For many of us, the current economic climate has curtailed more than just our shoe shopping or vacationing habits. It’s hitting us right in the gut (no pun intended) by changing our food and beverage consumption habits as well. As Elizabeth Strott, a finance journalist, explained concisely in a July 2009 MSN Money article, “The slumping economy has changed America’s attitudes toward eating out.” Zagat statistics show that a whopping 33% of restaurant-goers nationwide have reported becoming more attentive to menu prices at restaurants, and that 28% of regular restaurant patrons indicated that they have switched to dining at cheaper restaurants than they used to frequent before the recession began. About one-fifth of consumers polled are still dining out regularly, but have given up ordering alcoholic beverages, appetizers, or desserts when they do. All of this spells fewer customers and lower bottom lines for all kinds of dining establishments, from the high-end locations to the ones that feature drive-through windows and 99-cent Whoppers. “Restaurants need to be ready for customers who feel tired, overwhelmed and tapped out financially,” noted Maria Caranfa, the director of Mintel Menu Insights, a menu consultancy, recently.
So is there a silver lining, so to speak, to this restaurant-busting cloud? Well, for one, when consumers eat out less, they begin to cook at home more, and studies show that meals cooked at home usually contain more vegetables and whole grains and tend to be lower in calories, fat, and sodium. Consumers are also more likely to consume reasonable portion sizes when cooking—and eating—at home. Thus, fewer dollars spent dining out-of-home could make for healthier consumers. Even during a recession, healthier consumers are more likely to spend on the lucrative categories of sporting goods and athletic apparel. Secondly, as experiences middle-class American consumers have historically loved—like an annual five-day vacation or the purchase of a new car— have increasingly become out of reach, shoppers are looking to boost their own morale by enjoying smaller, more affordable indulgences to the fullest (by buying whipped cream to go with that instant hot chocolate, or purchasing hot fudge and rainbow sprinkles and to top their ice cream.)
Shoppers will also be looking for inexpensive ways to enhance their at-home dining experience, and will be more interested in trying out new food and beverage products and in seeking new flavors and textures to add to their homemade meals. This provides a great opportunity for supermarket retailers and packaged goods companies like ConAgra, Kraft Foods, and Nestle, since consumers are more likely now than ever to toss a newly introduced product into their carts at the grocery store. According to Diana Cholewa, a senior analyst at Mintel, this means that companies who decide to introduce food products with flavors like persimmon, starfruit, lavender, cactus, and masala are poised to enjoy higher sales this year. Consumers who feel “stuck in a rut” (due to, say, an extended period of joblessness) will often seek to alleviate their ennui by choosing products that feel novel and exciting, and purchases made at the supermarket, convenience store, and greengrocer are no exception. In large part, successful marketing is about getting inside a consumer’s head and working to truly understand his or her wants and needs; if marketers can bear this in mind in our current economic climate and translate this insight into improved product offerings and line extensions in processed food categories, the results could be fantastic.