Advertising Age reports that any sales increases being experienced by supermarket retailers and packaged foods manufacturers this year are largely due to price increases – for example, the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) says that the average grocery bill is up five percent this year compared to a year ago.
The story also notes that anecdotal evidence suggests that while people may be eating more at home, they are not necessarily cooking more, which explains why prepared meals and items like cereal and macaroni-and-cheese may be doing better than ingredients when it comes to sales improvements.
The story also notes that anecdotal evidence suggests that while people may be eating more at home, they are not necessarily cooking more, which explains why prepared meals and items like cereal and macaroni-and-cheese may be doing better than ingredients when it comes to sales improvements.
- KC's View:
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It is possible that one of the reasons that the food industry seemingly ignored Family Meal Day this year is because of this trend – the powers that be figured that since people were eating at home more because of the economy, it would be redundant to focus on the broader issue addressed in Sansolo’s column above.
But again, this is a miscalculation in my view, because it is reactive rather than pro-active.
