KEEP an eye on shoppers’ shift patterns to ensure strong food-to-go sales.
That was the message from Hannah Morter, manager for customer insight and category management at Country Choice.
According to Morter, workers spending fewer days in the office in the wake of the pandemic doesn’t need to mean reduced food to go spend.
Instead, Morter reckons that despite the rise of ‘hybrid working’ resulting in fewer consumers heading out on a daily basis, convenience retailers could see increased basket spend from those that do commute.
“Whilst the current hybrid working pattern does potentially reduce the number of days consumers will be out of home, it is anticipated that they will condense their pre-pandemic spend into days when they are in the office and therefore the overall impact of hybrid working will not be detrimental to total sales,” she said.
Maintaining availability at the right times will be critical to success, Mortimer said, and she suggested retailers “scope out the new work patterns” to ensure they hit the mark.
