June 15, 2007
Consumers Trading Up on Takeout Food
American consumers are ordering takeout more than ever before and they’re also doing something else that is new – they’re skipping fast feeders and other quick and cheap outlets for more upscale culinary fare.
According to a USA Today article, fast casual and fine dining establishments have come to realize that a growing number of consumers want what’s on restaurants menus, they just want to eat it off-premises.
“People used to go to restaurants to eat,” Harry Balzer of the NPD Group, said. “Now, they go out to get food to go.”
According to NPD, more than half of all meals ordered from restaurants were for takeout in 2006. The typical American ate 81 meals inside a restaurant while 127 orders were to-go.
Darra Goldstein, editor in chief of Gastronomica, told USA Today, “The meal is not something that Americans see as primary in their lives. Eating is something they do while they’re doing something else.”
Today, restaurants including Outback Steakhouse, the Cheesecake Factory, and P.F. Chang’s China Bistro are among the eateries that now offer curbside pickup for consumers.
Outback offers the service at all its 801 restaurants and curbside pickup now accounts for 12 percent of the chain’s total sales compared to three percent when it was first introduced 10 years ago.
Discussion Questions: Do you see the demand for higher quality (and priced) takeout food continuing to grow? What does this trend mean for retailers such as supermarkets and convenience stores trying to compete in the takeout area?
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Yes, I do see the trend continuing. Americans continue to be time starved, especially households with both partners working. The trend in restaurant take-out underscores the desire for convenience rather than simply the ambiance and service provided at the restaurant. Time starved working couples want to “kick back” and relax over a meal at home. Working moms do not want to have to get out of the car with the two toddlers to get tonight’s dinner.
If supermarkets are serious about dinner then they need to provide restaurant-like quality, the ability to do menu-like ordering, the ability to order via phone, PDA, computer, etc., and the ability to not have to physically come into the store.
Three suggestions for restaurants with curb service:
1. Issue a clearly written detailed receipt printed in English (not abbreviations) so the customer can quickly verify the order’s theirs before taking custody of the carryout.
2. Place clear tops on food containers so customer can quickly verify what’s inside.
3. Use clear carry out bags so customer can quickly verify what’s inside.
Getting home with a MacDonald’s burger that has the wrong topping is annoying, but getting home with the wrong entree for which you’ve forked over $35.00 is a disaster.
This trend strengthens my view, expressed in Tuesday’s discussion on meal assembly locations, that recipe prep outlets don’t have a great future as recipe prep outlets. Perhaps the better go-to-market strategy for them is to re-open as take-out only commissaries.
I see this every day. And Takeout has to extend to the frozen food section of the Supermarket. I have recently become a huge fan of the Bertolli Skillet Meals sold in all my local supermarkets. These dishes are ready in 10 minutes, will feed two for less than $8.00, Under $10 including a nice salad and glass of wine. This is less that $5 per person for fare equal to anything most midscale operators offer. The restaurant industry had better look at the advances in food quality in the frozen section as I have been delighted by what I am finding. Additionally, my food is hot, my salad isn’t soggy, and my wine hasn’t been marked up 1000%. As our population ages, pressure will increase for quality, convenience and efficiency. Coupled with the coming $5/gallon gasoline I see foodservice being pressed more than ever to deliver value.
I think we all agree that this is a burgeoning trend. But perhaps the greatest endorsement is the quality of the companies putting (a lot of) money where their mouth is–like Tesco.
Takeout food is evolving like “healthier” food items have done. It used to be okay that a “healthy” item simply satisfied a health-driven need; taste was secondary. Now healthy food must also taste good. It appears that takeout food is also ratcheting up the quality and taste standards.
It will be interesting to see if the consumer is going to increase their overall food spend to accommodate the more expensive fare. With fuel prices already higher, and many food items on their way up, there is going to come a point where budgets have to compromise.
The retailer is well-positioned to capitalize on this evolution because the consumer is already in the store for staples. The challenge now is to deliver on variety, quality and taste standards.
There is great potential. The issue for supermarket and convenience stores is their commitment to bring quality standards and offerings to their consumers as a real choice. Great retailers like WaWa, Wegmans, Ukrops and Whole Foods are all are committed to not only bring options, but also to bring quality choices into play.
The days of three day old sandwiches as an add on into the front of deli cases will just continue to drive the consumable dollars elsewhere.
Yes, this is a trend that will continue to grow at high rates with the amazing rise in wide-spread affluence and sophistication. I would say these are the two largest trends I have seen traveling the country over the past 20 years. If you rent a car and drive anywhere in the US and turn on the AM radio, you will hear talk shows on many subjects, two of the biggest being money and food.
I know a lot of retailers have gotten burned trying to jump on the “meal replacement” bandwagon, but that does not invalidate the trends. It’s just not that easy a need to fill profitably. Maybe one of these new efforts will find the recipe.
I couldn’t agree more with many of the comments here. But the one key component to providing home meal replacement is combining speed of service with convenience. It’s the one area upscale convenience retailers such as Sheetz and Wawa have been able to trump supermarket chains. Supermarkets may have the bigger kitchens and more elaborate menus, but they are not convenient. Tesco will likely alter the playing field by building from the ground up stores that are easy to get in and out of, and offer quality and value. I’m envisioning more of the Trader Joe’s model. Then again, Wal-Mart tried that with the Neighborhood Market concept and it doesn’t appear to have lived up to the hype or expectations.
The potential is unlimited. Traditional retailers have focused on the consumer and reduced the number of SKUs in each store. They have replaced them with ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat products that can be bundled into a “2010” meal for the family. Just push the four containers in the middle of the table and you have a new home-prepared meal. Ah…that is the way America is now eating.
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Yes, I do see the trend continuing. Americans continue to be time starved, especially households with both partners working. The trend in restaurant take-out underscores the desire for convenience rather than simply the ambiance and service provided at the restaurant. Time starved working couples want to “kick back” and relax over a meal at home. Working moms do not want to have to get out of the car with the two toddlers to get tonight’s dinner.
If supermarkets are serious about dinner then they need to provide restaurant-like quality, the ability to do menu-like ordering, the ability to order via phone, PDA, computer, etc., and the ability to not have to physically come into the store.
Three suggestions for restaurants with curb service:
1. Issue a clearly written detailed receipt printed in English (not abbreviations) so the customer can quickly verify the order’s theirs before taking custody of the carryout.
2. Place clear tops on food containers so customer can quickly verify what’s inside.
3. Use clear carry out bags so customer can quickly verify what’s inside.
Getting home with a MacDonald’s burger that has the wrong topping is annoying, but getting home with the wrong entree for which you’ve forked over $35.00 is a disaster.
This trend strengthens my view, expressed in Tuesday’s discussion on meal assembly locations, that recipe prep outlets don’t have a great future as recipe prep outlets. Perhaps the better go-to-market strategy for them is to re-open as take-out only commissaries.
I see this every day. And Takeout has to extend to the frozen food section of the Supermarket. I have recently become a huge fan of the Bertolli Skillet Meals sold in all my local supermarkets. These dishes are ready in 10 minutes, will feed two for less than $8.00, Under $10 including a nice salad and glass of wine. This is less that $5 per person for fare equal to anything most midscale operators offer. The restaurant industry had better look at the advances in food quality in the frozen section as I have been delighted by what I am finding. Additionally, my food is hot, my salad isn’t soggy, and my wine hasn’t been marked up 1000%. As our population ages, pressure will increase for quality, convenience and efficiency. Coupled with the coming $5/gallon gasoline I see foodservice being pressed more than ever to deliver value.
I think we all agree that this is a burgeoning trend. But perhaps the greatest endorsement is the quality of the companies putting (a lot of) money where their mouth is–like Tesco.
Takeout food is evolving like “healthier” food items have done. It used to be okay that a “healthy” item simply satisfied a health-driven need; taste was secondary. Now healthy food must also taste good. It appears that takeout food is also ratcheting up the quality and taste standards.
It will be interesting to see if the consumer is going to increase their overall food spend to accommodate the more expensive fare. With fuel prices already higher, and many food items on their way up, there is going to come a point where budgets have to compromise.
The retailer is well-positioned to capitalize on this evolution because the consumer is already in the store for staples. The challenge now is to deliver on variety, quality and taste standards.
There is great potential. The issue for supermarket and convenience stores is their commitment to bring quality standards and offerings to their consumers as a real choice. Great retailers like WaWa, Wegmans, Ukrops and Whole Foods are all are committed to not only bring options, but also to bring quality choices into play.
The days of three day old sandwiches as an add on into the front of deli cases will just continue to drive the consumable dollars elsewhere.
Yes, this is a trend that will continue to grow at high rates with the amazing rise in wide-spread affluence and sophistication. I would say these are the two largest trends I have seen traveling the country over the past 20 years. If you rent a car and drive anywhere in the US and turn on the AM radio, you will hear talk shows on many subjects, two of the biggest being money and food.
I know a lot of retailers have gotten burned trying to jump on the “meal replacement” bandwagon, but that does not invalidate the trends. It’s just not that easy a need to fill profitably. Maybe one of these new efforts will find the recipe.
I couldn’t agree more with many of the comments here. But the one key component to providing home meal replacement is combining speed of service with convenience. It’s the one area upscale convenience retailers such as Sheetz and Wawa have been able to trump supermarket chains. Supermarkets may have the bigger kitchens and more elaborate menus, but they are not convenient. Tesco will likely alter the playing field by building from the ground up stores that are easy to get in and out of, and offer quality and value. I’m envisioning more of the Trader Joe’s model. Then again, Wal-Mart tried that with the Neighborhood Market concept and it doesn’t appear to have lived up to the hype or expectations.
The potential is unlimited. Traditional retailers have focused on the consumer and reduced the number of SKUs in each store. They have replaced them with ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat products that can be bundled into a “2010” meal for the family. Just push the four containers in the middle of the table and you have a new home-prepared meal. Ah…that is the way America is now eating.