Foodservice Moving from Mealtime to All-Day Meals

The U.S. labor force participation rate stands at 63%.  With only 63% of consumers working meal time has moved to anytime according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Consumers are dynamic not static and they are adapting to how things are today and are not trapped in the past.  They like, cash machines, digital payments, food delivery and they want to eat meals and snacks all day long according to Johnson.

The simple fact is consumers these days are eating differently, eating in different places (in front of the 65 inch HDTV) —than they used to. Gone are standard breakfast lunch and dinner dayparts.  Today more and more consumers are simply eating whenever they get hungry or are craving breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Grocery store service delis continue to add menu options for all dayparts driving sales growth to 9.02% year over year garnering restaurant customers according to Johnson.  According to the Technomic’s 2017 Retailer Meal Solutions Consumer Trend Report, 80% of consumers report purchasing prepared meals at least once a month, and more than half—55%—eat prepared foods within an hour after purchase.

Snacking is also a leading reason for consumers purchasing more prepared foods and supports the notion that consumers are eating simply when they are hungry, not because there’s a traditional timestamp involved. According to Technomic’s 2018 Snacking Occasion Consumer Trend Report, 43% of consumers say the reason they purchase a snack is because they’re hungry and it’s not time for a meal yet. Afternoon snacking is the most common, with 75% of consumers saying they snack then, compared to 26% who snack in the morning, 42% at night and 27% late night.

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food is a solution for meal time that does not require time to cook or do dishes.  If success leaves clues selling fresh prepared meals and meal components in new non-traditional locations is a clue for all retailers.  Are you looking for a new point of distribution?  Does your restaurant look more like yesterday than tomorrow?  Why?

Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? 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.