June 20/Chicago/PRNewswire -- Restaurants and retailers have a long history of competing over consumers' share of stomach. That competition becomes particularly intense late in the day, when busy families must decide what is for dinner. If money is tight, retailers often win the family dinner battle by offering appealing ready-to-eat center-of-plate options, easily paired with sides.
"It's true that the economic conditions of the past two years shifted a lot of business away from restaurants," says Ron Paul, president of Technomic, a Chicago-based research and consulting firm that has extensively studied key players and developments in the Retailer Meal Solutions (RMS) segment.