Metro businesses: customers increasingly want convenience around the holidays

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Holiday meals and traditions look different for everyone around the Omaha area.

“We just like to give people in the community, the families around the community the opportunity to get together and celebrate with each other without having to put in the work,” says Amanda Mass, the manager at Caddy’s Kitchen & Cocktails in Council Bluffs.

Since Caddy’s opened four years ago, Mass says they’ve always stayed open on Thanksgiving Day.

“We have a lot of people, it’s kinda just part of their tradition now, to come and eat with us,” Mass says. “Sometimes you have so much work to put into a meal that you miss out on actually spending time with family.”

Restaurants aren’t the only ones seeing customers choose convenience around the holidays, either.

“This time of the year we do a lot of catering for turkeys, hams, briskets, I mean, I’ve even had people call for ribs for Thanksgiving,” says Robert Brown, who owns B’s Bones & Sauce Smokehouse Catering.

Brown’s business picks up around the holidays.

“Time is valuable, so if you’re spending seven hours cooking and when your family gets there you gotta worry about all the food being ready and this and that, but with catering everything comes to you and is getting ready to go so you sit down and enjoy your family time.”

The same goes for Sean Fuller at Just Good Meats. Fuller says customers come into the butcher shop knowing just what they’re looking for.

“They’re looking for a product that’s already ready to go, that they can just take home and heat up themselves and get some good instructions on how to do that,” he says.

He says many people are opting for the easier options to help them get through the busy holiday season.

“As we get busier and busier as a society, it’s harder and harder to spend a whole day making a meal, so you come out here, come pick up your whole meal, all you have to do is heat it up, set it out, and it’s homemade cooking at it’s best.”

Copyright 2022 WOWT. All rights reserved.