A new survey, commissioned by the UK-based workforce collaboration software company Planday and conducted among 2008 millennials, has revealed three important trends among millennials that could reshape the restaurant culture of the future. The following are the three drivers that the survey has found:
- Spontaneous spending
- Need for robotics and automation
- Healthy, vegan food
Spontaneous spending
About 20 per cent millennials surveyed say they go out less to restaurants now and they place more home delivery orders. This alone is worth around £1 billion a year towards food delivery and away from in-restaurant dining. This refers to a culture of spontaneous decision making about eating and dining.
Robotics and automation
More than half of the millennials surveyed (52 per cent to be exact) say they are ready for restaurant services to be performed by robots and would prefer to go to such automated restaurants.
Over two-thirds of millennials (71 per cent) are not against their food being delivered by a robot.
However, (51 per cent) opined that they still prefer to express their grievance to a person rather than a machine.
Healthy, vegan food
Nearly half of all millennials (49 per cent, to be precise) they have an affinity towards vegan restaurants.
An overwhelming 75 per cent of millennials would prefer one of the following types of restaurants: vegan, vegetarian or those with good environmental credentials. Only 25 per cent of millennials see a good future for fast food restaurants.
John Coldicutt, Chief Commercial Officer for Planday said: “The UK restaurant sector has seen multiple high-profile closures in the last 12 months, as well-established chains struggle to correctly predict and match market demand. This survey gives us insight into the complex and changing consumer expectations, from younger to older diners, contributing to this challenging environment. We know from our own customer base that things are only likely to get less predictable as just under two thirds (63 per cent) of our customers who are restaurant managers expect the percentage of food orders from online delivery services to increase over the next year. In order to stay competitive and profitable, restaurants need to listen to changing consumer preferences and use the available technologies to cater to an increasingly unpredictable environment.”
The survey indicates important, paradigm-shifting findings for the hospitality industry. It also shows that the millennials are smarter and more caring to the nature in choosing their food as well.