The luxury of time

People have become increasingly frustrated by the fact they now have access to a greater choice of leisure services and products such as cinema multiplexes, private gyms, health spas, electronic game consoles, satellite TV and the Internet, but do not often have the time to use them. The desire for convenience has become an inherent part of people’s lives as they strive to reduce time pressures and stress in order to achieve a work-life balance and fit in the luxury of leisure time.

Speed eating

As a consequence people are increasingly fitting eating and drinking around leisure and work activities, and this has given rise to more flexible eating patterns such as eating on-the-move and snacking throughout the day. People are demanding foods that they can prepare and consume quickly, whether at a desk at work, on foot, in the car, or at home.

Commuting to and from work is already a fact of life for many people, and trends indicate that the time people spend commuting is increasing. Workers in the UK have the longest commuting times in Europe, spending on average 73 minutes per day travelling to and from work. Unsurprisingly, UK consumers have the highest rate of on-the-go eating and drinking in Europe – 338 times per person per year. (Source: Datamonitor). Even in a home environment, the shift from formal family meals to a more informal, individualised way of eating, means that people are less likely to have three traditional set meals together.

Speed shopping

With technological advances such as the Internet and increased ownership of electrical goods, such as microwaves and fridge freezers, not only can people order items 24 hours a day and have them delivered to their home when they choose, but they can store, cook or prepare food more easily. This has inevitably changed the types of food that people buy and how they buy it. There is a growing tendency for people to speed shop due to their hectic lifestyles. Top-up shopping has become increasingly popular, aided by the increase in the number of convenience stores. The average consumer in Europe and the US now shops more than once every three days (or 13 times per month).

Speed cooking

Busy lifestyles and changing household structures have an impact on the effort people are prepared to make to plan and prepare meals, with people less willing or able to invest in a lengthy time every day to prepare and cook food. As a result, the demand for finished meals, pre-cooked products and cooking kits continues to rise. This is particularly the case in smaller households where it might be considered too time-consuming and/or more costly to prepare meals made from scratch with individual ingredients.

What does this mean for Bakkavör?

Fresh prepared foods can often provide the ideal solution for people looking for quick and easy meals for the same (or following) day, rather than planning ahead. Shopping over the Internet and the ability to book deliveries from early morning to late night with deliveries segmented into ambient, chilled and frozen means that fresh prepared foods are increasingly bought online with confidence.

Fresh prepared foods are ideal for the individual with many products specifically made ‘for one’, as a light snack or to be eaten on-the-move. Convenience salads, for example, come with a plastic ‘spork’ (a fold-out fork), fresh soups come in microwaveable pots and sandwich wraps are designed to be hand-held.

The vast range of fresh prepared foods that is available caters for all ‘cooking’ needs: the reheating of a prepared meal for supper or a fresh soup for a snack; the final bake of garlic baguettes or adding a fresh sauce and other ingredients for some easy ‘cooking from scratch’. Most cold-eating products require no preparation at all – bowls of leafy salad ready to place onto the table, multipack dips for sharing and whole (or individual) cheesecakes ready as an instant dessert.