Take a Page from Restaurant Trends

Hudson Riehle, senior vice president, Research & Knowledge Group for the National Restaurant Association, recently talked with Meat and Poultry magazine for a restaurant industry overview that also offers some pointers for the grocerant category.

Riehle notes that despite some challenges, “restaurant industry sales this year will reach a record high of $799 billion, up 4.3 percent over last year.” Greater growth will come from smarter pricing: “Value proposition has to be stronger than ever today,” he says. “Three out of 4 consumers said they would visit a restaurant during off-peak hours to receive a discount, a strategy more restaurant operators may be exploring in the future.”

Restaurants are already far ahead of grocerants in terms of discounting, and making the most of off-peak pricing specials is a great idea for all foodservice settings. At grocerants, try rebranding the salad bar as an “afternoon snack bar” with special pricing and a few unexpected ingredients, like chocolate-covered dried fruit or a chips and salsa station.

Riehle sees restaurant meal subscriptions as another opportunity for “enticing cost-conscious consumers and helping operators generate incremental demand. Forty-two percent of consumers said they would join a monthly program that pays in advance for restaurant meals with such benefits as discounts and exclusive offers.”

Many grocery stores have already added meal kits and packages, and a club membership deal might be the extra hook needed to reel more consumers into an arrangement that Riehle compares to Netflix subscriptions. Recent NRA surveys show more than half of millennials would subscribe to a restaurant meal plan, Riehle notes.

Annika Stensson, NRA director of research communications, sees better health as an increasingly important driver, with two-thirds of consumers saying they are ordering more healthful options in restaurants now than they were two years ago.

Stensson tells Meat and Poultry that “trends are becoming more concept-based, more idea-based than single ingredient-based or dish-based. These days it’s not so much about whether kale or cauliflower is going to be the hottest trend of the year; it’s more about if that kale or cauliflower is sourced locally, if it’s grown in an environmentally friendly way and how it’s prepared,” she says.

Grocerant-Ready Ideas:

• Frequent-buyer incentives for shoppers to join prepared meal subscription programs
• After-school food-and-drink combos that encourage local students to visit at off-peak hours
• Binge-friendly snack box specials with themes to match the latest Netflix releases