ORLANDO, FLA. — A wide generation gap is evident in the attitudes and shopping habits of millennials and baby boomers, said Anne-Marie Roerink, president of 210 Analytics, LLC.

Roerink offered insights into changing consumers trends while moderating a Bakery Playbook panel March 24 during the annual meeting of the American Bakers Association at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando.

Sharing survey findings, Roerink said twice as many millennials (54%) “love trying new types of foods” as boomers (27%). Similarly, millennials are more likely to prefer knowing where their food comes from, believe they are “doing their part for the planet” in food choices and to try to buy from companies that “care about worker safety and welfare.”

Differences are evident also in what the generations eat and cook. Asked which appliance they would pick if they could only choose one, 94% of millennials opted for an air fryer while 84% of boomers went for a crock pot.

While millennials’ favorite meal includes chicken, boomers’ favorite includes steak. 

“Not only does it start with steak versus chicken, but you see burgers and tacos and pizza and bowls and ramen (with millennials),” she said. “Many times baked goods are part of these meals. But if you think about steak, you might serve dinner rolls with that. With chicken, tacos, pasta, etc. it may be a very different kind of baked good. That means these different approaches to meals for the different generations can start to have a big impact on what we’re seeing in the corresponding baked good sales served with that meal.”

While identifying a divide between the generations, Roerink said the distinction between retail and foodservice was becoming murkier, describing a hybrid approach to shopping in which a consumer may pick up a pizza from a restaurant and dessert from a grocery story. 

Ways to generate excitement about baked foods among consumers were described by Tristen Kendall-Barros, vice president of marketing at Roche Bros. Supermarkets, Mansfield, Mass. For example, at their  urban locations in the Boston area, stores have been redesigned with a focus on grab-and-go options, including for breakfast on the way to the office or sandwiches for lunch.

“We’re always trying to add an additional item, pulling together those lunch bundles and using dessert as the extra add on,” she said. 

Corporate catering business is up, with a new motivation for companies offering meals to their employees, Kendall-Barros said.

“We’re definitely seeing corporate catering come back, and our sandwiches and our wraps are really making a comeback as corporate offices are really trying to lure people back into the office with food,” she said. 

Ways the tension between wellness and indulgence is evolving were described by Roerink.

“People have really redefined how they look at well-being, especially since the pandemic when we were all cooped up in our houses,” she said. “No longer are there super restrictive diets where we demonize certain ingredients and we demonize certain food groups.  Mostly it’s about balance between our physical health and our emotional well-being, that are interconnected. So if I have a donut or I have a cookie, that’s what makes me happy and that also feeds into my physical well-being.”

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While promotions for holiday meals tend to be meat or produce focused, Roerink said all kinds of holidays are occasions for baked foods promotions as well. She asked Kendall-Barros how Roche Bros. capitalizes on these opportunities.

In response, Kendall-Barros described how the supermarket chain focuses both on consumer desire for indulgence as well as all kinds of holiday/celebration opportunity.

“We offer beautifully decorated cupcakes that feel like you’re giving yourself an upscale experience at the grocery store,” she said. “We make sure there are single-serve options, people take advantage of that, just want to do something for themselves. Sometimes people want a slice of cake, and we’re really trying to lean into that. And we’re leaning into any holiday.”

As an example, she noted that two towns where Roche Bros. operates stores are celebrating 250th anniversaries.

“We’re making a specialized cupcake for the towns by placing their anniversary logo on our cupcakes an cookies,” she said. “We’re also leaning into the graduation celebrations that are coming up. We’re partnering with all the towns where we’re located to be sure we have cakes, cupcakes with school logos on it, really trying to celebrate anything going on in our communities, as well as national holidays and donut day and things like that.”

The 210 Analytics survey showed that more than half of consumers are motivated in their buying decisions by a company’s commitment to limiting packaging waste. 

Efforts to use packaging more sustainably were described by Brad Clarkin, vice president of production operations for Kwik Trip, Inc., La Crosse, Wis.

“It’s one of these items we continue to find balance,” he said. “How can we take virgin resin out? Can we continue to reduce that percentage? But at the end of the day it comes back to quality. We need high quality packaging out on the shelf. Another pivot we’ve made is with paperboard. Some organizations have pivoted to paperboard. I think some of the struggle is that with many manufacturers a poly liner is used, which really goes against the whole purpose of what you’re trying to do. We’ve partnered with a vender, taken the poly out, but again it’s balancing the performance between the quality on shelf of paperboard versus PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate).