This week in the Escapade office, we discovered the Waitrose Food and Drink report 2017-2018*, which unsurprisingly brought on lots of mini debates!
The first question was – can you guess what was in flavour in 2017? The top ten included carbs, protein and blueberries.
Brunch also made it into the top 10, where we are waking up later on the weekends and arranging more ‘catch ups’ over brunch! Peanut Butter sales are up by 20% this year*, maybe because we now want Peanut Butter on our ice cream, on our waffles and even on our cereal!
This year, we have become much more flexible with our eating and shopping habits. So when do you choose what you’re having for dinner?
Waitrose found that over 22% of us decide at Lunchtime with only 6% deciding the weekend before. With that said, nearly 70% of us decide what we want for dinner on the day, so it comes as no surprise that 65% of Britons visit a supermarket more than once a day – happy shopping!
Dinner for one? Waitrose found that over 78% of us now think that solo dining is more socially acceptable. If you were eating alone, would you be spotted on your mobile phone? 34% of 18-24 year olds now see their mobile phone as a ‘surrogate dining companion’.
Or maybe, consumers are starting to eat solo because hosts are getting fed up with their guest’s etiquette? Waitrose found that Britons get annoyed with fussy eaters, those who don’t say thank you and we really don’t like a ‘back-seat’ cook!
Next Friday, hundreds and thousands of people will be rushing around and frantically trying to catch all the best deals in the Black Friday sales so why only now are consumers happy to buy from the reduced section in a supermarket? Waitrose found that 53% of consumers buy from the reduced section more than they did five years ago.
So what’s in store for 2018? The question should really be what’s not in store! Waitrose found that there will be less big trollies than a couple of years ago when Waitrose would open with 200 big trolleys & 150 shallow trolleys, now it is looking more like the shallow trolleys are rolling in the lead with 250 shallow trollies and only 70 big trolleys!
Find out more about the Food and Drink trends in 2017 and what to look forward to in 2018 here: http://www.waitrose.com/content/dam/waitrose/Inspiration/About%20Us%20New/Food%20and%20drink%20report%202017/WaitroseFoodAndDrinkReport201718.pdf
Our consumer PR team specialise in connecting everyday brands with everyday people across four core sectors; Consumer Lifestyle PR, Food PR, Consumer Technology PR and Sport, Wellbeing an Fitness PR. More information on these areas of knowledge can be found at www.escapadepr.com/about-us.
