Stomach share. It’s on everyone’s minds right now as inflationary prices affect both restaurants, and increasingly grocery, with consumers trading down to private label and brand loyalty being sacrificed for cost savings. 

One of those hot spaces of competition between both restaurants and grocery? Catering. An area which represents one of the highest margin categories for grocers.

According to a report from market research company Research And Markets, the global contract catering market size reached $232.7 billion in 2021. Looking forward, the market is expected to expand to $318.5 Billion by 2027. 

And supermarkets are poised to capture this share. According to recent research from FMI, deli prepared foods sales are up 9.3% year over year and 19.2% from the pre-pandemic 2019 period. That same research also indicates that 21% of polled shoppers say they prepare seven or more dinners at home per week, up from 16% in 2021, which includes food made at home, semi- or fully prepared items and leftovers.

Supermarket delis have also seen a spike in meal kit sales since the early days of the pandemic, and now recent data from Statista indicates that the U.S. market will exceed more than $10 billion by 2024, compared to just $6.9 billion in 2021.

Supermarket News spoke with Matt Pavich, general manager of Order Ahead at Instacart, to talk catering, convenience, and how grocers can optimize stomach share. 

Take a listen. 

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