By: NGA Nutrition Consultant, Annette Maggi, MS, RDN, LD, FAND
Stay at Home orders implemented across the country are essential in the fight against the coronavirus crisis. They’ve also created a dramatic shift in where and how consumers prepare and consume meals. All students, including college ones, are at home. Parents are working remotely. While takeout remains an option, restaurant food purchases have dramatically decreased. Weeks into the situation, consumers are starting to feel recipe fatigue as they’ve exhausted their typical rotation of meals. Most are concerned about their waist lines with comfort foods being used to manage stress and closed workout facilities taking a toll.
Retailers excel at shifting programs and promotions to meet their shoppers’ needs, and the current situation creates a pivot opportunity to suggestive selling of meal solutions. Shoppers seek options that manage all taste profiles and health needs in the household. They’re looking for fresh ideas that are easy to cook and cook once, eat twice options. Retailers can capitalize on these shopper needs in the following ways:
Deliver on Convenience. Pre-made proteins are an impactful way for grocery retailers to offer convenience to shoppers. Add precooked pork tenderloin to your rotisserie chicken case as a new main dish protein option for shoppers. Give recommendations on how it can be enjoyed on a Monday with veggies and then the leftovers cut or shredded to add to a salad for a healthy protein-packed meal on Tuesday. Preseason and cook ground meats, selling prepacked along with taco fixings in your grab-and-go deli section. Each day, highlight one of your convenience options in social media.
Meal Kit Craze. Meal kits allow families to try new recipes without having to do all the recipe research and ingredient shopping. NGA, through their Live.Balanced. Health and Wellness program, offers a variety of tested recipes that work well for meal kits. These can be offered in-store or through your click-and-collect options.
In-Store Solution Station. Shoppers are decreasing their time in store, making healthier meal solution stations ideal for suggestive selling. Again here, look to options in NGA’s Live.Balanced. resource kits for turnkey recipes and ideas for in-store bunkers. Detailed bunker set-up instructions for recipes are available in these resource kits. Offer for sale in a refrigerated case near the check-out lanes as well as at a station when shoppers enter the store and promote in ad and online to attract shoppers’ attention.
Click HERE to access NGA’s turnkey resources that help you meet your shoppers’ need for Meal solutions.
