Market research website Dealspotr recently polled 500 Millennials, chosen at random, on their eating habits and discovered some interesting – and at times alarming – facts. Not alarming for non-Millennials, particularly, but for the Fast Food sector and certain other niches in the food provision market…
Millennials spend more on restaurant meals per month than they
save for retirement… Yet, they don’t seem concerned.
Millennials were defined, for purposes of the study, as males and females aged 18 to 35. They were surveyed via a random Google Poll specifically commissioned for the project.
What they found, in short, was that Millennials’ eating habits differ dramatically from those of the generation that came before them – the Boomers.
Some major differences
Overall, I was shocked to see that the 18-35s say they spend more on restaurant meals than they save for retirement each month. That’s just nuts! But that’s not all.
More than half of those polled said they value convenience more than they do flavour when making dining choices. At odds with that is the revelation that most Millennials don’t eat Fast Food regularly. Perhaps the only thing I – a Boomer – have in common with them. And that might be explained by the fact that almost two thirds of them they say they associate ‘healthy’ the concept of ‘organic’ and/or ‘low-Calorie’. Barely half as many associated ‘healthy’ with concepts such as ‘locally sourced’, ‘ethically farmed’, and ‘sustainable’, combined!
Reminds me of a Star Trek: Voyager episode where the prissy mess hall chef tries to impress a Vulcan crew member with the pedigree of a dish he’d prepared. The Vulcan cuts him off short saying, “I do not wish to know the history of my food”. Fine for Vulcans, maybe, but not so much for us, in an age when sustainability, particularly, is a major issue.
We said earlier that Millennials seem to care a lot about convenience when it comes to accessing their food. So, you’d think they would love those (relatively) new Meal Kit Services, like Hello Fresh. But the kits are not making inroads in the Millennial market. Many of those kids say they’re too expensive or ‘a ripoff’. And the 18-35s are not taking advantage of grocery delivery services, either. That implies a strong aversion to cooking. After all, it’s inconvenient…
Strong visual orientation…
When asked where they go for new recipes or to discover new dishes, the majority of Millennials said they visited Pintrest rather than recipe websites which you’d think would be more useful to them. The finding implies that the kids are more visually-oriented than previous generations and would would rather ‘shop’ pictures rather than reading ingredient lists or considering the nutrient content of their food. Too bad. They could be heading for an unhealthy future.
An unhealthy trend in eating routines…
This one shocked me. And I guess there’s no one to blame but the parents of my generation, who brought these kids up. The majority of Millennials report they don’t eat the traditional three meals a day. More alarming, many say they skip breakfast, which remains the most important meal of the day according to dietary and medical experts.
My final word…
If the Millennial generation has one overarching flaw, it’s that they only look at what they want to see. That is, they have the ability to ignore things they disagree with or aren’t interested in. And that’s another way of stating the old maxim: “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.”
This ties in, neatly, with the alarming prediction that the Millennials will be the first generation not to outlive their parents…
~ Maggie J.