Dinners That Delight: How Tech Enhances, Not Replaces, Social Dining for Young Adults

 

In today's fast-paced world, where "What's for dinner?" often starts with a phone swipe, technology undeniably impacts dining decisions. But a recent study by the Culinary Visions Panel's Mindful Dining Initiative reveals a surprising truth: young adults (Gen Z and Millennials) crave both convenience and human connection when dining out.

Key Takeaways:

·         Technology as a Time-Saver: Younger diners appreciate tech that streamlines the ordering process. Nearly half (48%) prefer kiosks or apps for speed, highlighting their comfort with technology.

·         Human Touch Still Reigns: Despite their tech-savviness, young adults (64%) value personalized service. A friendly server who remembers their name goes a long way!

·         Sharing is Caring (and Posting): Dining is a social experience for young adults. They're influenced by friends' orders (50%) and enjoy sharing photos on social media (nearly 60%). Food becomes a way to connect and create shareable moments.

What This Means for Restaurants:

·         Offer Tech Options, But Prioritize Service: Provide self-ordering kiosks or apps, but ensure staff remains attentive and welcoming.

·         Create Instagrammable Moments: Think unique plating, interesting decor, or designated photo areas to cater to the social media-savvy crowd.

·         Facilitate Group Dining: Consider larger tables or communal seating to encourage interaction and sharing.

The Bottom Line:

Technology is a tool, not a replacement for human connection. By embracing tech while prioritizing excellent service and a social atmosphere, restaurants can create dining experiences young adults will love – and share with the world.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  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

Meal Kit Magic or Just HelloFresh

Success does leave clues and being first continues to be a clue food entrepreneurs with a point of differentiation matters should keep in mind according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. 

According to Johnson, it means that being first sure helps, it also means that HelloFresh has been able to evolve from just being ‘training wheels for Millennials’ who are trying to learn how to cook full flavored fresh meals at home.

Clearly the meal kit sector is not dead as HelloFresh reported 30.6 percent year-over-year active customer growth, and is on track to deliver more than 250 million meals in 2019. In the United States during Q2, HelloFresh had 1.35 million active customers, 4.88 million orders and 32.2 million meals delivered. 

HelloFresh CEO Dominik Richter stated "Since the very beginning, our mission has been to change the way people eat. Each day, we have a profound impact on millions of people's lives, by passing on significant savings to them, bringing families and friends closer together, and by delivering healthy, wholesome meals to their homes. Doing this at a rate that only few other high-growth companies can achieve makes us proud. It’s a great motivational force for everybody at HelloFresh,"

Many grocery stores companies have tried to compete will HelloFresh in one way or the other in the opinion of Johnson most have failed miserably as they treated meal kits as a stand-alone CPG product.  Johnson continued saying “meal kits are a branded solution to the age-old question What’s for Dinner; all the while incorporating the ‘halo’ of better-for-you with consumer interactive participatory aspects of grocerant niche consumer preferences.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or www.twitter.com/grocerant/

What’s for Dinner? Fast Fresh Flavorful Grocerant Meal Components

The traditional line between retail foodservice sectors continues to shrink.  Today grocery stores struggle to sell food to fill consumer’s pantry while restaurants struggle to fill seats.  What continues to drive retail foodservice sales in every sector of retail are meal components comprised of fresh prepared food according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Today’s customers focus on convenience has elevated fresh prepared meal components that can be mixed and match into a customized family meal into a retail platform of food industry disruption. It’s at that intersection of disruption that the team at Foodservice Solutions® was first to identify, quantify, and qualify the Grocerant Niche. 

In fact as regular readers of this blog know Steven Johnson came up with the name grocerant and was first to publish it in Nation’s Restaurant News in 1996 in an article title ‘Call Them Grocerants”.

The fact is online shopping is convenient but a side-show in forecasting demand for What’s for Dinner.  Online shopping has become the bases for big bulky ‘family sized’ items the ilk of Dippers, Toilet Paper, Paper Towels, Cases of Beer.  While dinner more and more is ordered, pick-up, pick-out, or delivered comprising fresh prepared meal components one meal at a time according to Johnson.

Yes, online grocery shopping is expanding as Nielsen & FMI report with 65% of Millennials saying they have bought groceries online, 55% of Gen X, and 41% of Boomers.  However Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant ScoreCards indicate that the frequency grocery shopping online drops off as orders are getting bigger bulky items increases and fresh prepared food become more and more a mainstay for the family dinner.

Nielsen predicts that by 2022 four short years from now online grocery sales could reach $100 billion in sales, representing about 20% of all groceries sold. What that indicates to those conducing our Grocerant ScoreCards is that there will be an incremental increase of 24% in demand for grocerant meal components over the same period.

Were are not saying that the pantry is dead but ask Millennials what they have in their pantry and 9 out of tem will provide you a list of 8 eight or less.  Who needs a pantry for meal items whey there are 29 restaurants for every traditional grocery store in the US and fresh meal components can be found at retailers the ilk of IKEA, ABC Liquors, and Costco.

Companies the ilk of Kroger, SuperValu, and  Walmart have missed the mark there continues to be time and consumer demand that they could make a stand in new areas the ilk of meal kits and meal component mix and match bundling.

Consumers have blurred the line as they are no longer looking to fill a pantry rather they want to set the table with fresh prepared food.  This is a very competitive business, retailer from restaurants including fast food, fast casual, and casual dining outlets and grocers from Wegmans, HEB, Safeway and Kroger all in the hunt for a larger share of stomach. So What’s for Dinner?  Grocerant niche Fresh Prepared food.

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  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.