PHILADELPHIA -- Consumers are getting a little -- just a little -- more positive about prepared foods offered in their supermarkets.
That's according to Mona Doyle, president of Consumer Research Network, a market research and consulting firm based here.
Doyle bases her conclusion on comments gathered this spring in two separate consumer surveys that her group conducted. In one, consumers were simply asked to comment on supermarket prepared foods. In the second, they were asked to "agree or disagree" on particular statements regarding prepared foods. Each survey drew responses from 300 to 500 supermarket shoppers in various regions of the United States.
"We definitely received more positive responses than we have in the past. It's clearly a notch up, but not wonderful. Respondents were far more likely to say prepared foods are a help, not that they're great," Doyle said.
In an interview with SN, Doyle discussed some of the other positive comments and some of the suggestions consumers made.
In the survey that asked respondents to agree or disagree with a set of statements about prepared foods, a full 60% agreed that "pre-prepared foods are helpful." Forty percent of them "agreed strongly."
Doyle said responses to that question reflected the timbre of the responses to other questions on the survey.
"I think that pretty much summarizes the attitude today and I think it's important. Even if it's not a great response, it represents a lot of recognition [of prepared foods] -- a lot more than in the past," Doyle said.
In other words, the consumer now knows prepared foods are offered in the supermarket and uses them when needed, she said.
But it's rare when a respondent calls prepared foods anything more than helpful, Doyle noted.
"That's not to say there are not exceptions. Someone will occasionally actually rave about a dish they got at Wegmans [Wegmans Food Markets, Rochester, N.Y.]. But, by and large, even when they talk about Whole Foods or Fresh Fields, nobody is saying the prepared food is wonderful."
She said she did remember one very positive remark from a shopper at a unit of H.E. Butt Grocery Co., San Antonio.
"I shop at H-E-B all the time. They do a really good job with foods to take home that are already cooked," the shopper had commented.
"I also had someone say they had a wonderful piece of prepared fish at Wegmans, but you could count that kind of response on one hand," added Doyle.
The important thing is that prepared foods are becoming differentiated in the consumer's mind from frozen products and consumers find them more acceptable, in many cases, simply because "they're nearer ready-to-eat," Doyle said.
"Well," she said, "not always," as is indicated by the following prepared-food survey respondent's comment.
"Lean Cuisine's new stir-fry meals that include a meat and sauce are excellent. They need more varieties with chicken."
Doyle saw it as particularly significant that that was the only comment in pages and pages of responses that included the word "excellent." And it was about a frozen product.
Consumers in their answers to open-ended questions offered some suggestions for making prepared foods in the supermarket more convenient and appealing.
For one thing, they felt that prepared foods don't look appealing enough. Indeed, 62% of respondents agreed that "prepared foods in most grocery store deli departments are not well tended. Food is often left out so long it's dried up and not appealing." Of that percentage, 26% agreed strongly with that statement.
Respondents also indicated they want takeout menus. Fifty-seven percent agreed that "stores with prepared food departments should have menus to take home to allow orders to be phoned in." Twenty-nine percent agreed strongly with that statement.
A significant percentage (66%) agreed that "prepared foods need to be lower in fat and calories without sacrificing flavor." Many of the write-in comments were requests for healthier items.
One representative response read:
"Would like to see more vegetarian prepared meals and meal alternatives (tofu, meat analogs), better vegetables like spinach, artichokes and asparagus."
Some respondents voiced particular displeasure with gourmet items among supermarket prepared foods. One said, "Stop trying to be cutesy and just cook."
Another respondent commented: "Supermarkets ought to stick to basic foods. Their cooks and recipes are OK for plain dishes but aren't good enough to compete with trendy restaurants and the food shows it."
Doyle said she thinks that such comments reflect an underlying distrust of supermarket cooking.
"My sense is that there's almost a suspicion [among consumers] of a cover-up. That if they [supermarket operators] could just do good basic food, they wouldn't have to do all this stuff they're trying to charge a lot of money for," she said.
Still, she emphasized the increasingly positive remarks she's gleaned in recent surveys.
"It's an encouraging message for supermarket operators -- that these foods are gaining acceptance," she said.
Over the years, Doyle has compiled a base of more than 5,000 supermarket shoppers that stretches across the United States.
