Supermarket Perimeter - January 2022 - 23

ON TREND
Naperville, Ill.-based. KeHE Distributors and London-based
Tate & Lyle PLC recently released their lists of top food
trends to watch in 2022. It won't surprise retail grocers to
know that convenience ranked high on both lists.
The pandemic restrictions to stay at home have caused a
lasting impact on some consumers and their eating habits,
according to KeHE. Fifty-three percent of US consumers who
cooked using convenience foods and followed set meal routines
more often due to the pandemic, plan to maintain these habits.
Anticipating continuing these convenience at-home
food habits, they are looking for time-saving products and
grab-and-go snacks. Along with that, quality ingredient
and chef-inspired frozen meals, home delivery meals, and
refrigerated appetizers and entrees are expected to continue
in growth as consumers look for quick lunches or dinners to
be made at home or away from home.
Convenience joins transparency, plant-based, sugar
reduction, gut health and bett=er-for-you snacking on Tate &
Lyle's list.
Consumers are connected digitally but do not have much
free time, making convenience a higher priority, according to
Tate & Lyle.
Tapping into lunch demand
Pre-pandemic, many harried consumers grabbed
lunch from the prepared foods section or another
fresh perimeter department of their grocery store.
COVID did a number on that and other
were down by 11%, according to NPD.
Although lunch traffic hasn't fully recovered to
foodservice-channel lunch options. During the
pandemic, about 78% of lunches were prepared and
eaten at home, according to the Chicago-based
NPD Group.
Now, however, with many Americans returning
to work full-time or at least part-time, away-fromhome
lunches are starting to pick back up, and for
the convenience-minded, the grocery perimeter
is a great option and retailers who tap into it have
much to gain.
" The need to have instant foods or foods that
can be prepared in less than a minute are starting
to come back, " said Darren Seifer, NPD food and
beverage industry analyst. Prepared foods sections
in grocery perimeter departments can " meet the needs
of those consumers who don't have that time. "
Interestingly, he added, even during the pandemic when far more
people were eating lunch at home, the ever-growing demand for
convenience was still there.
" Even when consumers were working from home, the need for
convenience was still there. They still only dedicated 5 minutes to
preparing lunch. So the 'lunch rush' never really changed. "
Retail grocers looking to bolster their grab-and-go lunch options
should keep in mind that convenience-minded consumers like anything
that fits into an easy-to-carry bag so they can have one hand on their
phone and the other on their lunch, Seifer said.
Snack kits, packaged lunches and snack foods like fresh fruit or bags
of chips are also big winners when it comes to convenience and lunch,
he added.
Online and physical foodservice visits during lunch increased by 4%
in the year ending September 2021 compared to a year ago when visits
40% of American
homes now have
air fryers.
(source: NPD)
pre-pandemic levels, down 8% from September
2019, the increase in visits is a significant
improvement over the double-digit declines
experienced last year.
According to NPD's recently released Future of
Lunch study, restaurant lunch visits are forecast to
grow by double-digits from 2021 through 2024, but
the gain will be 2.4% below pre-pandemic levels.
" Consumers are on the go now, which means
they're looking for convenience, whether they
prepare it or a restaurant or retailer does, " Seifer
said. " Food manufacturers, restaurant operators and
retailers all have opportunities to fulfill consumers'
lunch needs whether they're commuting, staying at
home, or a hybrid of the two. "
As for dinner, one convenience-related
development that exploded during COVID was
the wide adoption of air fryers in Americans' kitchens.
About 40% of homes now have them, Seifer said.
Retailers and their supplier partners can tap into this surging category
by making it as easy as possible for consumers to use their air fryers, via
instructions on food packaging and other methods, and just by making
it clear which products in the perimeter can be cooked in air fryers.
Convenience used to be just about saving time in preparing the
product, Seifer said. Now, consumers also want to save time and energy
buying the product and figuring out how to make it - cutting down on
what Seifer calls " decision fatigue. "
Digital will play a huge role in the future of convenience, Seifer said.
" Digital ordering is a bright spot, and the forecast is bright for that
continuing. Pre-pandemic, there were still a lot of hurdles to get over.
When people are walking through the perimeter, they may look at the
fruit and say, 'I want bananas with a little bit of green on them.' But I
think what this last year proved is that if the bananas aren't exactly the
way you want them, they'll still be OK. "
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Supermarket Perimeter - January 2022

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