The Competitive Advantage for Grocery in a Modern, Chaotic Society 

Between the craze of work, school, extracurriculars, and a mix of celebratory occasions, consumers are embracing easier ways to serve memorable meals. Prepared and take-and-bake options from grocery stores have become the go-to solution for families who want a tasty spread with minimal stress. Food isn’t the only thing that’s frequently on-the-go – it’s also their news, entertainment, and social upkeep that now occurs across multiple media platforms. For grocers, that means a golden opportunity to promote their ready-made offerings via relevant, consistent, and coordinated multichannel campaigns. 

The Rise of Prepared Meals in Grocery 

Retail foodservice — that is, deli-prepared, ready-to-heat, take-and-bake and fully-cooked meals sold inside grocery stores — is no longer a niche. According to FMI – The Food Industry Association, the share of consumers who say they buy deli-prepared foods from grocery stores instead of dining out has risen from 12% in 2017 to 28% today.   

What’s driving this? 

• Consumers are seeking meals that deliver time savings, quality, and variety simultaneously. The FMI report notes that shoppers increasingly view prepared foods at the grocery deli as “a true alternative to restaurant dining, not just a convenient option.”  

• Value matters. The same survey found that 62% of shoppers said they feel deli-prepared foods are a better value than restaurant meals.  

• According to Grocery Dive, meal decision timing is also changing. Deli-prepared options are most frequently purchased between noon and 5 p.m. and oftentimes paired with ingredients at home to create flexible meals.  

In short: Grocers are increasingly competing with restaurants for the meal occasion. 

Why Holidays Amplify Opportunity 

Holiday meals are built for packaged celebration — family gatherings, friend get-togethers, cooking traditions. They also represent a moment of high pressure: high expectations, tight timelines, labor challenges, and elevated cost sensitivity. That tension makes prepared and take-and-bake meals a perfect fit. 

Some key holiday-specific signals: 

• A recent “Holiday Food Trends” report by Leger shows79% of consumers are open to trying new food products during holiday occasions; younger generations (Gen Z & Millennials) especially are open to convenient prepared foods.  

• A holiday grocery outlook from PwC shows overall spend may dip ~5 % in 2025 compared to 2024, but rituals persist; consumers want meaningful experiences, even if budgets are under pressure.  

• Meal preparation is shifting. According to a Food Navigator survey, more households are using a hybrid approach: combining ingredients at home with whatever prepared components ease the work.  

For grocers: this means holiday windows are ripe for prepared-meal promos. Shoppers want help, convenience, and holiday-themed options! 

What Role Take-and-Bake & Prepared Meals Can Play 

When you think “take-and-bake” or “pre-prepared meal,” you’re offering something different than a pack of raw meat or side dishes. You’re delivering: 

• Time savings: pre-assembled casseroles, fully-cooked meats, heat-and-serve sides reducing kitchen burden. 

• Simplicity + quality: For hosting households or multitasking shoppers, these offerings allow elevated meals without full-scale production in-house. 

• Upsell & basket expansion: Customers picking up a honey-baked ham, rotisserie chicken, or roast are likely to also purchase sides, desserts, drinks — boosting overall basket size. 

• Alternatives to dining out: With grocery prepared meals increasingly displacing restaurant meals, shoppers may choose a gourmet-style home feast instead of hosting a large dining-out gathering. 

Additionally, many restaurants offer prepared pick-up options (e.g., platters, full dinners to-go). Grocers should view that not just as competition but as validation of consumer appetite for “semi-done” meal solutions. Grocers are well-positioned to be the one-stop hub — ingredients, prepared mains, sides, desserts. 

Why Grocers Need to Advertise Consistently, Broad, and Multichannel 

With the opportunity clear, the question becomes: how do grocers activate? The answer: via a comprehensive multichannel advertising campaign – not just surrounding the holidays, but consistently year-round to build top-of-mind consideration for holidays, birthdays, or anniversary celebrations. 

Consistent and broad matters! 

• Planning horizon has stretched: Even though many ready-made meal purchases are last-minute, more shoppers are browsing and considering how they will (or won’t) prepare and serve meals in advance. The more consistently you build awareness of your prepared-meal solutions, the more you capture intent versus being reactive. 

• Omnichannel shopper journeys: Shoppers move fluidly from discovery (social, search) to in-store to purchase decisions. If you only advertise in store or only run a last-minute flyer, you risk missing big parts of the journey. 

• Complex category messaging: Prepared meals are about more than price—they’re about ease, quality, flavor, hosting, celebration. That requires storytelling across channels. 

• Competitive chaos intensifies: With many retailers and foodservice operators vying for holiday dollars, being top-of-mind and prominent matters. Consistent advertising secures share of mind. 

Channel-by-channel strategies:

• Paid Social: Use visually rich ads across META platforms featuring prepared meals (roasts, casseroles, take-and-bake trays) to catch discovery and generate engagement. Paid social remains a top driver of traffic in grocery media mixes.  

• Search Engine Marketing (SEM): People are actively searching for holiday meals, ready-to-heat trays, and party platters. Ensure you capture competitive bidding for “take-and-bake meals,” “grocery prepared dinners,” etc.  

• Display & Video (including CTV): Use display banners and connected-TV ads to build awareness of your prepared-meal offering at scale. Use storytelling: “Less stress, more quality time.” 

• DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home): Potential ready-made consumers are busy – commuting, shopping, exercising, running errands. DOOH near shopping centers, gyms, gas stations, and other high traffic zones can reach them in-the-moment. Promos like “Pick up your ready-to-heat meal today” can boost foot traffic. 

• Mobile: Trigger in-store and in-aisle push promotions or banner ads when shoppers enter a geofenced location. Deliver limited time offer messaging about prepared-meal packages, reservation deadlines, and last-minute items. 

• Shared & Direct Mail: Don’t ignore tactile mailers! A well-designed shared or direct mail piece showing festive prepared meals, pick-up timelines, and QR codes linking to order pages can drive offline + online engagement. 

Now is the Time! 

Data from Grocery Drive shows consumers are shifting their meals toward grocery prepared foods and away from restaurants. The double-digit increase (from 12% to 28%) signals a meaningful structural shift. 

• The report also shares that holiday spend remains significant despite value pressures; even if overall spend dips, food and meals are still central to celebration.

• According to PwC, shopper behavior is changing: more pre-planning, more digital interaction, more prepared-meal acceptance. If grocers delay their campaigns, they risk losing share to restaurants, meal-kit services, or more agile retailers. 

• Prepared meals have a built-in story for the holidays: “less prep, more celebration with loved ones.” That narrative resonates emotionally and functionally. 

• Multichannel media behaviors are evolving: A study by MikMak finds that the grocery/food & beverage media mix shows strong traffic from paid social, but growth in display and video. If grocers adopt an omnichannel strategy now, they can capture shopper attention across the purchase funnel. 

• Inventory and operations are under stress during holiday windows. By advertising early and consistently, you smooth demand waves, spread out pick-up slots and staff load, and avoid “last-minute scramble” which often results in substitution or stock-outs (and disappointed shoppers). 

Advertisers That Measure and Optimize Have More to Celebrate 

Merely running ads isn’t enough. Given the multichannel complexity, grocers must ensure measurement and optimization: 

• Cross-channel attribution: Understand how social, search, mobile, and DOOH work together to influence success metrics. 

• Pickup/Order conversion metrics: Track how many consumers saw the media, clicked or scanned, and converted to orders or in-store pick-up. 

• Incremental basket size: Evaluate not just the prepared-meal transaction but incremental spend on sides, desserts, beverages that ultimately influences average basket size per shopper. 

• Operational metrics: Monitor pick-up slot utilization, substitution rates, in-store staff load.  

• Post-holiday loyalty: Use holiday prepared-meal buyers as an entry point into repeat business. Capture email/phone data for future promotions. 

In Summary 

The rise in ready-made meal demand marks a pivotal opportunity for grocers to elevate their multichannel marketing strategies. As more consumers embrace grocery-prepared foods as a satisfying alternative to dining out, the appetite for convenient, high-quality, and affordable options continues to grow. Meeting this demand isn’t just about having the right products, it’s about reaching shoppers at the right moments with the right message. 

Now is the time for grocers to activate comprehensive multichannel campaigns spanning paid social, SEM, mobile, display and CTV, DOOH, and direct mail. Building awareness consistently, reinforcing convenience and value through each touchpoint, and maintaining clear calls-to-action through pickup and conversion phases will maximize results. Done well, this approach drives stronger foot traffic, larger baskets, and deeper loyalty—positioning your brand to capture a greater share of the ready-made meal market and carry that momentum well into 2026. 

Curious to learn more about the digital, video, and mailbox solutions used by successful grocers to drive revenue? Contact Mspark for a free media consultation today.