Gourmet Business November '17

Times Are Changing

I am still amazed at the amount of change that I have seen in the marketplace over the last few years.  While I was driving towards the city of Boston recently, I spotted a billboard from one of the wholesale clubs offering a free trial membership.  I realized that it had been a number of years since I have stepped foot in such a place.  It’s not that there is anything wrong with frequenting such a business or that I was trying to avoid it.  I have a smaller family now that my oldest daughter is in college, and I don’t have a lot of storage in my small house.  I am assuming that the warehouse clubs must be trying to appeal to the Millennial generation, and this billboard in the city was perhaps an attempt to get them to try it.

The thing is, I have also been to the farmer’s market in Boston recently, and was amazed at the hustle and bustle of the younger generation grazing and buying.  These farmer’s markets seem to be popping up everywhere it seems, so there must be a renewed interest in them.  When I was young, we would occasionally go to the Faneuil Hall outdoor market in Boston on Sunday morning, which was pretty much the only outdoor market of it’s kind in the Boston area, and it wasn’t nearly as busy.

At the same time, I noticed an ad on television last night promoting one of the many companies offering home delivery of just the right amount of ingredients to make an included meal plan with detailed recipes.  No need to go to the grocery store.  No need to crack the cover of a cookbook or thumb through the cooking magazine.  Just open the box and follow instructions to prepare a nice meal for the family.  In my day families would probably turn to the frozen dinner in such a circumstance.  Oh my, times have really changed…are you on top of this?  Will some businesses have to re-think their strategy in this changing world?  Absolutely.

I hope you have also given some thought about the relevance of your business to this younger audience.  What are you doing to attract the next generation of consumers?  We can’t always predict how consumer demand shifts, but the Millennial buyer is different in so many ways, that it warrants a thorough review.