15 Apr Draw Attention to Your Denver Micro-Market in 4 Steps

A micro-market offers Denver employees many different types of benefits from healthy, fresh food to a place to enjoy a refreshing cold beverage with colleagues. While the physical space needs to be inviting and support employee interactions, the menu should have something for everyone. 

With so many refreshment choices available in the Denver area, it’s challenging to draw your employees to the micro-market for a bite to eat or drink. To create a refreshment menu that can appeal to a variety of individuals, it should include traditional favorites as well as new options that cater to today’s trends. For 2019, the in-demand products are the ones that took the trends of 2018 and expanded them to new flavors, textures and purposes.

Be the place your Denver employees choose to go to when they are hungry or thirsty by integrating the following four in-demand trends into your micro-market menu. 

Nutritious Options 

The concept that healthy can’t apply to snacks and treats has gone the way of the dodo, in other words, it’s gone. Healthy or better-for-you is now an approach that food manufacturers are using when it comes to developing new products especially sweet treats. A recent report by the National Association of Convenience Stores found that sellers who highlighted the better-for-you qualities of treats such as the benefits of dark chocolate or added functional ingredients that have probiotics or antioxidants had higher sales.

Unique Textural Experiences 

Eating is no longer just about the taste. Today’s consumers want to learn about how a food will feel and sound. Textures such as crunchy, crispy and silky are a few of the sought-after features. Lynn Dornblaser, director of insights and innovation at Mintel, explained that including descriptions about the textural qualities on a product’s packaging plays a role in the volume of overall sales. Such a description increases the likelihood that consumers will buy that product. 

Bold Flavor Choices 

The high demand for spicy and bold flavors, especially in snacks, has been around for several years. In addition to spicy, savory snacks, spicy flavors have now made their way to the candy aisle and are a big hit. In fact, “non-chocolate spicy and hot attributed candy products are growing eight times faster than non-chocolate in general,” according to Larry Levin, EVP of Consumer and Shopper Marketing at IRI. 

Snacks As Meal Replacements

Recent studies have shown that Denver consumers are more likely to eat six to eight small, healthy snacks or mini-meal during the day instead of three traditional meals. This change in eating patterns isn’t going anywhere as Americans continue to eat snacks in place of meals. A 2018 survey found that 86 percent of Americans have eaten snacks in place of meals. Employers who offer their employees access to a micro-market can count on those types of snacks to be an important revenue source.

The bottom line is that Denver employers should offer multiple options including snacks, beverages and fresh food of the healthy, spicy or bold flavor variety.  To learn more about updating your current micro-market menu or customizing a new one, contact Peak Refreshments at (303) 209-0150. We look forward to working with to create the ultimate break room.