Small Plates, Small Meals, Snacks Foodservice Synonyms

The consumer remains consistent it’s the food retailers that evolved to fast.  Back in the day when I was a fast food franchisee we sold a bundled meal consisting of a 10oz soda, a 1.8 oz. French fry, and a 10 to 1 burger.  Today a small soda at most fast food outlets is 24%?  

 Our Grocerant Guru® thinks it’s time to bundle small meals again.  After all small meals cost less and in the aftermath or our economic slowdown consumers are shifting their attention to a host of money-saving measures.

NPD’s Generation Study: The Evolution of Eating found that “Annual eatings per capita of snack food at main meals is forecast to grow by 12% by 2024. There are 12 billion snack visits made to restaurants and other foodservice outlets, reports NPD. When snacking replaces an away-from-home meal, the meal is most often lunch.  Eight% of foodservice snack visits occur during the lunch time frame.  Morning snacks represent 23% of foodservice snack visits and evening 30%.

In a recent study of convenience store shoppers titled Realities of the Aisle found 66% say they shop at a c-store to buy snacks, compared to 98 percent who frequent c-stores to buy beverages (both packaged and dispensed).  Convenience stores excel and grocerant niche Mix and Match meal bundling.  Let’s look at some more facts from the study:

1.       For shoppers in the 18-24 age range, however, buying a snack is even more of a convenience store trip driver — 73 percent of these shoppers cite it as their reason for going.

2.       When asked about their c-store purchases in the past month, nearly 63 percent of all the shoppers CSNews surveyed indicated they made a purchase in at least one of the four snack segments tracked in the study: salty snacks, sweet snacks, meat snacks, and energy/nutrition bars.

3.       Among frequent c-store shoppers (daily and weekly visitors), a whopping 70.1 percent made a snack purchase, significantly higher than infrequent c-store shoppers (at 58.4 percent).

4.        Of the snack segments tracked, packaged salty snacks are the most popular snack purchase, with 45.9 percent of total respondents crunching away. Salty snacks are purchased by more than 50 percent of shoppers aged 35-54, and a majority of shoppers with children in the household.

5.       Packaged sweet snacks are more popular among women than men (40.6 percent vs. 31.7 percent purchasing, respectively). Additionally, shoppers aged 35-44 are the most likely to make this purchase (at 42.9 percent) than consumers in any other bracket.

6.       Retailers will find male shoppers in the meat snacks aisle, where they are more likely to make a purchase than females (23.2 percent vs. 18.8 percent, respectively). Regionally, meat snacks are the most popular c-store snack purchase in the Midwest and West regions of the U.S.

7.       Energy/nutrition bars, purchased by 11.9 percent of the total, also draw more male buyers than female. This type of snack, often perceived as "better-for-you," is also more popular among the highest income group earning $100,000 or more a year. 

So here is my point in our Omni-Channel retail world where restaurants, grocery stores, and convenience stores all compete for share of stomach. Expanding grocerant niche mix and match offerings will expand your brands reach.  Increasing portion size is not the solution, mix and match bundled meal components is much more inviting for customers. 

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. 

Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869