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PANTRY PANTRY TRENDS REFLECT THE NEW NORMAL Consumer habits tend to change over time, but the Covid-19 outbreak has forced Australian consumers to reconfigure their lives, their habits and their spending patterns at a speed and scale never seen before, including the management of their pantries. BVy Nerine Zoio. olume sales for pantry items more than doubled in the four weeks ending March 22 compared with the same period last year, according to Nielsen Connect Pacific Director Sarah Deas. She says it’s important to continue to monitor these trends as Australia adjusts to a new normal. The Nielsen analysis highlights the themes that have characterised consumer behaviour over the past months, including more cooking and baking from scratch as consumers find creative ways to use pantry staples, and an increase in sales for convenient meal options that cater to smaller households or those juggling the demands of working from home and home schooling. This has led to uptake of quick-and- easy meal solutions, including prepared meals, canned vegetables, canned soup, pasta and sauce. Soup is traditionally more of a winter meal occasion but nearly one-quarter of annual volume had already been sold by the end of March. Traditionally, this volume sold wouldn’t have been reached until the end of May. Ms Deas says brands that focus on health and fitness are likely to see strong demand from consumers, who generally have a renewed sense of the importance of staying healthy. “With more time on their hands and lots of carbs and other pantry staples to use up, we expect to see Australian households make more of an effort to cook from scratch and attempt to make meals outside of their usual repertoire,” she said. Nielsen Digital Content Ratings data shows that on the last weekend of March, Australians spent 71 per cent more time online with food and cooking content compared with the last weekend of February. On Sunday March 29, consumers spent a combined total of 63,555 hours on food and cooking sites: the most for a single day so far in 2020. This new focus on online for content, marketing and buying is expected to extend beyond the pandemic. Coinciding with the growing interest in cooking at home, Nielsen Homescan data shows Australians are becoming more adventurous with their cooking ingredients, with sales of Asian cooking items up substantially. Supermarkets are exploiting the rise in home cooking, with Coles offering ‘What’s for Dinner’ budget recipes containing no more than five ingredients and starting at $4 per serve for four. Coles Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Ronson says the retailer conducted a study of the mealtime habits of Australians during Covid-19 to understand how it could provide for them. The study of more than 3,000 Coles customers found that 600,000 more dinners were being made at home daily compared with pre-pandemic times. Coles then trialled the ‘What’s for Dinner’ recipes with more than 4,000 customers, to ensure the recipes and ingredients “hit the spot”. Snacks have also gained pantry space. IBISWorld Senior Industry Analyst Liam Harrison says the stress of the pandemic has led to an increase in demand for snacks and preserved foods. The crisis has led to Australians consuming 50 per cent above the recommended daily intake of sodium and saturated fat, with a third of those surveyed in a June CSIRO study admitting they had increased consumption of snacks and junk food. TO PAGE 50 SEP, 2020 RETAIL WORLD 49