A full-year roadmap to weeknight dinners

Food retailers can gain plenty — up to $700 million in incremental sales, in fact — by helping households ease the weeknight dinner burden. And it could be as simple as getting each household in the United States to buy just one additional meal a year from a food retailer instead of carrying out that meal from a restaurant, according to Tim Miller, senior director of shopper insights at ConAgra Foods.

• By incorporating insights from ConAgra Foods' Shopper Occasions research, retailers can more precisely tailor their offerings to raise their conversion rate. For example:
• Holiday seasons—like the one that just ended—call for large, festive meals. But they also require simple meals in-between. That?s where pre-packaged solutions, quick fixes and snacks come in.
• When the holidays end, routines return. Comfort food, along with new, healthier food choices, take center stage.
• Fruits and vegetables play a bigger role in the spring, and busy family schedules call for convenient, portable meals and inventive ideas for leftovers.
• Summertime means shifting dinner times, more spontaneous eating, and lighter, less-hassle, "grill-able" meals.
• When the kids return to school, moms focus on breakfast and single-serve-packaged lunch solutions, along with convenient frozen foods for dinner.
• During October, the weather turns cooler and meals turn warmer. Think crock-pot cooking and stews; food that is cooked once and eaten twice. Thoughts turn to Halloween treats and kids get involved in baking.

"Success depends on a number of factors — such as where stores are located, what time of year it is, and who forms the shopper base — combine with retailers' strategic objectives to determine what works best." A successful retail meal solution center needs more than one manufacturer, for example, a multi-temperature solution of hot dogs, buns, condiments and sides, like the one ConAgra Foods is testing with a chain and a non-competing private label.

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• Ultra-Convenient Meals, SNAP Strategies, Kids in the Kitchen, and Holiday
• Canned Tomatoes: A Total-Store Sales Engine
• Driving Growth in Frozens
• Family Fun Spices Up October

Retailers can ease weeknight dinner planning by using ConAgra Foods? insights to provide season-focused shopper solutions for Mom.

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Sourcing: Target: 35 Dinners Taken Home from Restaurant/person/year Source: NPD 24th Annual Eating Patterns in America, 2009 Population estimate, 2011: 313,232,000  Source: US Census Bureau Cost of In-Home Dinner from Grocery Store: $2.50   Source: Various estimates: NPD cost of in-home meal ($2.37); The Simpledollar.com # of US Groc Stores, $2MM+:  36,000   Source: Progressive Grocer CAG Share of Center Store: 3.43^{2   1}$2MM+ Supermarket   ²IRI 52 Weeks ending 3/29/10

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