Starbucks seems to have a slam-dunk new product: oatmeal.
Yes, that mush your grandma pushed on you as a child is shaping up as the company’s most successful food launch of all time. Within just a few weeks — and despite unseasonably warm weather in many markets — oatmeal has become the best-selling food item throughout Starbucks’ entire system, knocking reduced-calorie coffee cake from the top spot.
Michelle Gass, the company’s senior VP-marketing and category, admitted there was a low bar for comparison. But even so, oatmeal’s rise to the top of Starbucks’ menu is a bit of a stunner.
“I don’t know why,” said Darren Tristano, analyst at Technomic, “but [millennials] are eating oatmeal. It blows me away.”
But it’s not only the younger generation fueling the oats. Many women are big oatmeal eaters — they are usually 6% more likely than men their age to consume it — and they eat more when they get older, said NPD Group VP Harry Balzer. About a quarter of women 18 to 34 dish up oatmeal every two weeks, but that number nearly doubles to 46% by age 65. Continue reading.
