Boom predicted in take-away eating

By David Harris

By the year 2005 one-third of Americans will be unable to cook and most of them will eat out or buy prepared food as a result, says the latest research.

"Home meal replacement" (HMR), marketing jargon for take-away food from restaurants and shops, is therefore one of the fastest growing food businesses in the USA, said consultant Hal Ritchie at the Branding America conference in St Louis, Missouri.

Ritchie claimed that high quality take-away food will also prosper because people are increasingly "time poor and cash rich".

He added: "The typical shopper for dinner spends 13 minutes in the shop, has no list, is impulse driven, and consequently HMR appeals to them."

Ritchie said that Britain is ahead of the USA in providing supermarket prepared meals to replace home cooking, but that in both countries the next few years should see a big battle for business between restaurants and supermarkets.

"The better-tasting food will win," he predicted.

The fight for "share of stomach and share of wallet" was underlined by other speakers including Michael Walters, of Heinz's Weight Watchers, who argued that the pace of modern life was increasing sales of prepared and take-away food.

"People are too tired to cook and too tired to go out to eat. People are really tired these days," he said.

For US supermarkets the statistical result of this weariness is that prepared food sales are increasing at 11.8% a year while raw grocery sales remain static.