Grocerant Niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food continues to drive top-line sales and bottom-line profits. The fact is cooking and cleaning the kitchen are not high on most peoples to do list according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Here are some 2023 numbers from our team:
- Recent
Grocerant ScoreCards found 82.3% of consumers don’t know what’s for
dinner at Noon, and 61.8 % don’t
know what’ s for dinner at 4PM.
- 68.2 % of consumers would
order alcohol with a meal or meal components from a restaurant if
available when ordering.
- Roughly 63.7% of
consumers purchase prepared food items from a retail location at least
three times a month.
- 79.6% all dinners have at least 1 grocerant niche
Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal component and 66.6% have two meal
components per day.
- When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch
or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 91.3 % of Gen Z chose
assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 83.4% chose
meal components.
- Seventy-three percent
of retail prepared food purchases are taken to go
- 88.2 % of consumers
prefer hand held food over sit down meals with a knife and fork
That said, lets look once again our friends at Technomic and how their findings once
again edify our scorecards and insights.
Regular readers if this blog will enjoy this. Here we go:
“One in four shoppers replaced restaurant meals with
foodservice options from grocery stores, an increase of 17% from last year,
according to FMI — The Food Industry Association’s “Power of Foodservice at
Retail” report.
Shoppers are also cooking at home more often and creating
“hybrid meals” that combine premade foodservice items with those made from
scratch, according to the report released earlier this month.
"For years, we’ve found that shoppers simply did not
think of the grocery foodservice department when planning their meals. But, as
shoppers continue to prepare more meals at home, that trend is changing,"
said Rick Stein, vice president of fresh foods at FMI, in a statement.
“Shoppers are creating hybrid meals, which include some scratch cooking with
some pre-prepared items. This hybrid meal approach means shoppers want
convenience and experience and they are finding it in the foodservice, deli and
bakery departments.”
The research showing increased purchases of total deli
foodservice is backed by NIQ (NielsenIQ) data that shows spending at deli
counters grew 4.2% to $49.9 billion year over year for the week ended Oct. 7.
Meanwhile, deli unit sales declined 1.7% during the same period.
The report added that household penetration of the deli
foodservice segment was over 70%, with shoppers making an average of 9.8
purchases per year. That trend is expected to continue, as more than two-thirds
of shoppers (68%) plan to continue retail foodservice purchases, while one in
five intend to increase such purchases.
Sales of foodservice and prepared items also increased to
$18.5 billion for the year, up 4.7%. Foodservice/prepared unit sales fell 1.8%
over the same period.
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Nearly half (47%) of shoppers told FMI that cost was the
top factor driving their foodservice purchases. That was followed by taste at
43%; cravings for a particular dish, cuisine or taste at 42; value at 37%; time
and effort involved at 35%; availability of options (such as the proximity to a
restaurant) at 33%; how soon the meal can be eaten at 26%; and healthy eating
considerations at 25%.
The report also noted that there is room for growth in the
healthy options offered at foodservice counters. Only a third of consumers were
satisfied with healthy options available, while 65% expressed interest in
healthy and nutritional options. Similarly, two-thirds said that they also
consider at least one nutritional claim while shopping in the specialty bakery
department.
"Retailers need to adopt a restaurant-like mentality
for foodservice and deli. Present features that shoppers appreciate, including
online ordering, easy pick-up and delivery, to boost the convenience factor,”
Stein said. “For the bakery, freshness is still a top priority for shoppers as
is the ability to round out their meals with items like bread rolls or dessert
options. Adding technology features that offer convenience is also part of
delivering in-store bakery shoppers value."
Retailers should highlight the comparative value of
foodservice relative to restaurants, because shoppers already see it as a good
deal, Stein wrote Friday in a blog post co-authored with Steve Markenson, vice
president of Research & Insights at FMI. Retail foodservice providers
should follow the lead of restaurants by offering restaurant-like amenities.
“Topping the list are having a menu available online, enabling advance ordering
through apps and offering drive-throughs for pickup,” Stein and Markenson wrote.
The bog post added that 40% of shoppers expressed the need
for help with meal planning, opening opportunities for retailers to offer “meal
bundles, in-store displays that bring together the ingredients for a meal,
providing ideas through retailer apps and more heat-and-eat choices.” “
Foodservice Solutions®
specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify,
quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu
product segment and brand and menu integration strategy. Foodservice Solutions®
of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit us on our social
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