Consumers Need Help They don’t want to Cook from Scratch

 

With restaurants closed or on reduced hours, consumer have been forced to cook from scratch and the simple fact is they are tired of it.  They say they miss the ‘flavors’, ‘variety’ and texture offered by restaurants according to Foodservice Solutions®, Grocerant ScoreCards conducted in September. 

When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 91.1 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 83.6 chose meal components.  According to Steven Johnson, Foodservice Solutions®, Grocerant Guru® that has been the trend for the past 25 years and Gen Z learned how to prepared meal components from their time stared parents.

A recent study conducted by EnsembleIQ reported that there is a high probability that nearly 40% of consumers will continue to homemade meals more often even after COVID-19 has pasted. That said the opportunity for every branded food retailer including restaurants, convenience stores, grocery store, liquor stores, drug stores and dollar stores will be in a race to fill you table with grocerant niche meal components according to Johnson. Let’s look at more of the EnsembleIQ findings:

The survey of 1,072 consumers, of which 80% said they do most of their household’s meal planning and cooking, was also strategically timed to gather responses during the latter part of July. The logic behind when the survey was fielded, was to better assess satisfaction with behaviors established during the earlier months of the pandemic, as a means to gauge future behaviors with a higher degree of accuracy.

·         Nearly 90% of those surveyed experimented with new recipes and ways to cook food during the pandemic.

·         Close to 70% said that they enjoyed “a lot” the meals they prepared.

·         Roughly half said that they got a lot of enjoyment out of cooking.

·         One reason for this is that close to 35% said they bought new utensils, countertop appliances and cookware to “play with.”

·       Roughly 42% said that they generally prefer their household’s home cooking to that of restaurants, while only 13% said that restaurant food is far better than home cooking.

·         When asked if they got tired of cooking at home, 28% said that they were very tired of cooking, and 45% said that they were a little tired.

·         “The key driver of increased use of prepared foods uncovered in the research is that roughly half of those surveyed viewed it as more affordable than restaurant food,”.  

We know now that consumers will continue to eat at home.  But where will the meals, meal be sold, produced, or branded?  Is your company producing something for tonight’s dinner table?  

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 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869