Grab & Go
Retail solutions for solving consumers quest for convenient meals at dinnertime, or anytime.
Winning a greater share of stomach requires retailers to have a deep understanding of consumers’ convenience needs and current food trends.
The daily dinnertime dilemma is a problem consumers have long faced. But today, consumers have many more options than just popping by the grocery store to solve that problem. They can visit a restaurant, use a mobile app to order delivery from a restaurant, purchase prepared foods from a convenience store or pick up something from a grab-and-go concept. To become the solution of choice for more consumers more often, retailers need to better understand consumers’ convenience needs and offer on-trend options that address them.
In this interactive guide, you’ll explore the importance of convenient meal solutions at dinnertime, learn about which consumers demand convenience most, and discover product inspiration and solutions.
Convenience Matters
Food transparency is all about being proactively honest about what’s in your food and where it comes from. It can be as simple as listing calories and calling out allergens on menus, or more specific like identifying the farm a cow grazed on before making its way into your entrees.
Ways to be transparent.
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Create a detailed nutritional facts sheet; provide upon request.
List ingredients on your menu.
If there’s no room to list ingredients for every item, do it just for your most popular menu items. Be sure to make a larger, more complete list available upon request.
Clearly call out allergens (common allergens include nuts, dairy, gluten and shellfish); avoid cluttering your menu with too many words by using symbols, if necessary.
Highlight local or ethically sourced ingredients. Do this on your menu, but also create additional signage to generate awareness, inspire trial.
Add disclaimers to LTOs, where needed, that explain all ingredients are natural or local, etc.
Note any natural colors/flavors used in your cocktails and other beverages.
Keep your website current with all of the above info; a restaurant’s website is where consumers go first to learn more about a restaurant and decide to visit, or not.
Build
Connections
By making your food and brand practices more transparent, you can:
Consumer
Consumers who demand convenience.
Over the next five years, market researchers forecast that more consumers will shift more of their meals to in-the-home. As consumers eat more meals at home they are looking for foods they can conveniently and quickly prepare, or, simply, put on the table.
Among those consumers are:
Convenient & On-Trend
Convenient, but also on-trend.
Today’s consumers lead busier, more on-the-go, often stressful, lives, than ever before. The expanding demands of work and family have pushed many consumers to value time over money. They are willing to spend more on products and services that buy them time, make things easier — especially when it comes to dinner.
Running a transparent operation can build a personal connection between you and your customers. It communicates that you get it, you care about your customers wants, needs.
Want to reap some of these benefits?
Try some of these small and simple ways to incorporate transparency into your menu:
64% of consumers want companies to communicate what’s in a food or beverage product, according The Hartman Group.
Women value label transparency more than men.
Millennials
Seniors
Millennials
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56% of consumers have stopped visiting a foodservice location or chain because of something they discovered that reflects negatively about sourcing of food ingredients, according to Hansen/Technomic.
40% of consumers say natural claims on menus would make them more likely to purchase food at fast casuals, according to Technomic.
88% of women value access to in-depth product information, compared to just 79% of men.
76% of women are more likely to consider the full list of ingredient information before purchasing a brand’s product, versus just 65% of men.
Women ranked healthy ingredients as the top factor influencing loyalty, while men ranked price.
Convenient retail solutions.
To remain top-of-mind with consumers who are eating more meals at home or work as they make their mealtime purchasing decisions, savvy retailers will need to offer convenient options that address current trends, such as clean label and comfort foods. Ready-to-eat or heat-and-eat products become an increasingly important part of meals eaten at home or at work.
Blount’s Family Kitchen, the newest line of refrigerated meals from the chefs at Blount Fine Foods, offers an array of premium heat-and-serve products that meet consumers’ most pressing need states. Packaged in 12-counce recyclable, BPA-free containers with no lid, just a safety seal, that eliminate waste and lower consumers’ carbon footprint, these new items are clean label comfort foods that go from microwave to table in three minutes — delivering good food fast that’s also good for the planet. Explore the below options, and others, that are sure to fly off your shelves.
3 Minutes to Mealtime
Explore menu options that will excite—and meet the needs of—your consumers:
Comfort foods — items that evoke nostalgia, memories, pleasant feelings — continue to be popular with consumers.
44% of consumers say they are deliberately trying to avoid artificial color/dyes in their daily diet, according to The Hartman Group.
A fifth-generation family owned and operated prepared food company, Blount Fine Foods is committed to — and has a long history of — answering foodservice operators’ call for high-quality prepared foods.
Blount knows firsthand the importance of telling the story behind food, as it has its own proud seafood story to tell. Deeply rooted in the New England seafood industry, the first family members came to work the Narragansett oyster beds just after the Civil Was. In the 1880s, Eddie B. Blount started an oyster packing firm in West Barrington, Rhode Island. Ever since then, Blount has been evolving and growing to offer premium quality, convenient-to-prepare foods that are as authentic as they are delicious.
In addition to delivering the highest-quality prepared foods, we’re also dedicated to helping our customers succeed. Whether it’s collaborating to create menu pairings, creating customized programs to increase check averages, or supporting marketing efforts, Blount is here to guide our customers every step of the way.
Inside Blount Fine Foods
We stand by our commitment to:
For more information:
Visit Blount Fine Foods
Ancient Grain Minestrone
A modern classic: Everything you love about minestrone, plus a dash of healthy, hearty quinoa, farro and barely.
Beef Stroganoff with Noodles
A hearty, protein-rich entrée — just like Mom used to make, only better now that this single-serve potion can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere with a microwave. Made with tender stew beef in a decadent sour cream sauce with egg noodles.
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Chunky Beef Chili
Warm up in Winter with a hearty chili.
Chunks of beef, kidney and black beans, bell peppers with a blend of tomatoes and spices.
Quality
From the home kitchen
to restaurants, our products are distinguished by their taste and consistency. Our best products start with a commitment to creative, culinary expertise, to the highest standards of quality and, of course, to premium ingredients.
Clean Label
Even before consumers demanded it or Food and Drug Administration began regulating it, Blount was creating products made with as few ingredients as needed and without artificial flavors or artificial colors. We continue that tradition, creating the same wholesome foods for our customers that we would feed our own families.
Sustainability
We are dedicated to protect our natural resources and we employ significant Three R (reduce, reuse, recycle) programs, which are directed by our engineering “Green Team”, and are supported by associates at every level of our company.
Convenience
Our customers buy into a whole lot more than just America’s best soup. We provide flexible yet efficient ways to dish up The Ultimate Customer Experience.
11% of consumers say convenience is most important in products they eat, up from just 7% in 2013, according to The NPD Group.
53% of all eating occasions include a desire to avoid spending the time and energy it takes to cook, according to The Hartman Group.
80% of meals eaten at home are sourced from the pantry or the freezer, according to The NPD Group.
79% of consumers over 60 consider a full list of ingredients when making purchase decisions, compared with 65% of adults 18 to 29.
Older consumers may value transparency more, in part, because they can afford to. As younger consumers grow their purchasing power, food transparency may become more important in their decision-making.
29% of consumers over 60 listed healthy ingredients as their top factor compared with only 17% of younger consumers, who say they weigh price more heavily.
Consumers Over 60 value label transparency more than younger consumers (for now).
Are meticulous in their quest for all the facts before buying, and so research more than any other generation.
Have the highest expectations around food out of all generations.
Highly value clean label.
Millennials, aka the “prove it” generation.
Millennials Born 1981 to 1996, and now aged 23 to 38. This “prove it” generation accounts for about 24% of the population. Older millennials are in prime career and family/child-rearing life stage, which means they are most in need of convenient ways to put dinner on the table. When it comes to food, they:
Gender
Seniors
Millennials
Super Sides Will Travel
49% of 18 to 34 year olds are more likely to order food to go than three years ago, according to Technomic. Try these menuing items that hold up for the journey, like these sides:
Creamed Corn with Bacon
Classic creamed corn, made better with bacon.
Sweet corn, butter, smoky uncured bacon and spices.
Dill Pickle Inspired Mac and Cheese
All the comfort of classic mac and cheese with a tangy twist. Elbow pasta, creamy white cheddar sauce, with the taste of tangy dill.
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Limited Time Offers
Millennials and Gen Xers like to be the first of their friends to try an LTO item, according to Technomic research. Try menuing unique, on-trend items for a limited time, such as these singular soups:
Cream of Turkey Soup
Celebrate the feel and flavors of Thanksgiving all month long. Made with diced white turkey meat, wild rice blend, cranberries, cream and a touch of sherry wine.
Lasagna Soup with Turkey Sausage
Make it a December to remember with this comforting classic in soup form. Made with: Turkey sausage, onions and garlic simmered with tomatoes and mini lasagna noodles accented with a blend of cheeses.
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When you’ve earned a customer’s trust, you increase the likelihood they’ll visit, and open the door for long-term loyalty.
Once consumers begin to trust that your food is what you say it is, that your brand promise is authentic, they’ll be more likely to spend more of their dollars at your establishment.
Convenience may be king with time-pressed consumers making it a top priority for all eating occasions, but that doesn’t mean other need states don’t factor into consumers purchasing decisions. Research shows that clean label, and comfort foods are also of high importance to consumers.
What is Clean Label? Not a scientific term, but a consumer movement. Clean Label products are defined as those made with as few ingredients as possible, and with ingredients that consumers find familiar, even have at home, and that they perceive to be wholesome.
What is Comfort Food? This term refers to foods that provide nostalgic or sentimental value, even evoke feelings of well-being. Comfort foods tend to be centered around hearty carbohydrates (made with pasta, for example) and simple to prepare (like a casserole or other one-pot dish). These foods can be specific to American or another culture, or to an individual.
Gen Xers
Baby Boomers
Gen Xers. Born 1965 to 1980, and now aged 39-54, this group accounts for about 20 percent of the population. This “middle generation,” sandwiched between Boomers and Millennials, is more educated and more ethnically diverse than Boomers. Most are still in the throes of balancing careers with kids. When it comes to food, they:
Prefer comfort foods, familiar favorites.
Value a touch of safe adventures.
Crave authenticity.
Baby Boomers. Born 1946 to 1964, and now aged 55 to 73, this aging generation accounts for about 23 percent of the population. They once led the use of limited service restaurants, now they are moving toward eating more meals at home. When it comes to purchasing foods for at-home meals they:
Gravitate toward wholesome/healthier ingredients; a top factor for Boomers when making purchasing decisions.
Value label transparency.
Review and consider the full list of ingredients before buying.
To attract convenience-oriented consumers, retailers will need not only to carry
the right products, but also offer a streamlined experience.
Retailers can attract these consumers and gain their loyalty with:
Highly visible product placement.
Clear product labeling and pricing.
Multiple methods of payment for ease of checkout.
91% of U.S. consumers believe food and beverage options with recognizable ingredients are healthier, according to Innova.
The dinnertime favorite found on menus at full-service restaurants, now ready to heat and serve in just three minutes at home or at work. Made with white meat chicken and penne pasta in a savory mushroom sauce with Marsala wine. Includes chicken raised without antibiotics.
Chicken with Noodles
in a Marsala Wine Sauce
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A complete, indulgent restaurant-style meal ready-to-heat and serve in three minutes in the comfort of the home or at work. Made with white meat chicken and broccoli with penne pasta in a Parmesan-garlic Alfredo sauce. Includes chicken raised without antibiotics.
Chicken & Broccoli
Alfredo with Penne
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The classic American casserole dish now in single-serve heat-and-eat portions. Ideal as an individual meal or as a side dish. Made with ground beef, elbow macaroni in a chunky tomato sauce.
Macaroni & Beef
with Tomato Sauce
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Gen Xers
Baby Boomers
Millennials
Explore 4 Convenient Meal Options
Nutritonal Facts
Nutritonal Facts
Nutritonal Facts
Nutritonal Facts