Do you consider yourself a "picky" consumer? How has your answer affected your buying habits? Your eating habits?
Picky, picky, picky.
Americans won't eat -- or drink -- just anything anymore. Starbucks knows it. Whole Foods knows it. Frito-Lay knows it.
The driving forces are as diverse as the nation's population. America is becoming a nation of ultraselective eaters. Selective as in:
Gimme-a-world-of-choices-so-I-can-customize-my-diet. There's a powerful sense of control in saying, "Hold the bread" -- or "Hold the foam."
"It's a rejection of mass society," says Ron Shaich, CEO of Panera Bread, which has amassed a $1 billion business in 10 years by customizing virtually every order. "People just want to feel special."
That's changed the way consumers make one of their most basic decisions each day: what to eat.
Seventy percent of restaurant diners customized their orders in 2003, says the National Restaurant Association, which recently began tracking such habits. The group even has a term for it: the panache factor. "We've developed an exorbitantly sophisticated palate," says CEO Steven Anderson.
Food giants no longer determine America's eating habits; consumers do. This reality is causing foodmakers, restaurants and grocers to rethink the way they develop, market and display food. In a country that spends $900 billion annually on food, there's fat incentive to get it right.
* Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, which offered 34 flavors in 1977, sells 250 today -- including options for nut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free and kosher ice cream.
* Arby's, which sold one kind of roast beef sandwich when it was founded in 1964, now sells 30 sandwiches, most of which aren't even roast beef.
* Starbucks not only has more than 19,000 ways it can serve a cup of coffee, but it has five kinds of milk to stir into it: whole, non-fat, half & half, organic and soy.
* Tropicana, which had two kinds of orange juice just a decade ago, now has 24. One, Healthy Heart, with six vitamins and minerals, is said to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Today, we want our burgers without buns. Presto: It's a menu item at Burger King.
We want our chicken free-range. Voila: Choose from several brands at Whole Foods.
And we want our fruit and veggies organic. No problem: Wal-Mart, the nation's biggest grocer, has an organic produce section.
What the food giants want to know is what will folks want tomorrow? Who knows? One thing's certain: Consumers want choice.
"The American consumer went from being 'buyer beware' to 'buyer aware,' " says Dennis Lombardi, food guru at Technomic, a restaurant consulting specialist.
What you eat is now a measure of your hipness, says Larry Samuel, author of The Trend Commandments. "Foodies who were once a subculture are now cross-culture."
We define ourselves by our pop-culture tastes, says Samuel. "Our likes and dislikes in food are a big part of that," he says. Goodbye, I.Q., he says. Hello, F.Q. (food quotient).
Trends play a part
A slew of cultural trends are reshaping America into a nation of picky eaters. There are low-carb diets. There are health concerns. Aging baby boomers -- eager to hang on to youth -- are willing to pay more for better-for-you food for themselves and their kids.
Social activist groups, such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have attracted the well-heeled.
Information overload on all things food-related permeates Internet chat rooms and cable channels such as Food Network.
That's because food is a means of social interaction, says Brooke Bailey Johnson, general manager of Food Network, the cable channel whose viewership jumped 25% last year. "You can do so much more than just buy a pizza."
Perhaps that's why Food Network has been parodied so often on Saturday Night Live. What makes us laugh is often what makes us tick. In 1995, an average 36,000 viewers watched Food Network during prime time. Last year, that number topped 640,000.
"We're ever-pickier eaters as a way to get some control over what's happening to us," says Pam Murtaugh, a brand consultant. The national food obsession is society's way of saying, "Stop this ride, I want to get off," she says.
For Eric Thompson, being picky simply means wanting what's best. "I'm not a food snob. I love a fried pie more than the next guy," insists Thompson, 33, who lives in Bainbridge Island, Wash., and owns a business that makes monitoring tools. "But I'm not getting it in a Hostess wrapper after it's sat on the shelf at the Quik-E-Mart for six weeks. I'm getting it from a stand by the side of the road where they make a coconut fried pie that makes me cry."
But Bob Johnson, 62, a technical support consultant, says he has to be picky -- or risk putting back on the 72 pounds that the now-220-pound Houston resident has lost since August. When he travels, he totes along a no-fat, no-calorie, sugar-free Caesar salad dressing that he orders online. "We're getting ready to retire," he says of himself and his wife. "If I don't get rid of my extra baggage, I might not make it."
Perhaps no one is more challenged by pickiness than caterers. Few more so than Jim Kirsch, CEO of Abigail Kirsch Catering, a 30-year-old, upscale New York catering firm that's handled everything from former New York City first lady Donna Hanover's wedding to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
"Twenty years ago, when you planned a party, no one asked for something special. You ate what you were served," says Kirsch. Today, Kirsch lugs special meals for 15% of the guests at parties -- increasing his costs and party-givers' costs. "No one's shy about asking."
Catering to consumers
Here's how food behemoths are responding to picky consumers:
* Picky coffee drinkers. Nowhere is the world of mass customization more evident than at Starbucks. There's a chicness to not only what you order, but how. You can order your drink short. Or tall. Or grande. Or -- better say it right -- venti (pronounced VEN-tee).
You can get no foam. Or extra foam. Or light foam. Request your drink extra hot, and it'll be served at 180 degrees instead of the usual 150 to 170 degrees.
Starbucks just introduced a new Customization Tumbler that comes with stickers customers use to specify everything from how many shots of espresso they want to whether they want the server to "hold the whip" (hold the whipped cream).
The chain has discovered that consumer pickiness even stretches to sugar substitutes. Starbucks once carried one artificial sweetener. Now, it offers SweetN Low and Equal, and it's about to add Splenda, says Michelle Gass, vice president of category management.
* Picky ice cream buyers. When Gary Rogers bought Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, the first cut he made was to drop its worst-selling flavor: Bavarian cheesecake. Consumer response from its constituency was so strong, however, he immediately brought it back.
Mocha Chip accounts for one-half of 1% of the sales at Dreyer's (sold as Edy's east of the Rockies). But Rogers says now he wouldn't consider killing it. "The flavors that elicit the most emotional responses are the niche flavors," he says.
Specialty requests are so important to consumers that Dreyer's Web site lets consumers punch in precise ice cream demands (say, kosher ice cream with no nuts and no sugar). It will tell them which flavors fit that description, then list all supermarkets within five miles of their home that carry them.
Last year, the site had more than 500,000 specialty requests.
This month, Dreyer's introduces the ultimate specialty: "slow churn" ice cream. Fat molecules are pushed through a very small space, so the ice cream tastes more fatty. The Grand Light ice cream has 50% less fat and one-third fewer calories but will be billed as tasting like full fat.
* Picky grocery shoppers. When Whole Foods opened in 1974, it sold two kinds of lettuce, says CEO John Mackey. Now, it sells 40. Its stores sell 15 kinds of mushrooms, many of which weren't sold in the USA five years ago.
"There's a globalization of food, and America is at the cutting edge," Mackey says. "Food has become a part of who we are."
The business has gotten so specialized, Mackey says, that the 148-store chain is building a special bakery in North Carolina where it will bake only gluten-free products for its stores on the East Coast.
"Our customers have become as informed as -- even more informed than -- our staff," says Mackey.
* Picky snackers. Frito-Lay, which started with two chips -- Fritos corn chips and Lay's potato chips -- now has 60.
"Consumers want more control over their lives -- especially over what they eat," says Stephen Quinn, Frito-Lay's marketing chief.
Frito-Lay now offers a little of everything. Take Lay's. There are 24 versions of the Lay's Potato Chip brand. Wavy Lay's. Flat Lay's. Baked Lay's. Lay's Crisps. Even Lay's with jalapeno flavoring.
Last year, Lay's introduced a "natural" line of organic snacks, and later this year, it will introduce a low-carb snack line. "We've had to get very good at reaching smaller and smaller niches," says Quinn.
* Picky O.J. drinkers. Consumer pickiness in orange juice has gotten so specific that Tropicana even sells orange juice with three consistencies of pulp: high, medium and low. It also just introduced a Light 'n Healthy blend with one-third less sugar and calories than regular orange juice, along with the Healthy Heart blend.
Its Healthy Kids line, introduced in 2002, has been a big hit, says Tropicana Beverages President Greg Shearson. It boasts extra calcium for strong bones.
But, Shearson says, there's a point at which catering to niches can backfire. "You can't ignore your core customers," he says. "If we fragment to the point where we're offering 100 different kinds of orange juice, that will probably make the company smaller, not bigger."
* Picky fast-foodies. It used to take Arby's 18 months to get a new product from idea to rollout. Consumer demand won't permit that any longer, says CEO Doug Benham. The chain is about to roll out Low Carby Wraps four months after the concept's proposal. With the majority of orders customized, says Benham, "Nothing upsets people more than to make a special request -- and the wrong thing gets placed in their bag."
* Picky eaters. Applebee's, the nation's largest family restaurant chain, has a little secret: If something you want is not on the menu, they'll at least try to make it for you, says CEO Lloyd Hill. "If someone wants broiled chicken breasts -- never mind that they're not on the menu -- we'll do it," he says.
Hill is amazed at the sophistication of requests. That's one reason the chain has added a sandwich served on a ciabatta roll -- an Italian bread shaped like a slipper. "Who would have thought, even a few years ago," he asks, "that we'd have ciabatta on the menu?"
~i~
Picky, picky, picky.
Americans won't eat -- or drink -- just anything anymore. Starbucks knows it. Whole Foods knows it. Frito-Lay knows it.
The driving forces are as diverse as the nation's population. America is becoming a nation of ultraselective eaters. Selective as in:
Gimme-a-world-of-choices-so-I-can-customize-my-diet. There's a powerful sense of control in saying, "Hold the bread" -- or "Hold the foam."
"It's a rejection of mass society," says Ron Shaich, CEO of Panera Bread, which has amassed a $1 billion business in 10 years by customizing virtually every order. "People just want to feel special."
That's changed the way consumers make one of their most basic decisions each day: what to eat.
Seventy percent of restaurant diners customized their orders in 2003, says the National Restaurant Association, which recently began tracking such habits. The group even has a term for it: the panache factor. "We've developed an exorbitantly sophisticated palate," says CEO Steven Anderson.
Food giants no longer determine America's eating habits; consumers do. This reality is causing foodmakers, restaurants and grocers to rethink the way they develop, market and display food. In a country that spends $900 billion annually on food, there's fat incentive to get it right.
* Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, which offered 34 flavors in 1977, sells 250 today -- including options for nut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free and kosher ice cream.
* Arby's, which sold one kind of roast beef sandwich when it was founded in 1964, now sells 30 sandwiches, most of which aren't even roast beef.
* Starbucks not only has more than 19,000 ways it can serve a cup of coffee, but it has five kinds of milk to stir into it: whole, non-fat, half & half, organic and soy.
* Tropicana, which had two kinds of orange juice just a decade ago, now has 24. One, Healthy Heart, with six vitamins and minerals, is said to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Today, we want our burgers without buns. Presto: It's a menu item at Burger King.
We want our chicken free-range. Voila: Choose from several brands at Whole Foods.
And we want our fruit and veggies organic. No problem: Wal-Mart, the nation's biggest grocer, has an organic produce section.
What the food giants want to know is what will folks want tomorrow? Who knows? One thing's certain: Consumers want choice.
"The American consumer went from being 'buyer beware' to 'buyer aware,' " says Dennis Lombardi, food guru at Technomic, a restaurant consulting specialist.
What you eat is now a measure of your hipness, says Larry Samuel, author of The Trend Commandments. "Foodies who were once a subculture are now cross-culture."
We define ourselves by our pop-culture tastes, says Samuel. "Our likes and dislikes in food are a big part of that," he says. Goodbye, I.Q., he says. Hello, F.Q. (food quotient).
Trends play a part
A slew of cultural trends are reshaping America into a nation of picky eaters. There are low-carb diets. There are health concerns. Aging baby boomers -- eager to hang on to youth -- are willing to pay more for better-for-you food for themselves and their kids.
Social activist groups, such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have attracted the well-heeled.
Information overload on all things food-related permeates Internet chat rooms and cable channels such as Food Network.
That's because food is a means of social interaction, says Brooke Bailey Johnson, general manager of Food Network, the cable channel whose viewership jumped 25% last year. "You can do so much more than just buy a pizza."
Perhaps that's why Food Network has been parodied so often on Saturday Night Live. What makes us laugh is often what makes us tick. In 1995, an average 36,000 viewers watched Food Network during prime time. Last year, that number topped 640,000.
"We're ever-pickier eaters as a way to get some control over what's happening to us," says Pam Murtaugh, a brand consultant. The national food obsession is society's way of saying, "Stop this ride, I want to get off," she says.
For Eric Thompson, being picky simply means wanting what's best. "I'm not a food snob. I love a fried pie more than the next guy," insists Thompson, 33, who lives in Bainbridge Island, Wash., and owns a business that makes monitoring tools. "But I'm not getting it in a Hostess wrapper after it's sat on the shelf at the Quik-E-Mart for six weeks. I'm getting it from a stand by the side of the road where they make a coconut fried pie that makes me cry."
But Bob Johnson, 62, a technical support consultant, says he has to be picky -- or risk putting back on the 72 pounds that the now-220-pound Houston resident has lost since August. When he travels, he totes along a no-fat, no-calorie, sugar-free Caesar salad dressing that he orders online. "We're getting ready to retire," he says of himself and his wife. "If I don't get rid of my extra baggage, I might not make it."
Perhaps no one is more challenged by pickiness than caterers. Few more so than Jim Kirsch, CEO of Abigail Kirsch Catering, a 30-year-old, upscale New York catering firm that's handled everything from former New York City first lady Donna Hanover's wedding to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
"Twenty years ago, when you planned a party, no one asked for something special. You ate what you were served," says Kirsch. Today, Kirsch lugs special meals for 15% of the guests at parties -- increasing his costs and party-givers' costs. "No one's shy about asking."
Catering to consumers
Here's how food behemoths are responding to picky consumers:
* Picky coffee drinkers. Nowhere is the world of mass customization more evident than at Starbucks. There's a chicness to not only what you order, but how. You can order your drink short. Or tall. Or grande. Or -- better say it right -- venti (pronounced VEN-tee).
You can get no foam. Or extra foam. Or light foam. Request your drink extra hot, and it'll be served at 180 degrees instead of the usual 150 to 170 degrees.
Starbucks just introduced a new Customization Tumbler that comes with stickers customers use to specify everything from how many shots of espresso they want to whether they want the server to "hold the whip" (hold the whipped cream).
The chain has discovered that consumer pickiness even stretches to sugar substitutes. Starbucks once carried one artificial sweetener. Now, it offers SweetN Low and Equal, and it's about to add Splenda, says Michelle Gass, vice president of category management.
* Picky ice cream buyers. When Gary Rogers bought Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, the first cut he made was to drop its worst-selling flavor: Bavarian cheesecake. Consumer response from its constituency was so strong, however, he immediately brought it back.
Mocha Chip accounts for one-half of 1% of the sales at Dreyer's (sold as Edy's east of the Rockies). But Rogers says now he wouldn't consider killing it. "The flavors that elicit the most emotional responses are the niche flavors," he says.
Specialty requests are so important to consumers that Dreyer's Web site lets consumers punch in precise ice cream demands (say, kosher ice cream with no nuts and no sugar). It will tell them which flavors fit that description, then list all supermarkets within five miles of their home that carry them.
Last year, the site had more than 500,000 specialty requests.
This month, Dreyer's introduces the ultimate specialty: "slow churn" ice cream. Fat molecules are pushed through a very small space, so the ice cream tastes more fatty. The Grand Light ice cream has 50% less fat and one-third fewer calories but will be billed as tasting like full fat.
* Picky grocery shoppers. When Whole Foods opened in 1974, it sold two kinds of lettuce, says CEO John Mackey. Now, it sells 40. Its stores sell 15 kinds of mushrooms, many of which weren't sold in the USA five years ago.
"There's a globalization of food, and America is at the cutting edge," Mackey says. "Food has become a part of who we are."
The business has gotten so specialized, Mackey says, that the 148-store chain is building a special bakery in North Carolina where it will bake only gluten-free products for its stores on the East Coast.
"Our customers have become as informed as -- even more informed than -- our staff," says Mackey.
* Picky snackers. Frito-Lay, which started with two chips -- Fritos corn chips and Lay's potato chips -- now has 60.
"Consumers want more control over their lives -- especially over what they eat," says Stephen Quinn, Frito-Lay's marketing chief.
Frito-Lay now offers a little of everything. Take Lay's. There are 24 versions of the Lay's Potato Chip brand. Wavy Lay's. Flat Lay's. Baked Lay's. Lay's Crisps. Even Lay's with jalapeno flavoring.
Last year, Lay's introduced a "natural" line of organic snacks, and later this year, it will introduce a low-carb snack line. "We've had to get very good at reaching smaller and smaller niches," says Quinn.
* Picky O.J. drinkers. Consumer pickiness in orange juice has gotten so specific that Tropicana even sells orange juice with three consistencies of pulp: high, medium and low. It also just introduced a Light 'n Healthy blend with one-third less sugar and calories than regular orange juice, along with the Healthy Heart blend.
Its Healthy Kids line, introduced in 2002, has been a big hit, says Tropicana Beverages President Greg Shearson. It boasts extra calcium for strong bones.
But, Shearson says, there's a point at which catering to niches can backfire. "You can't ignore your core customers," he says. "If we fragment to the point where we're offering 100 different kinds of orange juice, that will probably make the company smaller, not bigger."
* Picky fast-foodies. It used to take Arby's 18 months to get a new product from idea to rollout. Consumer demand won't permit that any longer, says CEO Doug Benham. The chain is about to roll out Low Carby Wraps four months after the concept's proposal. With the majority of orders customized, says Benham, "Nothing upsets people more than to make a special request -- and the wrong thing gets placed in their bag."
* Picky eaters. Applebee's, the nation's largest family restaurant chain, has a little secret: If something you want is not on the menu, they'll at least try to make it for you, says CEO Lloyd Hill. "If someone wants broiled chicken breasts -- never mind that they're not on the menu -- we'll do it," he says.
Hill is amazed at the sophistication of requests. That's one reason the chain has added a sandwich served on a ciabatta roll -- an Italian bread shaped like a slipper. "Who would have thought, even a few years ago," he asks, "that we'd have ciabatta on the menu?"
~i~
