Sunday, November 18, 2012

Dinning out is aspirational for many this holiday season.



McDonalds sales drop was in part because of the lingering effects of the great recession continue.  Europe is now officially re-entering recession and Americans wonder if congress will step up and keep us away from a double dip recession. Rigged austerity did not help prevent the double dip in the Euro Zone; let’s hope congress will back stop the US with an incremental step approach rather than austerity.  The focus should beon getting people back to work.. With 47+ million people on Food Stamps many Americans continue to aspire simply to take the family out to McDonalds once a month rather than cook at home.

In a recent report conducted by upscale dinning guide  Zagat Surveyors found even the high end was cutting back the study found  “cooking at home an average of 7 meals per week, outpacing the average number of meals they eat/take out (6.1) – a trend that has been building since the Great Recession. Dining in restaurants dropped from an average of 3.4 times per week in 2008 to 3.1 in 2011, however, meals out are inching back to 3.2 this year. The average number of times each surveyor visited the restaurant they voted on before the recession was 12.1 – which dipped to 9.3 in 2011 and increased to 9.8 this year.”

Most Americans assemble a meal for the holiday utilizing cook from scratch items and favorites items prepared from restaurants like Shari’s or Village Inn’s Pie’s or a Cajun Turkey from Popeye’s to complement and continue family traditions. Whole Foods, Kroger and Safeway each offer complete prepared meals from their deli departments for home.

Grocery store prepared meals too are aspirational for the 47+ million Americans on Food Stamps.  Is it time to extend the availability of the SANP program too prepared food from the Deli?  It has to be less expensive for a single person to buy a single portion of potato salad or coleslaw than make it for themselves.  What about the 7.5% of seniors on Food Stamps a Dollar Burger and Dollar Hot Coffee would be a real help and break if they were allowed to utilize McDonalds while on SNAP. We hope all Americans can enjoy complete Holiday Meal.  We support Food Parity for America.

Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participationdifferentiation and individualization contact us via Email us at: grocerant@q.com or visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

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