A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals • Hacker News Board

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#21

Post by throwaway66920 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:13 PM UTC

4ad wrote: post #11

throwaway66920 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s as obvious as you imply. If a menu goes from 80% meat to 20% meat, I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that either the same proportion of customers still chose a meat option; or that fewer customers ordered anything to begin with

If a menu switches from 80% meat to 20% meat, I (as a meat eater) would find somewhere else to eat. On the other hand vegetarians might start to come to this place. This place might sell more vegetarian food, yet nobody will have to convert to vegetarianism. Similarly, this is about cafeterias. Sometimes food runs out. Hell, the meat option always runs out on airplanes until food gets to me. If they reduce the meat e…

That’s a good point. It would be neat to look at credit card data and infer how much of the customer base is new

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#22

Post by jacknews » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:14 PM UTC

grawprog wrote: post #2

>When the proportion of meatless options doubled from one to two of four choices, overall sales remained about constant. But sales of meat-containing meals dropped, and sales of vegetarian meals, such as “wild mushroom, roasted butternut squash and sun blushed tomato risotto with parmesan”, rose 40–80%. So they cut the available meat options and doubled the available vegetarian options and find it surprising they sol…

Did it say they cut the meat options?

It seems they simply increased the number of vegie options from the cursory single 'meatloaf', and that did the trick.

I've recently become "much more vegie", and honestly I look forward to many of the vegie meals more than those with meat. I think meat should be reserved for meals where it can really shine; steak, ribs, bacon, etc.

Pies, curries, soups, casseroles, etc can often do without meat entirely, or with much less, or just with added meat stock.

I think this is the first step to the future of food.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#23

Post by keiferski » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:15 PM UTC

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #20

I always found vegan movement oddly close to religion. At my work, guy drives a car that has a custom VEGAN plate. I am not sure why I should know his dietary restrictions. I don't like liver. Do I add bumper indicating my dislike for liver consumption? Can someone rationalize it for me? Is it like sub-culture?

It’s like any other modern movement, really. In the West, Christianity defined every aspect of life for over a thousand years. That has slowly eroded away over the last few centuries.

In the contemporary absence of a cohesive worldview, people look toward communities and philosophies like veganism, atheism, political affiliations, and so on for a sense of identity.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#24

Post by abyssin » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:16 PM UTC

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #20

I always found vegan movement oddly close to religion. At my work, guy drives a car that has a custom VEGAN plate. I am not sure why I should know his dietary restrictions. I don't like liver. Do I add bumper indicating my dislike for liver consumption? Can someone rationalize it for me? Is it like sub-culture?

For some, it stems from values that differ from the norm, ie. antispecism, and values have something to do with religion. It allows for virtue signalling. But I don't see rituals associated with veganism.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#25

Post by DanCarvajal » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:17 PM UTC

I'm definitely part of this trend.

My favorite carhop burger joint (Hire's Big H, SLC) makes their own veggie patty that to me is their best thing on their menu. It's really crafted to be a flavorful/textural experience without being "fake meat". I'm not even vegetarian and it's been my go to there for a while now.

This was all before I had a grasp of the environmental impact of meat production.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#26

Post by dsjoerg » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:18 PM UTC

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #20

I always found vegan movement oddly close to religion. At my work, guy drives a car that has a custom VEGAN plate. I am not sure why I should know his dietary restrictions. I don't like liver. Do I add bumper indicating my dislike for liver consumption? Can someone rationalize it for me? Is it like sub-culture?

What people choose to identify with/as is pretty fundamental psychology and it's fascinating. There's only room in your mentality for so many categories of self-identification... it's gotta be something that distinguishes you from others. Everybody does it. You do it, I do it. He does it, in part, with his diet.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#27

Post by throwaway_law » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:18 PM UTC

ebiester wrote: post #5

grawprog wrote: post #2

>When the proportion of meatless options doubled from one to two of four choices, overall sales remained about constant. But sales of meat-containing meals dropped, and sales of vegetarian meals, such as “wild mushroom, roasted butternut squash and sun blushed tomato risotto with parmesan”, rose 40–80%. So they cut the available meat options and doubled the available vegetarian options and find it surprising they sol…

Many people, instead, would expect the percentage of meat to vegetarian sales to remain constant, as they believe that meat-eaters wouldn't choose a vegetarian option. (And some people still don't consider it a lunch or dinner without some sort of meat.)

Well throw out the entire meat/non-meat idea. And instead replace meat with expensive dish and non-meat with inexpensive dish. They went from offering 1 inexpensive dish to 4 inexpensive dishes. Its really not surprising when you quadruple the number of inexpensive dishes you will see an increase in the number of inexpensive dishes sold.

Now if the meat dishes were the same price as non-meat dishes you would probably still see a small spike in sale of non-meat dishes when you quadruple the number of options, but the price is to big of a variable to ignore, especially with University students.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#28

Post by DoreenMichele » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:18 PM UTC

I'm kind of a food snob. I don't eat burgers. They're horrible. I don't eat hotdogs. They're horrible.

Reading this article tempts me to want to say "Newsflash: Tasty food sells!" but I'm sure that would be flagged to death as low content snark. Also, it's possibly stupid saying anything at all because people who eat stuff like burgers and hot dogs will get all mad when you give your honest opinion that it isn't exactly gourmet health food.

I often go with, say, French fries and apple pie because it's the least worst option on a burger-based menu. When they offer chicken as an alternative to burgers, it's typically also deep fried etc. It's only very recently that some burger joints genuinely offer tasty, healthy alternatives to their bland and unhealthy ground beef patty on nasty circular white bread staple food item.

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#29

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:19 PM UTC

aloisdg wrote: post #19

elektor wrote: post #13

Speaking from personal experience, I've been eating a lot more plant-based meals now that Beyond and Impossible Beef are available in grocery stores. I wouldn't say I'm completely vegetarian but I'm 60% there.

You can describe this as a semi-vegetarianism or flexitarian diet.

[deleted]

Re: A rise in vegetarian options leads customers to embrace meat-free meals

#30

Post by VBprogrammer » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:20 PM UTC

_Microft wrote: post #8

The dish mentioned sounds far better than what is usually served as vegetarian food at canteens and restaurants. Quite often they offer just a compilation of side-dishes to have something vegetarian on their menu. (Dumblings with red cabbage and - wait for it - gravy from roasting meat is a widespread menu offer for vegetarians in southern Germany. Not sure if it counts as vegetarian option though). Once people notic…

I'm a meat eater myself but have I have 4 vegan family members. It's amazing how the range of vegan / vegetarian food has exploded in the UK over the last few years, I think this has made it much easier to maintain a vegan diet because socially it's much easier to eat almost anywhere rather than having to pick somewhere specifically for the vegetarian options.