Snack on This: America’s Workforce is Hungry

Zerocater workplace studies

🍺 22%
Percent of companies stocking alcoholic beverages including wine, beer, and spirits.
🍏 94%
Percent of companies that want mostly healthy snack programs.

Zerocater Survey Gains Insight into Workforce Snacking Habits

As Millennials rise to become America’s largest workforce generation, employers are adapting their benefits programs to meet their needs including their snacking habits. A report by Canadean showed that millennials favor snacking over the traditional three square meals a day with 44% of millennials ages 25 – 34 years and 41% of millennials aged 18 – 24 reporting they regularly snacking between meals.

Recently Zerocater, a leading provider of corporate catering entered the office snacks market providing a fully-customizable office snacking solution that handles the entire end-to-end process for companies. Prior to the launch of Snacks and Kitchens, Zerocater surveyed 54 Bay Area companies that were already providing employee snacks programs to gain insight into what employers (and their employees) want in a snack program.

Companies are putting significant dollars and effort towards office snack programs.

  • Each month, companies are spending an average of $14,813 per month on office snacks and beverages, with 33% of companies willing to spend more.
  • Companies are providing this enticing employee benefit by any means necessary with 59% of managing snack programs on their own, while 41% use a third-party service.
    • Of those companies using a third-party service, the average experience rating is 3.6 out of 5 leaving room for improvement, especially in pricing and efficiency. Zerocater’s new Snacks and Kitchens service employs technology to connect the warehouse to the driver to the office ensuring the most efficient process.

When it comes to office snacks, a variety of options are a must.

  • 81% of companies surveyed prefer to have a comprehensive selection of snacks over a carefully-curated selection.
  • Some of the most popular food categories companies stock are dairy products (100%), dry snacks (96%), refrigerated snacks (94%), and fresh produce (92%).
  • Companies have brand loyalty when it comes to their snacks, with 59% of companies prefer to stock larger snack brands that they might see in the grocery store. Lesser-known-brands are on the rise with 41% of companies preferring newer brands. Zerocater has found that companies enjoy when their office receives new and exciting snacks for their teams to discover.
  • Zerocater collects and analyzes an office’s consumption data to determine which snacks are popular and at what rate, to ensure they always have what they like, and nothing they don’t.

Beverages abound.

  • 94% of companies are keeping their teams caffeinated with coffee and tea, while 37% offer nitro cold brew coffee.
  • Alcohol is becoming an increasingly popular work perk with 22% of companies stocking alcoholic beverages including wine, beer, and spirits. 11% of companies even have beer on tap!
  • Zerocater sources a variety of beverages and the equipment needed to keep offices hydrated and happy from the ever-popular LaCroix sparkling waters to kombucha-on-tap.

Health Matters. A healthy team makes for a healthy business, so it’s no surprise employers are leaning towards healthier options in the snacking department.

  • A majority of companies (83%) said stocking healthy snacks was either important or very important to them.
  • While health is important, there’s still room for indulgence with 94% of companies want mostly healthy snack programs.
  • Companies are looking want snack programs that fit within their employee’s various diets including low carb (57%), high protein (77%), low sugar (76%) and organic (57%).

Ease of use is a must for business office managers.

  • Office feedback is key to modifying a food program to shifting needs of employees. When looking at the methods of giving feedback on food programs, 87% of companies said that the interface, or how they give feedback, was important or extremely important.
  • Snack programs can be time-consuming so when a company turns to a third-party service for help they expect the process from end-to-end to be easy. With Zerocater, the snacks program is optimized based on consumption insights. A client dashboard allows for a quick snapshot of their program, from consumption trends and budgeting, to what’s next and giving feedback easily.
🍺 22%
Percent of companies stocking alcoholic beverages including wine, beer, and spirits.
🍏 94%
Percent of companies that want mostly healthy snack programs.
Megan Palmer
Megan Palmer
Director of Communications
Zerocater

We build better workplace cultures through food

  • Operates in 6 markets including Austin, New York, and San Francisco
  • Offers meals, snacks, and beverages to offices
  • Serves startups and SMBs to enterprise customers
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