Tailgating: a big-ticket opportunity

Football fans attending live games often reach stadium parking lots hours before the NFL contests – for their pre-game feasts. They resemble survivalists, dressed for cold weather and with grills (gas or charcoal), chairs, canopies, meats, vegetables, beer, soda, and more.

This Sunday devotion is ingrained in a significant consumer segment – one American adult in eight has tailgated 3.4 times during the past 12 months, according to the Weber Tailgating Study. Even Home Depot sells thick magazines at its checkouts about tailgating. And some Walmart stores in football-happy Texas reportedly set up one-stop displays for tailgate foods and general merchandise for weekends of the football season.

But most retail channels across the nation haven’t caught on to the tailgating subculture. Food stores could do more to cash in on this trend. Performance could be richer if stores are in major markets and sync their item assembly and merchandising efforts to home team schedules. 

Yet The Lempert Report thinks the opportunity could be bigger still – because stores could also tap into the considerable fan base that go to sports bars for the group excitement, the ability to watch several games at once on multiple screens, the tall brews and grilled and barbecue food. (Tip for non-football enthusiasts: people watch many different televised games, not only their home teams, because they’re rooting for individual athletes on their fantasy teams.)

Since so many people have large screens and still love to grill in cold weather, the right supermarket merchandising efforts could excite the much larger market of people who view at home, often with friends. In our view, grilling could occur anywhere football is in the air – not only in a parking lot of an NFL arena. It could happen in a home with friends – or more ambitiously, tailgate events promoted by local supermarkets could connect stores with community at local high school and college sports events, which are often on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons.

Supermarkets should focus on the basics. The ‘basics’ tailgaters rank their top four foods: hamburgers (70%), brats (45%), chicken (42%) and hot dogs (42%) to the tune of $106 per tailgate or $441 in groceries per year for this activity. Another group, the ‘gourmet’ tailgaters, prefer chicken (43%), ribs (39%), brats (37%) and steak (33%) to the tune of $165 per event or $1,001 per year.

Retailers might also want to test the appropriateness of a study finding for their trading areas – that 35% of survey respondents are growing “more adventurous” in their food choices. Some 40% say they grill more vegetables and sides, leaner meats (35%), more poultry (28%) and fish (19%).