Cash in on Stay-at-Home Diners

Jim Cramer, the famously ranting investment guru on CNBC, recently reported that couch potatoes may be the real enemy of the retail and restaurant industries.

Stay-at-home types are great for Netflix, the video gaming industry and food delivery, but traditional restaurants and retailers need to change their games to recapture these consumers’ interest. Cramer cites Panera Bread’s recent focus on digital sales and takeout as one winning strategy for reaching out to couch potatoes.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that so-called cubicle potatoes in the workplace are creating a “brown-bag effect” that hurt restaurants last year, according to research firm NPD Group. The full-service casual dining segment has continued to slide, and even quick service restaurants stalled last year. Lunch took the most hits, “as more people worked from home, chose to eat at their desks and shopped online. A rise in online shopping means fewer shoppers trudging around malls and grabbing a bite to eat in between stores,” according to NPD.

The restaurant industry’s slow pace in adapting, however, can be a win for “options like grocery store hot food or cook-at-home meal kits,” NPD contends. To keep these new sales patterns moving into retail, grocerants need to put shopper convenience first with prepared food delivery, curbside pickup, and more prepay and quick pay options.

Grocerant-Ready Ideas:

• Prepared meal clubs that pre-sell dinner orders
• Digital sales apps for at-home meal orders and curbside pickups
• Easy online menu navigation for building salads, sandwiches and customized convenience for in-store pickup