With this January’s snow and cold, many Americans are warming up with hot home-made meals. But while consumers more engaged with food than ever, many have less time for planning and preparing home cooked meals. Shoppers are increasingly opting for easy meals—but we don’t mean TV dinners. Growing hunger for convenience—a broad and evolving need—will continue to affect the entire store in 2014.
SHOPPING FOR CONVENIENCE IN GROCERY AND BEYOND
The idea of planning and eating three square meals a day is a thing of the past for many consumers. Many shoppers plan meals just hours in advance, seeking fast solutions and sometimes replacing meals altogether with snacks. This evolving demand contributes to channel blurring and often drives retailers into direct competition with foodservice.
Across the retail landscape, the rise of convenience is shifting channel shares. Value and convenience channels continue to win shoppers and capture strong retail channel growth. While the grocery channel has a significant advantage over other channels in terms of shopping frequency, its share has declined. In 2012, the average household made 56 trips to the grocery channel—16 fewer trips than in 2001. Value channels, including supercenters, dollar stores and warehouses are picking up the slack, each seeing shopper trips increase compared to 2001. Many grocery retailers are striving to recapture fill-in trips by catering to time-strapped consumers with a variety of fresh options.
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