Food, revealing trends

At the end of March 2020, Michel-Edouard Leclerc declared “In my forty years of experience in retail, I have never experienced anything comparable. Economic activity is almost at a standstill, we are the only commercial sector, along with the media and pharmacies, still in business”. He concluded that “although we are private companies, we feel we have a public service mission”.[1]

Today, even as we talk about new waves and a more of a world “with the virus” rather than a world “after the virus”, three questions arise:

• What has been changed under the stress of the pandemic, and will disappear with the return to business as usual?
• What has been accelerated?
• What has been discovered and will remain because it is in line with needs and desires?

Accelerations

The preference for local and organic products, seasonal products, sustainable agriculture, new practices in line with ecological concerns, and the attachment to small, local farms all existed before the Covid-19 crisis and the trend has been accelerated.

Many consumers became aware that certain products were imported from the other side of the world and converted to new habits, while others increased their pre-existing commitment. Similarly, the desire for healthy, fresh, vitamin-enriched products also existed before the pandemic, but people saw it as a way to strengthen their immune defences and protect themselves against the virus. This double expectation, for products that are both natural and will help protect vulnerabilities, has no reason to stop and only reason to continue, because it is both ecological and psychological.

Food e-commerce, drive-through collection and click & collect were all available before the pandemic, but they have experienced an unprecedented boom: “Sales of all products made online by large food retailers (drive-through, pedestrian drive-through and home delivery) were €9.865 billion from 6 January 2020 to 2 January 2021, up 46.5% from the €3.1 billion in 2019”.[2] The big winners are pharmaceutical products (+138.3%), canned meat (+74.5%), and sweets and baked goods (+71.5%). These options will remain because they simplify life and respond to needs as much as to desires, particularly pedestrian drive-through in urban areas with the greatest potential for purchasing power.

Restrictions, particularly those applied to restaurants, were real constraints, which most French people wanted to move on from as quickly as possible. We saw this with the end of the first lockdown, when they rushed to McDonald’s, the brand they missed the most in the March-May 2020 period.

The kitchen, the new cocoon

The French have been spending more time at home, and with the home office, the closure of canteens and all places of life and leisure, and with the curfews, they have become accustomed to cooking, to staying at home and to treating themselves with good food and cakes. They have reclaimed the three mealtimes, with no need to skip breakfast to be on time in the morning, no need to eat lunch alone in front of their PC, and dinner developing as a time to get together and reconnect.

The crisis has removed the guilt from the desire to comfort oneself by eating, snacking and drinking, and it’s no coincidence that the aperitif has been so successful as a marker for the end of the working day at home and a transition into socialising time.

For people who do not live alone, cooking lunch and dinner has regained its significance of sharing, socialising, good spirits and a ‘valve’ to get rid of the stress of the pandemic by withdrawing into a “cocoon”. In a context of fear of illness, changing recommendations and uncertainties, food is an area that consumers feel have control, with food standards, information available on food origin and provenance, nutritional information on the nutri-score etc.

The culinary arts, a social fact

Because it has become central to our relationship with time by punctuating the day, this world of the “culinary arts”, which had been somewhat neglected or even scorned a few years ago, has regained its nobility.

There were already many television programmes in which chefs and amateurs challenge each other and compete in terms of creativity, ingenuity and technique, demonstrating their passion but also the difficulties of their profession, which had raised public awareness of the culinary arts. But during lockdowns, many people were put in the situation of being a home chef and therefore became more attentive to culinary solutions and tips, sauces, spreads, cooking kits. In short, they were more attentive to anything that guaranteed they would be able to recreate the experience of a home restaurant and to succeed in the recipe, in order to ensure their own enjoyment and the enjoyment of their friends and family. 

Food has once again become interesting as a social fact: it concerns women as much as men, it creates links and consolidates relationships with others, it opens people up to other cultures and it makes people creative. Above all, it acts as a counterweight to a dematerialised, technological, abstract universe, with products in all their materiality and truth, their natural and raw qualities, to be transformed and enhanced. In all these respects, the culinary arts are a pleasure.