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THE WEEK IN RETAIL ISSUE 50
EDITOR’S COMMENT
WHEN WILL FOOD TO GO BE GOOD TO GO?
The latest Food To Go Market Report from Lumina Intelligence makes interesting reading. Long story short, the market has tanked in the last year, down 45% - which will come as a surprise to absolutely no one.
But what is possibly more eye-catching is the prediction that 2021 will see a big rebound with Lumina predicting an increase in the category of 32%. Let’s hope that they are spot on and food to go does indeed get back into gear. Pre- Covid, it was one of the biggest opportunities in convenience and the blurring of the traditional foodservice / retail boundary was intensifying by the week.
But how exactly has Covid impacted on the category? And what will the legacy of Covid mean for food to go? It seems logical that sales of food to go in convenience will pick up when some sort of normality resumes, but there have to be some big question marks hanging over the category. A minimum level of footfall is required to make food to go work well and the latest TRDP footfall figures show that footfall is improving but still has a long way to go. And there’s no guarantee that footfall will ever return to pre-Covid levels.
Secondly, there is a serious risk of a hygiene hangover from Covid. Customers have been so used to being uber careful with regards to hygiene and cleanliness that it may take them some time to start feeling comfortable enough to buy relatively high risk freshly made food from c-stores again. It possibly reiterates the need for food to go retailers to operate to the very highest hygiene and safety standards - and make that obvious to their customers.
Thirdly, the whole world has moved on and customers are now very comfortable with home delivery and new ways of getting what they want. Expecting them to slot back into pre-Covid habits may be understandable, but it’s not necessarily going to pan out that way.
There’s a lot to ponder around food to go and the next few months may need retailers to demonstrate yet more of that famous agility of theirs if they are to secure their share of what we all hope is a growing food to go pie.
