Yankees vs. Red Sox. Mac vs. PC. Democrats vs. Republicans. Organic hot breakfasts vs. organic cold breakfasts.
Okay, so maybe that last one isn’t so heated (no pun intended), but it’s certainly a rivalry that reflects consumer demands on the organic breakfast category. Which do consumers prefer: the slow, somewhat spoiled feeling of enjoying a hot breakfast, or the grab-and-go convenience of a bar or cereal? Organic Products Retailer polled manufacturers and retailers, and here’s how they weighed in:
“Consumers are busier than ever, and parents today are especially taxed, making it less likely—especially on weekdays—that they will be able to pull off a hot breakfast for themselves or their children. In fact, many people—adults and kids—wind up eating their first meals of the day in a car or on a school bus.”
— Liane Weintraub, CEO and co-founder of Tasty Brand, Inc.
“I think people are interested in hot breakfasts because they’re realizing that they deserve some sort of substantial start to their day. They’re taking the time to realize that they need to put effort into what they’re producing for themselves or they’ll end up with a grab-and-go that fills them up for five minutes.”
— Kari Ani Shiozawa, founder and CEO of Truly Organic Baking
“In the natural/organic categories, cold cereal sales are $468.4M and hot cereal sales are $73.8M, indicating that cold breakfast foods are more popular, most likely because they are easy to prepare and because people eat cold cereal at meal opportunities other than breakfast, such as on top of a yogurt as a snack. What people are really looking for are convenient, on-the-go breakfast items such as cereal bars, cereal cups, granola bars, toaster pastries, etc.”
— Maria Emmer-Aanes, director of marketing and communications of Nature’s Path Foods, Inc.
“I’d say hot breakfast items are more popular right now with our customer. A lot of bacon and eggs fly out of the store, instant oatmeals and bulk oatmeals. It’s a little bit more economical, too, to buy something to make your own breakfast as opposed to buying something like a cereal which is highly priced.”
— Harry Bennett, general manager of Westerly Natural Market
“The choice of cold or hot breakfast food is, I think, age related. Older people are more familiar with the traditional oatmeal. This age category of consumers is in no rush in the morning, and they can take their time and cook their breakfast.”
— Hariclia Makoulis, president of Ambrosial Granola, Inc.
“On the weekends, it’s hot, and on the weekdays, it’s cold. If they’re going to work or off to school, people need something quick and that’s going to be a cold option, more than likely. But on the weekends, it’s pancakes, porridge and oatmeal—it’s all things that are sort of special and take time to cook and serve.”
— David Basham, owner of Back to the Land Natural Foods
