Dinning out is aspirational for many this holiday season.

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McDonalds sales drop was in part because of the lingering effects of thegreat recession continue.  Europe is nowofficially re-entering recession and Americans wonder if congress will step upand keep us away from a double dip recession. Rigged austerity did not helpprevent the double dip in the Euro Zone; let’s hope congress will back stop theUS with an incremental step approach rather than austerity.  The focus should beon getting people back towork.. With 47+ million people on Food Stamps many Americans continue to aspiresimply to take the family out to McDonalds once a month rather than cook athome.

In a recent report conducted by upscale dinning guide  Zagat Surveyors found even the high end wascutting back the study found  “cooking athome an average of 7 meals per week, outpacing the average number of meals theyeat/take out (6.1) – a trend that has been building since the Great Recession. Diningin restaurants dropped from an average of 3.4 times per week in 2008 to 3.1 in2011, however, meals out are inching back to 3.2 this year. The average numberof times each surveyor visited the restaurant they voted on before therecession was 12.1 – which dipped to 9.3 in 2011 and increased to 9.8 thisyear.”
Most Americans assemble a meal for the holiday utilizing cook from scratchitems and favorites items prepared from restaurants like Shari’s or VillageInn’s Pie’s or a Cajun Turkey from Popeye’s to complement and continue familytraditions. Whole Foods, Kroger and Safeway each offer complete prepared mealsfrom their deli departments for home.
Grocery store prepared meals too are aspirational for the 47+ millionAmericans on Food Stamps.  Is it time toextend the availability of the SANP program too prepared food from theDeli?  It has to be less expensive for asingle person to buy a single portion of potato salad or coleslaw than make itfor themselves.  What about the 7.5% ofseniors on Food Stamps a Dollar Burger and Dollar Hot Coffee would be a realhelp and break if they were allowed to utilize McDonalds while on SNAP. We hopeall Americans can enjoy complete Holiday Meal. We support Food Parity for America.
Interestedin learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify yourretail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenientmeal participation, differentiation andindividualization contact us via Email us at: grocerant@q.com or visitFacebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant ortwitter.com/grocerant