Supermarkets and foodservice: the new challenge is being played out in ready-to-eat foods.

The rules of competition are changing. For years, fast-food chains tried to win customers away from their direct competitors. Today, the challenge is increasingly against a new player: the supermarket, which is becoming more capable of meeting the same consumption needs. The rising cost of living and consumers’ growing focus on value for money are changing purchasing habits. More and more people are looking for solutions that combine convenience, quality and speed, and supermarkets are responding by significantly expanding their range of ready-made meals.

The supermarket is becoming an alternative to restaurants

The phenomenon is particularly evident in the United States. According to FMI – The Food Industry Association, the share of American consumers choosing supermarket-prepared foods as a substitute for a restaurant meal rose from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025: more than doubling in less than ten years. This is no longer simply an ancillary department within the store: grocery foodservice in the United States reached a record value of $56 billion in 2024. This figure is particularly interesting because it changes the very role of the supermarket. It is no longer just the place where consumers buy the ingredients needed to prepare a meal, but increasingly the place where they buy the meal itself. Sushi, salads, sandwiches, pizza, rotisserie chicken, hot meals, bowls, healthy options and grab-and-go solutions are therefore expanding the competitive scope of retail.

At the heart of this transformation is a change in the concept of convenience. For today’s consumer, it is no longer only about spending less, but about finding the best possible balance between price, quality, speed and practicality. The boundary between cooking and buying a ready-made meal is also becoming less clear: in the United States, 53% of consumers say they adopt a hybrid solution, combining supermarket-prepared products with food already available at home. Consumers therefore do not necessarily choose between “eating at home” and “eating out”, but build their own solution by combining different products and channels depending on the occasion. And it is precisely this behaviour that is changing the rules of competition.

The growth of the “no-cooking generation”

The phenomenon is not limited to the United States. According to The State of Grocery Retail Europe 2025, a study involving more than 14,000 European consumers, 54% of consumers buy ready-to-eat products at least once a month, such as sandwiches, salads, snacks and other solutions for immediate consumption. The figure becomes even more significant when looking at younger generations. 42% of Gen Z and 37% of Millennials buy ready-to-eat products at least once a week, compared with 27% of Gen X and just 12% of Baby Boomers. If we broaden the view to those buying these solutions at least once a month, the percentages rise to 77% of Gen Z and 72% of Millennials. A true “no-cooking generation” is emerging: consumers who are attentive to nutrition and interested in food, but increasingly oriented in everyday life toward ready-made or simply heat-and-eat solutions. This therefore does not appear to be merely a temporary response to the rising cost of living. Behind the growth of ready meals there may be a more structural change in how younger generations organize their meals.

Signs of change are emerging in Italy as well

The phenomenon is also relevant to the Italian market. Italian consumers have become more selective both in consumption occasions and in the products they purchase, and tend to reduce the more accessory elements of the meal. According to Circana, this behaviour is also benefiting retail, where ready-to-eat products are perceived as a convenient alternative. The phenomenon is part of a broader transformation of European foodservice. Circana notes that although total spending on foodservice has increased compared with the pre-pandemic period, the number of visits in Europe’s five main markets — Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Great Britain — remains below 2019 levels. Consumers therefore continue to spend, but are becoming more selective about when, where and why they eat out.

A strategic opportunity for large-scale retail as well

For supermarkets, this transformation represents both an opportunity and a challenge. Ready-to-eat products make it possible to capture consumption occasions that traditionally belonged to foodservice: lunch during the working day, a last-minute dinner, a snack, an individual meal or a quick solution to take home. But competing on this ground requires different capabilities from traditional grocery retail. It is not enough to increase the number of SKUs; perceived quality, freshness, product innovation, speed of service, packaging, waste management, availability throughout the day and the ability to build an assortment consistent with different consumption occasions all become central.

The real challenge: winning the consumption occasion

The growth of ready-made foods reveals something deeper than the simple evolution of a product category: it is changing the way consumers choose where to buy their meal. The supermarket is no longer simply the place where people do their grocery shopping. Through an increasingly broad range of ready-made meals, it is beginning to satisfy needs and consumption occasions that until a few years ago belonged mainly to foodservice. The real change, therefore, is not that supermarkets are selling more ready-made meals. It is that they are effectively becoming the new competitors of foodservice.

This leads to a strategic question: who are a company’s real competitors today? Not necessarily only those selling the same product or operating in the same industry. Increasingly, the competitor is anyone capable of satisfying the same consumer need. For this reason, a fast-food chain no longer competes only with another fast-food chain, just as a supermarket no longer competes only with another supermarket. Both compete to win the same consumption occasion. And it is precisely around these consumption occasions that a significant part of future competition between supermarkets and foodservice will be played out.

Sources

• FMI – The Food Industry Association, The Power of Foodservice at Retail 2025 and “Study Highlights Grocery Stores' Expanding Role in Convenient, Affordable Dining”, October 2025.
• FMI – The Food Industry Association, The State of Fresh Foods 2025: Driving Sales and Operational Innovation to Satisfy Consumer Preferences, August 2025.
• The State of Grocery Retail 2025: Europe, April 2025.
• EuroCommerce, European grocery retail searching for growth in a challenging environment in 2025, April 2025.
• Circana, Europe Foodservice On Track For Modest Spend Recovery in 2025 With Emerging Opportunities Ahead, May 2025.
• Circana, Expanding Consumer Choices: Foodservice and Retail Merge as Boundaries Blur in a Transforming Market, November 2024.
• Circana, European Foodservice Summit 2025 – Trends Transforming Europe's Restaurant Scene, September 2025.