USA

Consumers have become increasingly concerned about freshness and sustainability, even in kiosks and food trucks. Smaller local and independent vendors have the advantage of being able to change their menus to reflect the season, latest flavour or ...

The two leading plant-based meat companies, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, both staked a claim in limited-service restaurants in 2019, with plans to expand offerings and explore different cuisines in 2020. Burger King had perhaps the most ...

2019 was an eventful year in the consumer foodservice industry despite relatively modest growth across the board. Restaurant brands continue to grapple with the logistics and costs associated with delivery; new technologies have garnered major ...

As mentioned in last year’s report, new urban concepts have provided a way to make cafeterias more relevant for younger millennial and Gen Z consumers. Restaurants such as Urban Plates in Los Angeles allow customers to mix and match according to ...

In 2018, several limited-service chains began to invest in artificial intelligence to optimise product promotion and streamline customer experience. Full-service brands began to follow suit in 2019 with machine learning algorithms set up to create ...

The first ghost restaurants concepts began to emerge a few years ago with only the most adventurous brands willing to explore the new concept. Since that time, various brands have experimented with ghost locations in one way or another in an effort ...

What first began with “barcades” is now spreading further to include table side activities and interactive drinks. Bars, such as Chicago’s recently-opened Machine: Engineered Drinking and Dining, bring experiential dining to café/bars with ...

In 2019, supermarkets retained its title as the leading retail channel of any kind in the US in terms of total sales, posting a higher retail sales total in the country than even e-commerce over the course of the year. Despite the immense scale of ...

Home furnishing retailers are adding new store features with a focus on “experience” to attract customers to their outlets. For example, Crate & Barrel has announced plans to open 15 full-service restaurants inside its stores after opening its first ...

Even as many other store-based retailing channels in the US struggled, variety stores continued to record impressive sales growth in 2019. This was largely due to the cumulative success of the so-called “dollar store” chains – Dollar Tree and Family ...

More and more consumers are re-evaluating their shopping habits and showing increasing interest in adopting more sustainable practices when it comes to shopping for apparel and footwear. When asked about their attitudes towards green products, 60% of...

Electronics and appliance specialist retailers continued to see the effect of Generation Z entering the workforce. With higher disposable incomes, Generation Z consumers, a group of digital natives, are used to satisfying their purchasing needs ...

In 2019, the year-on-year sales growth posted by US hypermarkets was down a bit from the previous year. Historically, slowing sales growth during a period of relative economic health would likely be a cause for concern. In this case, however, most ...

In the US, independent small grocers are one the most important types of traditional grocery retailers. The significance of these retailers, a subset of which are sometimes referred to as “corner stores” or “bodegas” in the US, is especially ...

Drugstores, with their large number of outlets, are looking to fill a gap in grocery retailing by focusing more on grocery sales. Much like convenience stores, drugstores are retail outlets that consumers might visit between their weekly or biweekly ...

E-commerce has transformed the way consumers research, compare and purchase products, in addition to offering shorter delivery times, forever changing the way consumers access goods and services across all industries. Although homeshopping recorded ...

Even as the US economy continues to rebound from the recession of 2008-2009, consumers across the nation have attempted to stretch their spending dollars further by shifting towards retail channels that emphasise value. This has been a boon for US ...

Click-and-collect became a much more relevant fulfilment option for US consumers in 2019. A 2019 survey by the International Council of Shopping Centres found that more than 50% of online shoppers in the US make use of click-and-collect services. ...

Over the last few years, much of the conversation surrounding the growth of food and drink e-commerce in the US has focused on delivery. This makes a certain amount of sense, as the proliferation of grocery delivery options available to US consumers ...

In 2019, warehouse clubs was one of the best-performing retail channels across all of store-based retailing in the US. Even as e-commerce continued to record impressive gains in the nation’s overall retail mix, customers continued to flock to ...