Flirt, eat, have fun and take care of yourself at home: this is the new consumer 'cocooner'

• Trends.The supermarket is already the mother who cooks you

A cooconer is one that when you want to link, connects to Tinder; that instead of going to the restaurant, he orders the menu from Deliveroo ; He doesn't cook at home, but buys "ready-to-eat" food at the supermarket. If you want to watch a movie, you don't go to the movies, but plug in to Netflix. The cooconer makes his house his strength, his space of consumption and more and more Spaniards are living this way.

We confine ourselves in homes but, unlike what happened during the economic crisis, we did not spend, now we do, only from inside doors, in the privacy of the home.

"With the crisis we started to go out less and stay more at home. At the beginning it was an obligation, but now we are Europeanizing and we spend more time at home. We have caught our taste and we have put a huge offer to consume at home, "says Celia Rodríguez, an expert from Nielsen, a consultant who in her latest report analyzes this trend of consumption with more and more followers.

Cooconer is a term coined in the United States that refers to this tendency to be held at home and do everything we used to do outside: flirt, have fun, go to the movies, eat, etc ... This behavior is a new habit of consumption that "It is not a fad, but it has become something structural, " says Patricia Daimiel, director in Spain and Portugal of the consultant.

The chains of supermarkets, hospitality and brands and manufacturers of consumer products "have seen the great opportunity for growth and business there": for example, we already make six meals a month (10% of the total usual) with dishes that do not leave our kitchen , but the restaurant at home (Deliveroo, Glovo ...) or the option of "ready to eat" that most supermarkets already have. Specifically, it is those shelves where we are sold sushi, made salads and prepared dishes that only require, at most, heat in the microwave.

They make it easy for us

" The consumer embraces everything that allows him to solve the ballot inside the home and the consumer brands have made it easy for us: lunch, dinner, the movie, the league ...", says Rodríguez. He gives the example of facial masks, one of the categories that is growing, especially because "now the treatment you do at home, for five euros, instead of going to a beauty center to do it for 50".

The specialization of beauty at home is one of the fastest growing areas. Sushi is also triggered thanks to cocooning, as well as candles and air fresheners. "The most benefited are those categories that have a component of indulgence, of pampering: masks, premium food, smoked ...", says the expert.

It 's not just a time to solve practical consumption, but these options have to give us an emotional value. That that menu that we have ordered in Deliveroo delights us, that that Netflix movie we see on a big screen and with good sound, as if we were in the cinema ...

Thrill

"It is a behavior between the practical and the emotional. It is about provoking emotion in the consumers. The brands have seen it. They have anticipated and said: 'What do you need to be at home at home'? " Rodriguez

This is possible because we are connected all day. Our prime time is from 6 to 10 at night and 46% of Spaniards connect to a double screen (mobile and computer, television or tablet ...)

The reality is that we have at our disposal gastronomic menus of any kind, even Michelin star, facials, leisure, series, food made ... " There is a dissolution of barriers, supermarket chains and restaurants have seen that there is a opportunity in this new habit and have broken barriers: the super get into the restaurant and vice versa. Things are mixed because everyone offers me solutions, "says Rodriguez.

An opportunity for the super

The supermarket chains have quickly identified the opportunity that the hotel industry was taking advantage of, thanks to delivery platforms such as Glovo or Deliveroo. Carrefour has long had a takeaway section. She was the pioneer and has even seen cooking with chefs who prepare sushi at the time, for example. The others have been added: Lidl, Dia & Go, Mercadona ...

In fact, sales of prepared dishes for consumption at home grew 3.3% in 2019, reaching 592,454 tons, according to the Spanish Association of Manufacturers of Prepared Dishes (Asefapre) that integrates the main manufacturers in the sector.

We already bought food to take in the supermarket an average of 2.5 times a month in the prepared food spaces, according to Nielsen. It is the average of Spain, although "in cities like Madrid or Barcelona it shoots up," says Rodríguez.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project