many in the United States according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Time starved, on-the-go consumers are replacing traditional meal periods with small meals or snacks that can fit into a pack on-the-go lifestyle according to Johnson.

Sally Lyons Wyatt, executive vice president and practice leader at IRI, stated that “Snacking is a lifestyle in the United States. This is not something that’s going away anytime soon”, during her “State of Snacking” presentation at this year’s Sweets & Snacks Expo.

Inflation or a potential recession may not hurt certain snack products, as they are less sensitive to price, such as potato chips, tortilla chips, and dried meat snacks. Yes, Americans need their potato chips.

Today, convenience stores are well positioned to continue growing snack sales based on their success in maximizing daypart sales and capitalizing on consumer preferences for snack types — 51 percent of Americans are looking for snacks that can be eaten on the go.

Wyatt pointed to three major influences on snack purchases:

1.       74 percent of U.S. consumers are influenced by previous usage and trust of brands;

2.       74 percent are influenced by item price;

3.       53 percent of consumers are influenced by product label/packaging.

Wyatt continued, “At the same time, operators should consider the value of social influencers and social/digital communications. “Tik Tok has become a home for influencers,”.

When looking for that fast meal replacement or snack, sustainability, local credentials and evolved holistic health factors can also be influential — in other words, consumers are looking for more than one benefit in their snacks.

So, discussing the future of snacks, PepsiCo Inc.’s Mike Gervasio, vice president of category leadership, noted that the company has shifted its approach from a category-based view to a consumer-based view. Rather than focus narrowly on traditional snacks like popcorn, pretzels and potato chips, he said retailers and suppliers should recognize that snacking occasions have expanded significantly. Depending on the format, almost anything can be a snack now, even pizza leftover from the night before.

“Consumption has changed dramatically, so we’re here to change with it,” Gervasio said.

To keep up with these evolving consumption trends, companies should consider:

·         Need states: What needs must be met during this snacking occasion?

·         Location: Where does this occasion take place?

·         Who they’re with: Is the snacker alone or with other people?

·         Purchase location: Where is the item being purchased?

·         Meal type: Would this be considered a snack, a small meal, etc.?

·         Accompaniment: What role does the product play in the meal?

By considering these factors, companies can determine how a product is likely to fulfill a particular consumer need: uplift, indulgence, satisfaction, energy or nourishment. “Each category is DNA within the need state,” Gervasio said. What small meals are you offering consumers in a fresh fast format?

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

Inclusive Mix & Match Meal and Beverage Component Bundling Drives Success

When the question comes up; What’s for Dinner, more often than not 58.7% of the time according to recent Grocerant Scorecards according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Since most consumers do not want to cook from scratch, nor do they want to cook at all they more often than not want to order out, go out or order for delivery. Look at the numbers below and you can see how large the opportunity to give customer what they want when they want it.

1. Recent Grocerant ScoreCards found 81.1% of consumers don’t know what’s for dinner at Noon, and 61.1 don’t know what’ s for dinner at 4PM %.
2. Roughly 63.7% of consumers purchase prepared food items from a retail location at least three times a month.
3. 79.6% all dinners have at least 1 grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal component and 66.6% have two meal components.
4. When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 91.3 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 83.4% chose meal components.
5. Seventy-three percent of retail prepared food purchases are taken to go
6. Prepared food purchases are frequently a planned purchase among 61.2% of shoppers, while 40.9% of shoppers said they buy prepared foods on impulse. Dinner has the highest amount of prepared food buys with 81.7% of respondents making purchases for that meal, while lunch comes in at 76.9% and breakfast at 61.4%.
7. 57.8% of consumers would like to add Alcohol to a dinner order

 

Gen Z and Millennials have a desire for food and beverage discovery, but they also want exciting new brands and line extensions aka they will try anything new.  So, give them a choice.

Beer, wine and liquor are standards however have you considered selling with both hard seltzer and ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails: Consumers want old favorites, but they also want exciting new brands and line extensions. Grocerant niche mix and match meal component bundling is a hallmark driving grocerant niche adoption.

So, let’s take a look as some of IRI numbers for the 52 weeks ending Dec. 26, 2021, show the hard seltzer category at c-stores with sales of more than $2.1 billion, an increase of 25.9% year to year. 

Within that category, White Claw was the leading brand, with sales just topping $1 billion, up 9.6%. Truly followed at nearly $529,000, a 56.2% gain. Bud Light Seltzer recorded sales of just over $199 million, a jump of 13.5%. Corona Hard Seltzer notched sales of almost $53 million, a decline of 16.8%. 

Bump Williams, the founder, president and CEO of Bump Williams Consulting in Shelton, Conn., stated, “Single-serve cans will explode in volume this year,”. Key for growth will be a balance of what he called big, successful legacy brands like White Claw. Remember that when you are bundling meals and beverages these products travel well and can be kept cold.

Now, according to NielsenIQ, Total U.S. Convenience data for the 52 weeks ending Jan. 15, 2022, showed total spirits sales were $3.04 billion, up 9.8%. Within that category, prepared-cocktail sales were slightly over $167 million, a dramatic 62.4% rise. Yes, cocktails in a can are going to be hot.  So, if you want to drive top line sales and bottom-line profits while edifying your relationship with your consumer; start bundling them for takeout.

“I’m seeing increases in our stores in both hard seltzer and ready-to-drink cocktails,” said Thelma Seguin, director of store operations for Fabulous Freddy’s Car Wash, which owns and operates five convenience stores in Las Vegas.

There is no doubt that Gen Z and Millennials appreciate the flavor profiles of some of the newer RTD cocktails.  They are fruity. It’s almost like everything is fruity and sweet, this is all part of food and beverage discovery.  If you are selling meals for takeout then you should be selling Ready-2-Drink cocktails and Hard seltzers.

Don’t over reach. Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® 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 us on our social media sites by clicking the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter 

Grocerant Shoppers Continue to Drive Food Industry Change

Well, here we go again. Regular readers know that Foodservice Solutions®, Grocerant Guru® was the first to identify, quantify, and qualify customer migration from legacy food formats to new non-traditional fresh food formats in a plethora of locations including furniture stores, club stores, clothing stores, dollar stores, and coffee shops to name but a few.

So, another industry leading food research house is jumping on the grocerant bandwagon, this time IRI, edifying results that regular readers of this blog have paid attention to since 2009.  Jonna Parker, principal, IRI Fresh Center of Excellence, during the "Balancing the Store Size Pendulum" webinar stated “Shoppers are expanding their consideration set when shopping for fresh foods to smaller and more niche outlets,”  Let’s all say it together, THANK YOU IRI, for edifying Steven Johnson’s findings.

So, get this IRI points out that “Across all outlets, grocery has the lion’s share of perishable and perimeter food sales (64%), but IRI sees that margin eroding as purchases shift to other channels, such as convenience/gas, dollar stores and digital.”  Don’t get us wrong, we are proud of our work and our clients like us; but it is nice to see others coming along.

The IRI report also found that 23% of households purchased fresh foods from dollar stores, 19% from convenience/gas and 10% from Trader Joe’s in the 52 weeks ending March 31. Ten percent of households also purchased fresh foods online.

Here is what is worrisome for legacy retailers “consumers, particularly those in their prime spending years of 40-54, say they are buying more-fresh at smaller format stores and online”.

Parker continued “The fight for fresh dollars is more-fierce than ever,” she said, adding that grocery is “almost at war” with the competition.” Johnson, is the only food industry professional with a fully developed model of the competition with his ‘Share of Stomach’ battle insights.

Last year was the tipping point in fresh sales, which had seen growth of as much as 5% earlier in the decade, but grew only 1% this past year—3% less than in 2014. Fresh is still growing, however, adding $7 billion in sales since 2014.

Foodservice Solutions® team identified that it is at the intersection of Price, Convenience and Time that consumers determine which channel (Grocery / Restaurants / C-Stores / Dollar Store’s / or new non-traditional) that will use to buy ‘What’s for Dinner’. 

For international corporate presentations, 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 www.GrocerantGuru.com , www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or call 1-253-759-7869