June Pick of the Latest Consumer Trends
Set-jetting
Set-jetting is now in, with travellers seeking out the same destinations on films seen and books read. Millennials are anything up to x5 more likely to take a set-jetting vacation, compared with 10 per cent of Gen Z adults, 7 per cent of Gen X’ers and 5 per cent of baby boomers. They are also more likely to follow a destination based on a podcast.
Why it matters
It underscores the value of using content to introduce destinations, particularly to millennials - the travel-happy generation, and a generation that favours travel experiences such as a culinary holiday, or rock climbing.
Pret shows the way
Four decades after the first Pret opened – and three after the chain faced an existential crisis when the coronavirus pandemic emptied the offices that were its bloodline – it is experiencing a massive expansion.
Apart from marking a startling comeback, it seals its status as a barometer not only of Britain’s economy, but changing tastes and working habits.
“We were a business built mainly where people came to work. We used to say we would follow the skyscrapers. But we’ve learnt that it’s not the customer’s job to come to Pret; it’s our job to come to them.” Clare Clough, Pret’s managing director.
And that means the small retailers traditionally serving office workers are in trouble.
Pret’s tell an interesting story about retail psychology. Monday’s have become quiet as hybrid workers tend to start the week at home. There has been a change in eating habits, with healthy options replaced by more indulgent pastries, perhaps as part of a wider snacking habit that retailers and food manufacturers started noticing amid the gloom of the pandemic. Vegan is becoming much more popular, and the boozy lunches have been replaced with healthy takeaways to eat.
Customers are also eating-in at Pret’s newer, non-central stores, as Pret finds locations with more space for seating.
The sandwich industry tends to lose customers from the bottom end of the market in hard times, but an equal number of people who were previously lunching in restaurants instead start buying sandwiches at the premium end. Pret’s consistentcy of sales during the price hikes show that this may be happening.
Why It Matters
When forced to adapt, Pret’s success story shows you can have its brownie bar and eat it.