PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTION

Toops (1999February) indicates that almost half of the meals Americans prepare are cooked from scratch (16.2 times a month) with on average, mixes, pre-cooked meals and prepared, ready-to-cook meals are put together 18.6 times a month. A part of the change has been the growth of meal kits. Currently, meal kits are a $1.2 billion market(Anonymous, 1999, March). By the year 2002 it is estimated to be a $1.8 billion dollar market. Dwyer, (1996) estimated that home meal replacement (HMR) super market meals to claim 50% of the food dollar by 2001 and be a $410 billion business by 2002. In either references, it is still a major part of the market place. About 2/3 (Anonymous, 1999,March) of the meal kit market are lunch packs, the remainder are dinners. Kraft's Oscar Mayer Lunchables control 80% of the market share. Ohr (2000) indicates the National Restaurant Association (NRA) projects total restaurant-industry sales to increase to $376.2 billion in year 2000. By 2010, restaurant-industry sales are expected to account for 53% of the food dollar and reach $577 billion.

Recently we see the "Breakfast mates" which included a spoon and aseptic milk. There are also the single serving cereal product.

At this time in 1999, supermarkets are finding a market for dinners for people to take home. There is a hypothesis by Rice and Eddy(1999) that this is not a permanent niche. They feel that eventually people will feel that they will not want to have restaurant food at home. They reported the trend to eat out is continuing a subtle part of that is eating at home but eating out.

Fusaro, 1995.

This is much more complex than one might think. The meals eaten at home are a large part of the food industry. It is apparent from a comparison of data in 1960 versus 1992 that the foodservice market place almost doubled. This includes both meals eaten in the home and those ready to eat at the market. The typical American spends 30 minutes a day in meal preparation. The estimate (Dwyer, 1997Mid-April) is that 80% of the meals meet this 30 minute deadline. The amount (Fusaro, 1995) is expected to fall to 15 minutes by the year 2000. This change in time to prepare has tremendous implications. We see increasingly that the supermarket itself becomes a restaurant. Bird (1997) discusses the emergency of "meal centers".

Of course, the most recent approach has been developed by Webvan and other grocery stores. They not only deliver raw products but also deli foods. The need for immediacy of foods has been emphasized in the discussion by Ordonez on fast food efficiency.

	Can Foodini's Work Magic for Chevron?

At this time in 1999, supermarkets are finding a market for dinners for people to take home. There is a hypothesis by Rice and Eddy(1999) that this is not a permanent niche. They feel that eventually people will feel that they are "cooking" if they pick up the food and warm it after obtain ifficiency.

on fast food e

NPD Group (Toop and Kevin, 1997) indicated that the most recent trends are: frozen pizza, precut veggies and salad mixes, meat, juices, leftovers, tap water and vitamins. "Trends" on the out are salsa, rice cakes, frozen yogurt, and low-cholesterol, low-sodium, low-sugar. The original of the frozen food entree is ocassionally attributed to Swanson's Food