Focus On Food To Go: 3 December

By Rob Brown rob_j_a_brown@hotmail.com 

Publishing: 3 December 2022
Advertising deadline: 18 November 2022
Submissions deadline: 11 November 2022

It’s only 40p, but for a meal deal it’s a momentous shift. After a decade of being priced at £3, Tesco’s lunchtime offering is going up to £3.40 for Clubcard members – and £3.90 for everyone else. For shoppers watching their bank balance more closely, it’s a changed equation. But in a climate where all prices are going up, what option do retailers have? Is there any scope for suppliers to adjust their quality? Will shoppers revert to making lunch at home? Or will foodservice items look like a better bargain even if they are even more expensive?

Suppliers: Other areas of grocery have seen suppliers adjust recipes to make the product lower quality or just swap in cheaper ingredients. Is there much scope for that in the meal deal?

Purchasing behaviour: The meal deal is the cheapest convenient lunch on the market, even if it is going up in price. How are shoppers adapting?

Foodservice: Fancier meals from the likes of Pret or Leon are also seeing costs and prices go up. But they do offer something more to shoppers willing to spend. How are they impacting food to go?

Hybrid working: Habits seem to have settled since the end of lockdowns, but more food is still being made at home than pre pandemic. What’s the long term impact been?

Innovations: We will profile 4 new products or ranges that have ideally not appeared in The Grocer before. We need launch date, rsp, and a hi-res picture of each