Starbucks Partnership too Drive 'At-Home' Coffee In The US

When Starbucks formed a partnership with Nestle to drive incremental sales in retail aisles, the goal was simple, drive ‘at-home’ branded Starbucks sales while creating new electricity for the brand and product line according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Nestle’ is known as a manufacture of ‘better-for-you’ family foods in grocery stores that has it’s foundation in innovation and ‘health & wellness will this February in the US rollout more new Starbucks products.

The new Nestle’ line will strengthen Starbucks' coffee offering by giving customers the option to enjoy the beverage in the comfort of their homes. It includes, among others, cold brew concentrate, fresh brew coffee, and blends of Starbucks coffee with essential vitamins and golden turmeric extending the ‘halo’ of better for you with relevance for Starbucks into the home according to Johnson.

The new products extend the range, and will build upon the portfolio of innovation of the global coffee alliance, formed in August 2018, to create a revolutionary coffee experience for consumers. In 2019, Nestlé launched a range of 24 Starbucks products across various platforms, including coffee creamers in the US.

Success does leave clues and Starbucks is driving both relevance and new electricity with this partnership. Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply chain and includes such things as fresh foods, Online ordering, delivery, plant based foods, sampling, toy’s, beer, developing new brand relevance,  fortified coffee, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food and beverage retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food and beverages that are portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  Does your retail path forward look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Why? Outside Eyes can delivery Inside Results.  

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Millennials Love Fresh Fast Food

Success does leave clues, and following Millennials spending habits on food is a clue Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® says is one clue no one should over look.

Fresh fast food outlets including both QSR’s and Fast Casual transaction represented 83.4% of all restaurant industry transaction in 2019 according to Johnson.  Then consider this; grocerant niche fresh or prepared food in the grocery stores accounted for 17% of grocery sales in 2019 and are growing at a 9.7% year over year clip.

The NPD Group now reports that as of December (December 1, 2019 through January 5, 2020), total restaurant industry transactions were up 3 percent in December driven by the 3 percent gain in quick-serve transactions. That is called momentum.  How is your brand or product positioned to drive sales?

Regular readers of this blog know that we have documented how ‘Baby Boomers’ have fallen in love with grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. Today, in the US Bureau of labor Statistics found that the US has 71 Million households with one or two people out of the 128 million US households that’s 55% of all US households that number is growing fast.

There is no reason to wonder why the Grocerant niche filled with fresh prepared food continues to drive incremental sales in all sectors of retail foodservice.  The only thing to wonder about is when will your company embrace the changing demographics and evolve the food touchpoints consumers are looking for?

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Subway losing Ground to KFC, Taco Bell, McDonald’s and Wendy’s

Remember the $5 Footlong?  We know you do.  More importantly so do consumers.  According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® “Subway leveraged both the ‘halo’ of better-for-you and price to drive customers into their stores. It worked, worked well and set a new mindset for the consumer that shows no sign of diminishing.”

It’s now 2020 and Kentucky Fried Chicken is offering its fan-favorite Famous Bowls for just $3. Edifying and bettering the price mindset that Subway established and then left behind. Sure, Subway still has the ‘halo’ of fresh and better for you but abandoning the price point that they established has been a catastrophe for the brand, and its franchisees.

With Taco Bell’s new offer of a Double Stacked Taco for $1, McDonald’s renewing its offer for its 2 for $5 Mix and Match Deal, and Wendy’s new 4 for $4 Subway’s messaging has left a lingering disappointment in the minds-eye of the consumers according to Johnson. 

The restaurant/foodservice Price, Value, Service equilibrium continues to reset. Are you looking a customer ahead? Is your brand proactive evolving with consumers? Chains must look long term, growing and evolving as consumer never go backward.  Consumers are dynamic not static.

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Hot Dogs Go from Fast Food to Fast Casual at Crave

Success does leave clues and Hot Dogs are moving-up in 2020 as consumers seek new formats, food combos and footprints to shop, eat, drink and socialize according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Regular readers of this blog know that one of the best ways for a brand to extend its reach is with a unique partnership.  A partnership that is familiar yet creates a platform that can be differentiated from everyone else drives new electricity with relevance into brand messaging.

Samantha Rincione, the founder and CEO of CRAVE Franchising LLC stated “At Crave we always want our customers to have the freedom to make their meals their own. We have 20+ toppings that customers can choose from for their hot dogs and sandwiches. We felt that a self-serve beer wall was integral to our success, allowing customers to pick their own beer, wine or cider and have as much or little as they choose. PourMyBeer self-pour technology makes it easy and efficient so it’s a safe environment for families, parties and more. It allows them to taste and try what they like best and supplement their delicious BBQ or hot dog meal with the right beverage of their choice.”

Now that’s interactive participatory fresh food marketing that will edify Crave’s relationship with consumers specifically Millennials and Gen Z consumers looking for discover according to Johnson. PourMyBeer allows Crave’s guests to try any or all of their offered beverages in whichever quantity they prefer as they get charged by the ounce, self-pour also lowers the wait times – and for Crave, the technology lowers operating costs by saving on labor and wasted goods.

The founder and CEO of PourMyBeer Josh Goodman said:  “After getting to know the Crave team over the last few months, it's clear that our values and motivations are aligned… We want to help them and their franchisees crush it with our self-pour technology in 2020 and beyond." 

Background: Crave is a fast-casual BBQ and Hot Dog Franchise with a self-pour beer wall. The modern rustic interior is an inviting family-friendly atmosphere. One of the fastest-growing BBQ franchises in the US, Crave focuses on customer service and quality. With 20+ toppings to choose from the hot dogs can be made to a customer’s liking. The menu also features BBQ, Monster Pretzels, twice baked potatoes, desserts, and amazing sides. There are currently five operating units to end 2019, with a minimum of seven more expected to open in 2020. How are you driving growth, relevance and new electricity?

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply chain and includes such things as fresh foods, Online ordering, delivery, plant based foods,  sampling, toy’s, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food and beverage retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food and beverages that are portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  Does your retail path forward look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Why? This new partnership does all of that.

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Battle for Share of Stomach

Do Chain Restaurants that Drive Growth Need to Buy Growth

By now most of you know that Yum! Brands, Inc, as has agreed to terms to buy Habit Burger Grill for approximately $375 million. That’s all fine and good if you want to keep doing what you have always done and doing it in the same way according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

The simple fact is restaurants are losing customers.  Year over year restaurant customer counts for 2019 declined 3.1%. Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food continues to drive growth in non-traditional fresh food outlets with sales up 9% during 2019 according to the team at Foodservice Solutions®.

Consumers are dynamic not static yet many restaurant chains like the formula, format, and footprint of their existing brands and would rather squeak and squawk raise prices to drive sales than evolve their business model. 

Rhetoric be dammed; rationalization is not justification for continue to do what you have always done.  It’s time that the restaurant sector admit that consumers are migrating from restaurants to other avenues of fresh food distribution for meals and meal components that are Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat.

Size and scale are legacy terms to rationalize and justify to those on Wall Street and their ilk that growth will come even if we have to buy it.  That may work for a while.  It won’t work for ever.  Is you brand looking ready to look for new non-traditional ways to drive top line sales and bottom line profits while garnering incremental customers?

Looking for success clues of your own? Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/  or www.twitter.com/grocerant

Battle for Share of Stomach

Wawa, Sheetz and 7-Eleven are America’s Favorite Restaurants CNN Business

What happens when you are a C-level executive at a restaurant chain and you wake up one day and read a CNN Business story that in the politest way says, convenience stores success with fresh food has disrupted the restaurant industry, and today “Wawa, Sheetz, and 7-Eleven are now our FAVORITE RESTAURANTS”.

According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® stated “if they are the CEO, they repeat to themselves the number 1 rule of being a CEO; DO NO HARM.

However, if they are a chain with year over year customer counts that are in decline, they better step up and help lead their brands evolution or risk losing everything.

Chain restaurant CEO’s need to ask themselves if they have been practicing brand protectionism of the 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s rather than repositioning their units to reflect the need-set of today’s consumers’.  Simply put do your restaurants look more like yesterday than tomorrow?

Battle for Share of Stomach

Let’s look at some of the facts that the CNN Business story found:

1.       Over the past decade, convenience chains have increased sales inside their stores by around 30%, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores.

2.       The number of convenience stores in the United States has grown by 28%.

3.       In 1965, there were 5,000 convenience stores in the United States. Today, there are upward of 153,000 of these mini-marts, more than all the grocery stores, drug stores and dollar stores in this country combined. 7-Eleven is the largest US convenience store chain with more than 9,000 outposts.

4.       Around 93% of Americans live within 10 minutes of a convenience store, a highly-fragmented sector where regional chains and mom-and-pops dominate.

5.       From 2009 to 2018, food service sales in convenience stores grew at a higher rate than any other area in the store.

6.       Spending on food away from home surpassed spending on food at Americans' home for the first time in 2010, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Regular readers of this blog know all of these numbers.  They also know that consumers are dynamic not static and unless today’s large restaurant evolve with the consumer, they will look a lot more like Burger Chef, Howard Johnson’s or A&P.  Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food continues to drive top line sales and bottom line profits for those who allow it. 

Johnson warns there are many grocery niche retailers that keep trying to make Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food into a CPG product of yesterday and that simply is not working for them. We all know who they are but the simple fact is saying you’re going to evolve within the grocerant niche is one thing but doing it right is another.  Thank you, CNN for focusing on the evolving fresh food space success.

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Carrefour Grocerant niche to Drive Global Growth

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food was top of mind at Carrefour when they recently acquired Dejbox the lunch delivery specialist according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Regular readers of this blog know that The Carrefour Group, is one of the world’s leading food retailers.  With the acquisition of Dejbox, a pioneer in lunch delivery for business employees located in suburban and outlying areas Carrefour is expanding its consumer touchpoint directly where the consumer is focused on meals according to Johnson.

What is clear is that Carrefour grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared meals and meal components are now taking center stage.  Consumers are dynamic not static and consumer migration from ‘shelf stable CPG’ products has created a “Food Transition” of sorts or an all-out BATTLE FOR SHARE of STOMACH according to Johnson.

Dejbox specializes in lunch deliveries for business workers in suburban and outlying areas of selected French cities today.  However, watch for that focus to expand. Styled as an 'online canteen', Dejbox was founded in 2015 by entrepreneurs Adrien Verhack and Vincent Dupied, and offers a range of fresh, cooked and seasonal dishes at a set price, which are then delivered to a workplace at no extra charge.

The platform was developed to 'meet the needs of the more than 10 million French employees who work in the urban hinterland and very rarely have access to an onsite dining service', Carrefour said in a statement. Carrefour said that it is confident that following the acquisition, Dejbox will be able to expand its French operations 'at a rapid pace', as well as move into international markets.

 Amélie Oudéa-Castera, executive director for customers, services and digital transformation at Carrefour stated “This acquisition, which reflects Carrefour’s desire to become the leader in grocery e- commerce, is a strategic one”.

“It will give us the opportunity to expand our customer base to include employees of medium-sized, small and micro businesses and also invest in the fast-growing food delivery segment with an offering rooted in quality and affordability.” Globally grocerant growth will accelerate in 2020 as consumers seek Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared meals and meal components.

For international corporate presentations, regional chain presentations, local educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit www.GrocerantGuru.com , www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or call 1-253-759-7869