Small bites, big sales: snacking is on the rise |
Snacking is a trend that’s here to stay. With the right menu offerings in place, restaurants can profit from those snack-attacks.
Whether at home or away, consumers’ eating behaviour continues to evolve and change. One of the big trends we are tracking at the NPD Group is the move away from traditional meals toward quick, convenient foods – a trend driven by today’s busy lifestyles. The reasons consumers snack, however, are varied: time, money, hunger, diet, boredom, stress, to boost energy, and out of habit, to name a few.
Though a great deal of attention is given to the importance of health in snacking, its relative importance needs to be put into perspective. Consumer needs evolve throughout the day, with health more prominent in the morning and indulgence in the evening. The top reason why consumers purchase snack foods is for enjoyment, which includes taste, followed by reasons that relate to indulgence. Health and weight control rank lower when it comes to snack selections.
Another factor behind the increase in snacking is that more women are entering the workplace. A side effect of having 62 per cent of women over the age of 15 in the workforce is more time-crunched meals, with snacks filling the gaps. While this trend continues, we can expect to see not only more snacking, but greater use of restaurants in general.
More snack-related QSR visits
Snack visits to quick service restaurants account for nearly 1.7 billion visits and over $5 billion in sales. Snacking continued to drive growth over the past three years, even while lunch and supper were in the doldrums at times. The outcome is that by 2011, snacking was up by more than 120 million visits compared to 2008. Clearly consumers love to snack, and restaurants are a natural destination for convenient snacks in the right portion at the right price.
Snack occasions account for 40 per cent of all QSR traffic, and customers are visiting more often at all snacking periods – morning, afternoon and evening. Prime-time snacking occurs between core meal-times: 9-11 am, 2-4 pm and 7-10 pm. When an operator has all the business they can handle during the hectic lunch period, snackable menu items can create incremental visits outside of the main meal periods.
