The new Waitrose Food & Drink Report 2014 draws on a year of Waitrose sales and new consumer research, providing a comprehensive view of British behaviour, supported with insight from the retailer’s experts.
Its findings include how our food choices are increasingly influenced by technology and social media – from how we shop and what we cook, to how we communicate about food. This is the first year that Waitrose customer enquiries via social media have overtaken emailed enquiries.
Also, breakfast tastes are changing, with honey sales overtaking jam for the first time.
Consumers' taste buds are changing, too, and we’re more familiar with global cuisine than ever before. We have moved on from old favourites and are now four times as likely to buy a katsu curry kit as we are tikka masala, revealed the study.
According to the supermarket's findings, we’re more time-poor than ever. We shop little and often and in ways that suit us – regularly in convenience shops, grabbing breakfast on the move, with sales up 10 per cent, and looking for foodie shortcuts.
Four in ten of us say that weekends are now more of a food event than they were – gathering family and friends and experimenting with cooking. Programmes like The Great British Bake Off are inspiring people to try what they see more than ever before.
In relation to drinking habits, white-wine drinkers are just starting to develop from the safe ground of Sauvignon Blanc to new grapes and countries, with varieties such as Austrian Grüner Veltliner leading the way.
According to Waitrose, the drink Aperol has seen sales soar by 800 per cent over the year at the retailer, and sales of coffee liqueur are up by 15 per cent, as espresso Martinis make their way out of city bars and into home dinner parties.
The report – the second annual Waitrose look at what we’re eating – also takes a look back at the year’s key events and how they shaped our choices. For example, many of us went out in search of Tunnock’s Tea Cakes, with sales rising 62 per cent, after they featured in the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, or tried South American wine -- sales were up 50 per cent -- during the World Cup in Brazil.
And this was the year when drinkable ‘gifts for teacher’ really hit home, with sales of champagne up 26 per cent and bottle gift-bag sales up 44 per cent, spiking for the end of term in July.
The report uncovers seven key 2014 food trends that have either emerged or fully cemented themselves this year: time-poor shoppers; global explorers; weekend foodies; flexitarianism; permanently healthy; eat it, tweet it! and rustic luxe.
Commenting on the report, Waitrose's managing director, Mark Price, said, "As an innovative food retailer, we’re constantly focused on food and drink trends so we can create products that continue to be at the cutting edge."
Britain has become a lot thriftier, "probably for the better," with shoppers refusing to let go of the shopping habits they adopted during the recession, he explained. Despite this, three things remain constant: Britons’ culinary curiosity, their love of good food and their desire to eat healthily.
"We are fast becoming a nation of foodies. Increasing numbers of people have moved from seeing eating as functional to seeing it as an experience to be relished and enjoyed. Today, more than ever before, people see food and cooking as a hobby. All these factors feed into how we eat in 2014."
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine
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