Your Grandma, and maybe even your Mom, lovingly and painstakingly prepared meals from scratch and delivered them to the table in serving bowls while everybody sat down, shared grace and offered up friendly conversation from their day. The days of Wally & June are long gone and today’s time strapped consumers do not have time for that same level of scratch cooking.
Despite the blogger or Pinterest effect that gives consumers endless ideas for meal prep and planning, time still wins and meal assembly versus scratch cooking has become the norm. A recent study from North Carolina State University identified several challenges to getting a home cooked meal on the table; everything from time, distribution of labor, financial constraints, picky eaters and more.
The downfall of the sit down meal has been talked about greatly in the news, and we’ve seen ups and downs in its re-occurrence and disappearance. The thing we haven’t seen more of is more time. The household cook is making trade-offs to purchase ready-to-eat meals from restaurants and grocery delis, or other meal prep ingredients that make getting a warm meal on the table fast – but also delicious.
What does that mean for food producers and food marketers? It means we need to change with the times. Convenience still rules. We need to create products that are fast and easy to prepare and cook, but also deliver quality flavors the whole family will love. These products should be easy to prepare with other meal assembly ingredients.
For example, Baloian Farms does a great job of reinventing fresh vegetables with their squash with seasoning kit. This vegetable side requires about 3 minutes of prep time and only about 5 minutes of cook time. Consumer friendly flavors like roasted red pepper or parmesan and garlic appeal to all family members. Better yet, this affordable side pairs well with products that can be picked up at the grocery deli like rotisserie chicken or meatloaf.
Not only do you need to think about the products you sell to consumers, but also your merchandising strategy and who your customer is. Can you work with your buyers to get secondary placement near the deli, or better yet, work with the deli to create recipes that use your products?
Where there is a will there is a way. Don’t fall victim to changing trends you missed. Email us if you want some help thinking about your product line and how it can best serve time strapped consumers.
Written by Melinda Goodman
Managing Partner
