Takeout Is Now the Centerpiece of Family Dinner: A 30-Year Evolution from the Grocerant Guru®

 

There was a time when family dinner meant a home-cooked meal around a kitchen table—pot roast, mashed potatoes, and maybe a Jell-O mold for dessert. In the 1960s and 70s, frozen TV dinners marked the first shift from scratch cooking to convenience. By the 1980s and 90s, drive-thru culture made fast food a fixture in the family dinner rotation. But by the early 2000s, restaurant dining became aspirational—eating out replaced cooking as the center of social connection.

Then came 2008’s recession, which sparked the first big reset. Families started tightening budgets, rediscovering home meals—but not from scratch. Prepared foods from grocery stores and club formats surged. Fast forward to 2020: the COVID-19 pandemic fast-tracked everything. Overnight, dining rooms closed, apps exploded, ghost kitchens were born, and takeout became not just a habit—but a lifestyle according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Today, in 2025, we’ve entered a new era—where takeout is the family dinner table.

 

Fresh 2024–2025 Food Facts: The Family Meal Redefined

·       74.3% of weekday dinners are now consumed at home—but not cooked at home (NPD/CREST, May 2025).

·       72% of Gen Z and Millennials regularly buy dinner from a restaurant or C-store and eat it at home (Technomic, Q2 2025).

·       Takeout meals from grocery delis, C-stores, and QSRs grew 21.5% year-over-year in Q1 2025 (IRI, FMI).

·       Heat-N-Eat and Ready-2-Eat meals now account for over $52 billion annually in U.S. consumer spending (NielsenIQ, 2025).

·       70% of consumers say they’re more likely to order takeout if the packaging supports reheating or portability (IFMA Packaging Insights, 2024).

“Convenience once meant drive-thru—today, it means frictionless access, tech integration, and food that feels fresh-made and globally flavorful. That’s the grocerant difference,” says Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Foodservice Solutions®.

 

From Dining Room to Living Room: The 65-Inch HDTV Syndrome

Johnson calls this phenomenon the “65-Inch HDTV Syndrome.” Consumers want food that fits their lifestyle—meals that are flavorful, fast, and function as social glue for families gathered around screens instead of tables.

“Whether it’s takeout Thai curry from a convenience store, sushi from a Kroger deli, or a customizable bowl from Chipotle, consumers now expect food to be restaurant-quality, health-conscious, portable, and perfectly plated for Instagram or Netflix nights,” Johnson explains.

 

From Sunday Roasts to Streaming Suppers: The 3-Stage Shift

Let’s look at how family dinner has transformed:

Era	Meal Behavior	Key Driver
1960s–1980s	Home-cooked from scratch	Tradition & gender norms
1990s–2010s	Dining out as an experience	Economic expansion, dual incomes
2020–2025	Takeout as the primary meal source	Tech, time scarcity, value alignment

What used to be a “special treat” is now daily routine. Today’s consumers are looking for dinner without the labor, decisions without the stress, and meals that match their values—health, budget, sustainability, and taste.

 

Takeout Isn’t Just a Trend—It’s a Transformation

·       Average spend per restaurant meal: $18.32

·       Average spend for a grocery-prepared or C-store meal: $12.40

·       78% of families with kids under 14 say they’re replacing restaurant visits with takeout from retail or QSRs

·       31% of consumers say they’re reducing restaurant spending by substituting with grocerant meals (IRI, 2025)

And while fast casual once ruled the lunch crowd, it’s now losing ground:

·       Fast food is preferred over fast casual for lunch by 38% to 29% (AlixPartners, 2025)

·       Speed, price, and portability are driving consumer decisions—not ambiance or dine-in design

 

The Grocerant Guru’s Five Must-Know Takeout Trends for 2025

1.       “Family Bundles Are the New Value Meals”
Mix-and-match meal solutions are the new way to feed the whole house without breaking the bank.

2.       “Visual Flavor Is Digital Flavor”
If it doesn’t pop in the app or look good in a clamshell, it won’t sell. Consumers eat with their eyes—especially online.

3.       “Dinner Decisions Happen at 4 PM”
64% of consumers still don’t know what’s for dinner at 4 PM. Real-time deals, app alerts, and predictive bundles close the gap.

4.       “Comfort + Culture = Craveable”
Tikka wraps, elote mac & cheese, Korean BBQ flatbreads—familiar forms with global flavors are the fastest-growing SKUs.

5.       “Tech Makes Takeout Seamless”
Voice ordering, AI menu personalization, digital-only coupons, and loyalty subscriptions turn casual buyers into repeat diners.

 

From Grocery Deli to Center Stage: Takeout’s Time Has Come

From Blue Apron’s stumble to the rise of grocerant-ready meals in Walmart, Aldi, and Circle K, the path forward is clear: Consumers want fully prepared food that is easy, fast, and sharable—without needing to cook or clean.

The future of family meals is not about cooking—it’s about curation.

Ready to Be the Brand That’s on the Table?

Since 1991, Foodservice Solutions® has helped food brands, C-stores, restaurant chains, and grocery delis evolve from operators to meal solution providers.

If your brand still looks like it’s serving 2010-style experiences, it’s time to rethink, retool, and re-engage.

Call: 253-759-7869
Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us
Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us

 

Takeout is no longer the side dish.
It’s the centerpiece of the American dinner table.
The only question is—will your brand be there?

Is it Time for you

to Build a Larger 

Share of Stomach

Is Artificial Intelligence Better than Operator Intelligence

 

Restaurants, Convenience Stores, and Bodegas have long relied on the imagination and innovation of their founds, owners, or savvy marketing professional.  Those days are not all gone but there are fewer and fewer food retailers that can honestly say they have their pulse of the consumer.

According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® “crunching the numbers today more often than not means analyzing data, big data about customers, menu items, and sales trends simultaneously. That requires software using what is known now as artificial intelligence.  That intelligence is not artificial at all.  Today, it is insightful, informative, and filled with fact-based relevance.”

Yes, artificial intelligence (AI) may sound futuristic, but AI is here today and the technology can help convenience store retailers with their marketing campaigns. Ryan DiLello, content specialist for Paytronix Systems Inc., stated, "Using AI saves you time, effort and money," … "It ensures you do not have one-size-fits-all campaigns. It allows you to learn more about your customers and meet their needs."

DiLello continued, “Specifically, AI can help c-store retailers learn more about their customers' behavior and value; segment customers in more exacting ways; make more compelling, personalized offers; maximize channel efficiency; and, find ideal customers in the marketplace using AI-constructed profiles. AI-driven marketing operates through four stages, They are:

1.       Segmentation

2.       Predictive Analytics

3.       Campaigning

4.       Analysis

Then speaking about C-stores DiLello went on to say; “One thing AI can do is provide data regarding how likely customers are to visit a c-store, as well as open emails with provided targeted offers. The data can, for example, show which days a customer is visiting a store. If a customer visits exclusively on weekdays, AI can generate targeted offers to try to encourage consumers to visit on the weekend.”

Consider this, AI can also help launch "Missed Visit Campaigns," which recognizes individual lapses in guest behavior and identifies guests "out of their rhythm." Now according to DiLello, results from the first seven days of a Missed Visit Campaign revealed guest visits increased by 42 percent and in-store spending rose by 19 percent.

This is an example of how proactive AI can be. Geofencing, when AI notices when a customer is near a store and provides targeted offers and promotions, is another way to draw in-store traffic. "We have seen great results using geofencing," DiLello said.

Many C-store retailers have also used K-Means Clustering. Through this method, AI looks at popular pairing items and makes recommendations based on trends in the data. Further, K-Means Clustering helps develop unique and personalized guest experiences intended to keep customers returning to the store.

"AI recommends coupon offers," DiLello said. "It is a low-risk way to win back customers."

More than just marketing, AI can help c-store retailers beyond just marketing, making their implementation well worth the investment, DiLello stressed. The technology takes it one step further by helping to determine a key metric: customer lifetime value (CLV). AI calculates how long a person has been in a loyalty program, what the average visit cadence looks like, when the most recent visit was, how much customers spend per visit and how long the consumer is likely to stay active. These data sets are important to identify top customers, segment more effectively, optimize acquisition and realize lift — or a customer's lifetime journey.

So, the objectives of CLVs are to identify and reward most valuable customers, and find lower-value customers and boost their CLV.  "People often ask what a good CLV to customer acquisition cost (CAC) ratio is. We often say a three-to-one ratio is good," DiLello explained.

Retailers can lower CAC by retaining customers longer, reducing media and advertising expenses, and reducing third-party marketplace fees, he added.

Looking a Customer Ahead, DiLello expects AI to provide c-store retailers with practical uses in operations. For example, robotic servers, kiosks with facial recognition, food waste reduction management, inventory management and smart routing for delivery are ways AI can benefit c-store operators down the road.

"Inventory management is big for c-stores," he said. "AI will allow retailers to cruise through an unsteady supply chain to order items months in advance." Once again the team at Foodservice Solutions® would like to recommend you visit Paytronix Systems Inc more information on AI Or simply contact us for a referral.

Looking for success clues of your own? Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Grab-N-Go Grocerant Meals aka Dinner in 2022

 

Food industry channels are all reporting that when they ask customers what it is they want for dinner, it is grab-n-go, grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared mix and match meal components or full bundled meals. According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Angela Hanson recently reported, “When a hungry customer makes a prepared food purchase, they typically face a binary choice: made-to-order, which maximizes freshness and customization, or grab-and-go, which offers items that can be consumed within the next few hours as they are out and about. Changing consumer behavior, however, has prompted increased sales of a third option: grab-and-go-home.  “

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a shift in consumer behavior has seen convenience store grab-and-go visits decline 7.2 percent, while grab-and-go-home visits are up 3.4 percent, according to The Coca-Cola Co.'s iSHOP Study.

Stephanie McMahan, category leadership, small store shopper insights, North America operating unit, The Coca-Cola Co , stated, "Because consumers are spending more time at home and within the proximity of their local community, their needs have changed," … "Retailers can capture more grab-and-go-home trips with expanded immediate-consumption and future-consumption food and beverage product offers that reach beyond in-store shoppers and help consumers solve the need to provide for additional household members and occasions.”

Convenience store chain Kwik Trip Inc. divides its grab-and-go-home offering into two types: hot and ready to eat, or heat it when you get home. Kwik Trip Foodservice Director Paul Servais, stated, "We are seeing both of these segments grow," …"it is a hard business to break into” and “no one has completely figured this out."  (I guess they should have called the Grocerant Guru®)

There is no doubt that the shift toward grab-and-go-home largely comes from today’s consumers gaining a new perspective on old purchase motivators: speed and convenience.

McMahan continued, "Consumers are now evolving the previous 'grab-and-go' mindset to a 'grab-for-myself-and-other-people' behavior,". "While time is always a consideration, when consumers are on their way home to hungry household members, the speed of grab-and-go-home may be even more appealing."

There is more than just lunch or dinner. On the surface, it would appear that this increased focus on quick food purchases for hungry people at home could boost the dinner daypart, which has long been a challenge for the c-store industry. But Coca-Cola's research shows that grab-and-go-home trips span multiple dayparts relatively evenly, in part because of the pandemic era work-from-home lifestyle. In 2021, a quarter of grab-and-go-home trips took place in the morning, 21 percent occurred in the afternoon, and 27 percent occurred in the evening.

All foodservice retailers need to consider, catering to grab-and-go-home customers doesn't have to mean offering something drastically different from their existing grab-and-go lineup. The main difference lies in emphasizing accessibility and the ability to purchase multiple portions.

Grab-and-go-mix and match bundled meal options can include a wide variety of options, including larger individual product sizes, packaging designed for multiples of the same item, bundle deals, meal prep kits, take-home meals, and more.

Patrick Sebring, vice president of c-store sales at Smithfield Culinary, "When getting started, it's best if retailers do a bit of experimentation," advises. "With limited space and facing difficult labor issues, consider offering a couple of different items/packaging types at first and see how it goes. Look at what sells vs. what doesn't.”

Texas-based Texas Born (TXB) convenience stores are all about bundling, according to CEO Kevin Smartt. TXB offers such bundles as six tacos in a package, or large quantities of chicken to cater to families. "We find those customers are typically good repeat customers for us. They appreciate the bundles," Smartt said.

With the effects of inflation being felt across the board, offering grab-and-go-home bundles can give c-stores an advantage over quick-service restaurants and other foodservice retailers.

"People will be looking for value opportunities for take-home," Smartt pointed out.

Servais recommends that convenience retailers seeking a starting point for grab-and-go-home begin with hot offerings such as chicken wings and pizza, particularly in family-size.

Regular readers of this blog know that Kwik Trip is known for its Kitchen Cravings Take Home Meals program. Launched in 2019, the meals are prepared daily and individually packaged with full cooking instructions on the label. Standard selections include customer favorites like cheesy chicken casserole, beef stroganoff and multiple pasta meals, along with a smaller lineup of limited-time offers (LTOs).

"We have a strong core menu now with things like mac 'n cheese, chicken alfredo, meatloaf," Servais said. "The LTO selections are more about us finding the right meals for the future. Every month, we introduce two meals for a limited time, and we are looking for meals that 'stick.'"

C-store operators should not expect sales to skyrocket immediately as it takes time to change customers' buying habits, the foodservice executive cautioned.

"Long-term, we look for the Take Home Meals program to grow and become a significant part of our food sales, but we realize this will take a while," Servais said. Are you prepared to win within the grocerant niche?

Don’t over reach. Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® 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 us on our social media sites by clicking the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Restaurant Discontinuity Driven by Grocerant Growth

 

Once again, Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson predicts that 2022 will be a record year of chain restaurant discontinuity.  Specifically, with more chain restaurant closing stores and fewer total chain restaurants open entering 2023.

Regular readers of this blog know that back in the day (2005) the team at Foodservice Solutions® released a White Paper Restaurant Consumer Discontinuity; we noted consumer migration from the restaurant sector.  Consumers moved as their preference for meals eaten in restaurants waned and they migrated too fresh prepared meals bought and eaten at home.  The undercurrents of consumer migration from Eating-Out to Eating-In (at home) is even strong today according to Johnson.   

The main driver of this change is consumers desire to Mix and Match meal components into a perfect family meal.  This has been going on for a long time now.  In fact, consumers purchased 8 billion fast food combo meals in the year ended January 2012, down more than 12 percent from the 9 billion sold in the same period five years earlier, and that trend is continuing.  Consumers are dynamic not static.  Digital ordering and delivery has grown 300% faster than dine-in traffic since 2014.  

In a Battle for Share of Stomach

You Can Win

Let’s see just what other preferences they have adopted:

1.       Recent Grocerant ScoreCards found 82.3% of consumers don’t know what’s for dinner at Noon, and 61.1 don’t know what’ s for dinner at 4PM %.

2.       Roughly 66% of consumers purchase prepared food items from a retail location at least three times a month.

3.       83.1% all dinners have at least 1 grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal component and 68.4% have two meal components.

4.       When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 90.4 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 82.7% chose meal components.

5.       Seventy-three percent of retail prepared food purchases are taken to go

6.       Prepared food purchases are frequently a planned purchase among 59% of shoppers, while 41% of shoppers said they buy prepared foods on impulse. Dinner has the highest amount of prepared food buys with 79% of respondents making purchases for that meal, while lunch comes in at 77% and breakfast at 62%.

7.       55% of consumers would like to try autonomous EV delivery

 

Regular readers of this blog know we regularly documented that, consumers like to mix and match meal components. Mix and match meal bundling is a benchmark for success within the grocerant niche.

Recently we documented how grocery stores are now doing a great job at offering ‘better-for-you’ side dishes empowering consumers to buy fresh prepared sides from the ‘service deli’ rather than at a restaurant.  The intended consequence consumers are buying more entrees as well.  Consumers are dynamic not static is your branded food solutions static or dynamic?

Meal time is now becoming a time of convenient meal participation, with differentiation and individualization for the entire family.  The ability of the retailer to empower consumer choice within a bundled offering creates an additional platform for success. Do you want to understand how to empower that choice? Are you willing to empower customer migration back you your brand?

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant