Filipinos may now be cooking less at home owing to the fast-paced lives they now live, according to the latest Nielsen Shopper Trends Report released on Wednesday.
Nielsen said fewer shopping baskets containing food items that need to be prepared and cooked at home. There was a 13-percent decline in monthly grocery spend of Filipino respondents in 2014 compared to 2012.
This means Filipino shoppers only spent P4,700 on an average in 2014, from a monthly spend of P5,400 in 2012.
“Driving this cut in grocery spend is the spike in the number of consumers who are dining out and the increased frequency in eating out of home. In the report, 25 percent of consumers eat out at fast-food restaurants at least once a week, a contrast to a year ago with only 14 percent,” Nielsen said.
As a result, Nielsen said, “ready to eat” and “quick and easy” meals are only a fad but a long-term trend.
Further, consumers are choosing to purchase fresh food from nearby stores or vendors who sell their wares near consumers’ homes.
Nielsen said this is the reason supermarkets are aggressive in expanding in both regular and small formats near residential areas.
Even ambulant vendors selling an assortment of products such as vegetables are setting up closer to neighborhoods.
“In smaller stores, which have limited assortment, manufacturers and retailers should ensure that shelf space is assigned not just to their top-selling products, but that they also have products that address the needs of various category segments,” Lou-Ann Navalta, Nielsen’s Shopper Insights leader in the Philippines, said.
“For instance, most people just buy regular cola drinks but this does not mean that is all you should have in your neighborhood store as shoppers sometimes feel the urge to buy diet, flavored or imported drinks. Proper assortment is critical so as not to turn off shoppers,” Navalta added.
The Nielsen Shopper Trends report is a syndicated annual report that Nielsen conducts across 54 markets globally. It provides a comprehensive overview of retail environment trends and an understanding of shopping behavior across the different trade channels.
The report was conducted between February 27 and March 28, 2014, and interviewed 1,783 males and females aged 15 to 65 years old.
The respondents come from class ABCDE homes in urban locations throughout the Philippines who were either main decision-makers or key influencers when it comes to household grocery shopping.