Millennials and the active retired have much in common

Has anyone else noticed that there seem to be increasingly more points in common between the social eating and drinking behaviours of millennials and active people who have retired? Who’d have thought it?

When it comes to both, ‘time well spent’ seems to be the key driver of their social food and drink moments. There seems to much more of a focus on hanging out with friends and spending proper time together, never accepting grabbed time or shallow time as an option.

You can’t put a value on it, as how much the time and experience costs is not most important to them. These audiences place huge value in simply enjoying great times with people close to them and making each and every experience matter.

The active retirees often have plenty of money as the children have fled the nest, so they have more available cash and are happy to spend it on themselves and friends. The millennials often don’t have as much money, but they are still spending it on the basis of hedonistic pleasure seeking, rather than worrying about how much they are spending. Unlike generations before that may have felt they really should be saving up to buy a house, many millennials now feel that’s just not really a reality and won’t ever be within their means, so they just get on and spend their money as they like. Eating good food is cool.

This all sounds lovely and may project a somewhat sickly image of an ideal world of social butterflying and deep bonding over food and drink, but these needs are real and very much play to the slow food, ultimate enjoyment and mindfulness trends.

Is this an opportunity for mainstream retailers to up their game and put together more highly experiential, slow food and drink packages or collections for these audiences to enjoy at home with friends or when out and about? This button is not being pressed at the moment.

Imagine supermarkets moving beyond simply stocking food to being curators of food experiences, taking inspiration from smaller entrepreneurial boutiques and the likes of Harvey Nichols that put together incredible collections in fashion, food and accessories. Curation is a forgotten art in the big retailers when it comes to food and drink.

Is it time to rethink the meal deal as something more tailored and curated? Should there even be retailer-owned restaurants or cafés, where people order in their food from that retailer and buy their wine and drinks to accompany, but the chef cooks their recipes rather than giving them off the shelf solutions? How about curated summer and winter picnics that come in mini hampers to take out and share?

Claire Nuttall is founder of The Brand Incubator