Millennials Prefer Quality Over Convenience, Reveals New Survey

07/07/2014
Taco Bell, McDonald’s and KFC may need to rethink their recipes if they want to a piece of the $1.3 trillion Millennial market, according to Consumer Reports’ latest fast-food report. All three of the national fast-food kings’ signature dishes – McDonald’s burgers, KFC chicken sandwiches and Taco Bell burritos — were ranked last in taste in their respective categories.
Most notably, McDonald’s scored “significantly worse” than 20 competitors, including Hardee’s, White Castle and Carl’s Jr., by its own customers in the best burger category.

The report asked customers to rank the tastiness of fast-food chains’ signature dishes from 1 to 10 (from least delicious to most delicious), and received rankings about 96,208 meals consumed at 65 chains.
The customers indicated that the quality of the food has become more important to them than respondents of Consumer Reports’ 2011 survey. According to a press release, this has led to a significant increase in approval scores for fast-casual restaurants, such as Chipotle, Firehouse Subs and Five Guys Burgers and Fries, because of the premium ingredients and greater variety of dishes.
The rise of fast-casual dining can be largely attributed to Millennials, the report says, who are more likely to go out of their way for a meal that’s higher quality, more authentic and healthier, even for a higher cost.
Fast-casual dining in places like Chipotle and Panda Express lets the consumer guide the staff to prepare their meal just the way they like it, notes Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, a food-service research and consulting firm, in a press release.
“I will spend a couple extra dollars on a Chipotle burrito because they source many of their ingredients, like steak, from fairly sustainable farms. In America, our food system is far behind much of the world in terms of sustainable farming practices,” says Anne Gibbons, 21, from Evanston, Ill. ”We value cheap, quick food and turn a blind eye to where it comes from. As a consumer, I want to support restaurants, businesses and corporations that are trying to change our food system for the better.”
This comes on the heels of a report by RBC and the NPD Group, which also found that Millennials prefer chains like Panera Bread, Noodles & Co. and Chipotle, recently deemed the most favored brand by Millennials according to a Nielson survey. These chains are slightly more expensive, but successfully marketed toward the health conscious, “adventurous” Gen Y.
“I choose to go to Chipotle because the company has demonstrated a commitment to high quality ingredients that contribute to a relatively healthy meal,” says Nick Ellis, 21, a student at the University of Michigan. “And Chipotle has guac.”
The report also notes that breakfast offerings are becoming increasingly important for sales – hello Waffle Taco – and that Americans in general are spending over $680 billion per year dining out, the most money ever.

By: forbes.com

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