Where are we going for dinner? Today the options for dinner have turned to opportunity for many non-traditional food retailers including grocery stores. Going out to dinner was once a treat, then the norm today consumer content with their 65 inch HDTV’s are asking: Where are we going to get dinner?
Darren Tristano,
Executive Vice President of Chicago based Technomic states that “consumers turn
to retailers for prepared food most often in the evenings”. Restaurants need to recognize that increase
competition for share of stomach comes from non-traditional fresh prepared food
retail companies the ilk of grocery stores, Drug stores, C-stores and Club
stores.
Technomic’s research
found that customers of non-traditional fresh prepared food from the
aforementioned list of new competitors rated “supermarkets and c-stores equal
to or better than limited-service restaurants”. His examples were; “53 percent
of consumers say the freshness of prepared foods at conveniences stores is on
par with that of limited service-restaurant fare”. Supermarket offerings did
just a little better than that “54 percent said food freshness is comparable at
supermarkets with 24 percent saying supermarket prepared foods are fresher”.
A full one in five
consumers today identified grocery-store prepared food as a Top alternative to
a restaurant. Regular readers of this blog know we have been providing the
success clues for the ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food niche
since 1991 and none of this is a surprise to us. The rest of you however must the momentum
within this sector is building and the current numbers alone are
impressive. The grocery and c-store
sectors account for $37 billion in U.S. sales alone with $20 billion for
grocery and 10.7 for c-stores according to Technomic. That number grew $2 Billion dollars from 2010
to 2012.
This niche has more
than resonated with consumers it is now either a preferred choice or a clear
option. Restaurants need to be mindful of the momentum in consumer
satisfaction, industry growth rate and the new retail food price, service,
equilibrium being established.
Steven Johnson is Grocerant Guru™ at Tacoma, WA based www.FoodserviceSolutions.us and
can be reached at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us
FoodserviceSolutions® is the Global leader in Grocerant niche consulting since
1991.
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