September signals the return to routine for many consumers with school bells ringing and summer work hours ending. When it comes to eating lunch outside of the home, consumers have a plethora of choices; fast-food, school cafeterias and brown-bagging it.
While bringing a lunch from home is certainly the most wallet-friendly option, consumers often opt for the convenience of purchasing lunch on-the-go, either daily or monthly. Curious how often consumers are making these purchases and how much they’re spending? What about those who bring their own lunch? Is it tuna sandwiches every day?
Contract Testing Inc. recently conducted an extensive survey on consumer lunch consumption trends with over 1,000 participants from across North America.
Here are some of the interesting findings and insights from this survey:
When it comes to frequency, Canadians (80%) are slightly more likely than Americans (75%) to at least occasionally purchase lunch while at work or school. However, Americans are more likely to purchase lunch every day with 22% making it a daily purchase versus 16% of Canadians.
Consumers generally only have 60 minutes for lunch, making fast-food / quick service restaurants the lunch destination of choice for 85% of Canadians and 77% of Americans. In addition to time constraints, consumers are budget conscious, with 50% of Americans and Canadians spending less than $10 when purchasing lunch.
Survey findings highlighted that consumers are inconsistent when it comes to their lunch consumption habits; the same person may purchase lunch one day and pack lunch the following day. Canadians are more likely than Americans to pack a lunch on a consistent basis with 70% of Canadians packing lunch three times a week versus 65% of Americans. For those who do bring their lunch, meal-prep is the key to success with more than 60% prepping their lunch ahead of time. Other brown-bag favourites include leftovers (45%), sandwiches (33%) and salads (12%).
Consumers are most likely to pack a lunch for financial reasons, followed by health and convenience.
For questions about this research, or how you can leverage consumer taste buds in your business, contact Andrew Scholes at andrew.scholes@contracttesting.com