How cereal has gone from breakfast essential to daytime treat as sales fall
Once the core of the Western breakfast, sugary packaged cereals are slowly losing their place on the morning table. Enter the trendy cafes trying to resurrect it as a snack or meal for later in the day
Snap, crackle … and a final pop? Cereal, once a breakfast darling of the Western world, is dying a slow death. Cereal sales have fallen by an average of 1.5 per cent a year in America, its birthplace, in the past five years, according to consumer research firm Nielsen, and by a almost a third since the year 2000.
Some blame lazy millennials who can’t be bothered to wash their bowls and spoons. Others hold “healthier”, labour-intensive options such as oatmeal and eggs responsible. Artisanal granolas or, for the time-strapped consumer, the convenience of chomping on a breakfast bar is also being blamed.
In Asia there is a growing trend of “snackification”, with more than half of those who eat breakfast doing so on the go, says Nielsen. Though cereal sales may be growing in emerging parts of Asia, bolstered by the growth of convenience stores in China, everywhere else in the world Tony the Tiger, the advertising cartoon mascot for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes (also known as Frosties), is on the verge of extinction.
But in a quiet corner of New York’s Times Square, a cereal resurrection may be starting. Kellogg’s NYC is a trendy new cereal cafe offering gourmet cereal combinations, such as Pistachio and Lemon – a mixture of Special K, Frosted Flakes, pistachios, lemon zest and thyme – and Berry Me in Green Tea, featuring Rice Krispies, fresh strawberries and green tea powder. Doors open at 8am and close at 11pm, making it possible to eat cereal for breakfast, lunch or even dinner.
