Dive Brief:
- The week preceding Thanksgiving is one of the highest-selling weeks for all food and beverage categories combined in the U.S. each year, according to Nielsen. But Thanksgiving is also a time for higher amounts of food waste, including about $277 million of $165 billion of uneaten food thrown away each year, and about 200 million pounds of turkey, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
- While Thanksgiving is a day of traditions, some of those traditions are evolving over time, such as consumers adding a multicultural flair to Friendsgiving by bringing a side dish (39%), main dish (32%) or dessert (31%) from another culture to the meal, according to Nielsen.
- The average American also tends to eat more Thanksgiving meals (1.7), particularly millennials, who on average eat 2.7 Thanksgiving meals with family and 1.8 meals with friends.
Dive Insight:
With so many more meals to eat and prepare, convenience has become even more important to the busy lives of American consumers, especially around the holidays. Nielsen found that more consumers are ordering groceries online and picking them up in the store, especially households with children. However, this could reduce overall foot traffic for retailers and could discourage impulse buys consumers might find browsing the shelves, which could impact sales for both manufacturers and retailers.
Desire for convenience is also encouraging the adoption of meal kits for Thanksgiving dishes, Nielsen found, with 32% of Americans saying they prefer to use one of these to make their holiday meals. The pre-measured and sometimes precut ingredients can significantly cut down on prep time, not to mention front-door delivery ruling out the need for multiple shopping trips.
However, Michael McDevitt, CEO of meal kit delivery service Terra’s Kitchen, told Food Dive that meal kits may not enable consumers to recreate long-time family recipes. Consumers are more likely to supplement their Thanksgiving grocery lists with meal kits rather than replace them entirely.
But more meals and increased convenience can also lead to more food waste. Manufacturers can alleviate food waste concerns by offering value-added produce, such as pre-cut vegetables, and repurposing the food waste for byproducts or animal feed themselves. Consumers will be more likely to toss unused produce parts.