Suzee Brain from Brain & Poulter, takes a look at the trends for the new decade. If the 2010’s were marked by smashed avo, kale, plant-based meat alternatives and cult-favourite fast-food chicken sando’s – what do the 2020’s hold ??
Take out, Take up, Take Charge
Figure 1 Smashed Avocado – So last decade!
Well at B&P we’ve been pretty accurate with our food trend predictions, helping hundreds of clients take a market moving advantage with their F&B strategy, design and tenancy mixing. Here’s a wrap of some ideas we were sprouting in the last 5 years that definitely became a phenomena;
| 2016 |
Food Halls to replace Food Courts Meal Kits The fast paced rise of home delivery
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| 2017 |
Grab’n’Go – cashierless automated payment convenience stores Veganism Adult entertainment F&B – Paint Bars & Golf Bars
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| 2018 |
The plant based revolution Zero waste Dark kitchens
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| 2019 |
Protein Alternatives – ants, grasshoppers and mealworms Death of the FoodCourt Food theme parks – Eataly World Bologna, Ichiba London |
So for 2020 here’s the Top 5 F&B trends we recommend smart property professionals plan to incorporate:
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Food Majors
Figure 2 Riverside Market Christchurch
With the reduction in number of renewals of Department Stores and some key specialty retailers it’s time to think about a drastic shakeup of the way food is planned in Shopping Centres. For a typical regional Shopping Centre there is collectively close to 7,000m2 of food retail, food catering and customer amenity spread throughout a Shopping Centre. What we are challenging clients to think about is co-locating all the food with some additional entertainment or community activation space to create a multilevel 10,000m2 “food major”. It needs to be done with careful consideration to the F&B potential of the Centre to make sure the Centre doesn’t become “overfooded” (no sense robbing Peter to pay Paul) but if strategically planned and designed with the customer and sales in mind, it can be a great way to save a Centre. Click on this link to read in-depth our approach to this strategy in the latest Issue of Shopping Centre News.
2. Lounge Dining
Figure 3 We no longer eat at the table
What Uber Eats, Deliveroo and streaming services like Netflix have allowed Australians to do is to combine their love of TV series binging and program binging into a single activity #foodflixcoma. Importantly the binge has resulted in more people eating off their sofa and with their hands than sitting at the dining table using a knife and fork.
To connect and encourage customers out of their #foodflixcoma at home/hotel/student accommodation and into your property there is a need to adapt and emulate the relaxed entertainment/food combo in the common areas. We are suggesting a reduction in the amount of table/chair seating and more booths, lounges, beanbags and sofas intermingled with chromecast screens, stages and adult play.
3. Next Tech
Figure 4 Native Apps increase sales and you keep the data
An area we are deeply concerned many clients are behind on is the adoption of Native Ordering Apps. It’s why we sub-titled this years trends “Take Out, Take Up, Take Charge”. With home delivery now predicted to stabilize, the next growth category is for “take out” – where customers order in store but want to eat it elsewhere. This goes hand in hand with our prediction of the death of the food court and sits neatly with the previous trend of lounge/dining.
Native apps are specifically designed to allow you to showcase all the F&B, retail and amenity at your location. Customers can order and pay via the app, book services, get push notifications on upcoming events or when their order is ready. The beauty is that the data resides with you and your retailers in a single portal. Customers can access the portal via an app on their phones, kiosks located around the property or on tablets on common area tables/retailer counters.
If you’d like to discuss native order apps where you can maintain visibility to on line sales, contact us to discuss the app developer we have partnered with to make an appointment. Data suggest MAT and customer conversion to F&B both increase substantially when a native app is available.
4. Planet Thinking
Figure 5 UTS – a plastic free foodhall
First it was sustainable packaging, then it was keep cups. Some clients have toyed with carbon foot-printing retail fit outs, some go for a kitchen garden. We’ve seen the demise of plastic straws and a rising interest in organics and food miles. Tomorrow’s customer isn’t interested in a “bit here, a bit there” thinking. The want to support F&B precincts that have a complete planet strategy. Closed loop thinking on waste, leases that cover food miles and purchasing ethics, re-useable over recyclable packaging and consumables, resource reduction design. It’s a total package and we’re developing a scorecard to rate an F&B precinct and prioritise actions that can be taken to decrease the impact on our planet.
5. New Cuisines
Figure 6 Makegeolli – the next Kombucha Figure 7 Kaya Toast , Brick Toast, Boba Tea Toast – it’s a craze
We can expect to see plenty of new cuisines rising in popularity over the coming decade. First up will be what we call “hyper local”. For instance Mexican might have peaked but what we will now get is specific Mexican cuisines from Veracruz, Oaxaca, Yucatan or Chinese outlets focussing in on Sichuan, Cantonese or hot pot.
Toast (big slabs of light fluffy brioche covered in sweet toppings) is huge across Asia with most countries having some type of specialization. Expect rock star style long queues when this starts in Australia. Plant based and functional food outlets should start arriving in CBD’s shortly with several reaching “micro-chain” status of 5-10 outlets within a few years.
Cafes will continue to be included as “stores within stores” as specialty, service and luxury retailers seek to extend in store experience time.
And lastly, there will plenty of requests from retailers to add the following items to their permitted menus;
- Low/no alcohol
- Healthier kids menus (quinoa bowls, protein enhanced pasta)
- Locally sourced produce
- Bushfire affected regional produce
Book B&P to speak at your conference
If you’d like a personal presentation of the latest Food Trends and have an upcoming conference with at least 20 attendees enquire now as to our availability to add real value to your meeting.
