Grocery Aisles Stocked with Chain Restaurant Coffee

The evolving Omni-channel retail food world has created a new platform for chain restaurant branded exposure.  Chain restaurant bagged ground coffee, bagged whole bean coffee or K-Cups can be found in most grocery aisles today.

McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Dunkin brands coffee are expanding the reach of each brand while generating income to fuel additional sales, marketing, and success.  Soon you can add Dunkin’ Donuts K-Cups to your grocery list. Customers have been able to have been able to buy Dunkin’s single-serve coffee made for the Keurig brewing system only at the brand’s restaurants since 2011.  This summer, K-Cups will appear on the shelves of grocery stores next to McDonald’s and Starbucks offerings. 

Nigel Travis, chief executive of Dunkin’ Brands Group stated; “Instead of making this available on a limited basis, the widespread distribution will only help that brand relevance.” “The franchisees were delighted with the idea of a new revenue stream and worried about potential cannibalization,” Travis said. 

Pumping profit into the system Travis estimated that each restaurant will receive $2,500 to $3,000 a year for the first five years of the program. As part of the agreement, franchisees also will split the profits on packaged coffee, up from one-third of the profits under a previous deal. 

Kraft is helping McDonald’s rollout retail coffee.  For Kraft the stakes are huge: McCafe represents the company's largest new product launch ever, says Adam Butler, marketing director of McCafe. Executives project that the first-year sales of McCafe bagged coffees will exceed the $100 million that Kraft's MiO liquid beverage mix amassed its first year.

According to Barclays analyst Jeffrey Bernstein,  the K-Cup market is expected to grow by $5 billion next year.  “Starbucks currently has about 15 percent share, and we believe it reasonable to assume Dunkin’ will be able to achieve half that,” Bernstein added.

In our Omni-channel retail world brand relevance can expand or contract depending on customer migration, channel relevance and brand placement.  Where do your customers shop?  What are you selling and where?  Is your brand expanding? Looking for new revenue streams? Omni-Channel retail can drive new revenue. 

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us since 1991 is a global retail food consultancy based in Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant Niche, Mix and Match Meal Component Bundling Ideations.  Follow us at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant, twitter.com/grocerant or Facebook Steven Johnson Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

 

Is the Food Price, Value, Service, Equilibrium Resetting?

Are current food market measuring metrics adequate? Boomers, Millennials, Gen X are all equally resetting the Price, Value, and Service Equilibrium in retail foodservice. A Danish Philosopher once said: Life can be understood by looking backward, but must be lived by looking forward.” Looking forward new metrics are needed for new results.

Evolving industries require evolving metrics. In a world where all shopping has become faster, food has become more portable, and price is increasing important Foodservice Solutions® GrocerantGuru™ Steven Johnson has developed a formula for establishing positive consumer equilibrium. Here is his formula:

Mobile Transparency +Price + Quality + Service + Portability = Value 

Incremental Value = Constantly Changing Menu (Seasonally / Sustainability with creditability).

The US population from boomers too millennials are increasing single.  The United States census reports that 50% of adults over the age of 18 are single.  Restaurateurs need to be particularly mindful of developments within the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared grocerant niche for they are driving the change within the price, value, service equilibrium in retail foodservice. 

Today while boomers are fast becoming a generation of Point, Click, Eat.  Millennials are becoming a generation of Seek, Discovery, and Migrate.   An unlikely commonality at first glance but a technology bond has evolved into food retail commonality. Here are some of the new combined consumer’s commonalities:

1. Prefer,  Ready-2-Eat Fresh Food
2. Prefer,  Fresh, Local “Better for You” Food
3. Prefer,  Portion Size Options, Single Serve Meal Components
4. Prefer,  Multiple Choice of Dishes with Vegetables
5. Portability
6. Heat-N-Eat

When the Danish Philosopher said: Life can be understood by looking backward, but must be lived by looking forward”, We now know who looked back successfully, built a foundation of consumer relevant metrics, and built a successful vision. 

Looking back we have learned that Success does leave clues; during the past 20 years, senior executives at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® have an outstanding record of uncovering consumer commonalities, understanding the evolving fresh food retail space,  while edifying clients brand positioning.

   

In an article titled;  “CALL THEM GROCERANTS in Foodservice Director, August15, 1996 or “Understanding the Value of Restaurant Branding” in Nation’s Restaurant News August 21, 1995 outlining the power of restaurant brands within their environment both foretold the current fresh food retail space, while establishing new industry measuring metrics.  Foodservice Solutions® even forecasted the growth of both cook chill and sous vide in; “Beyond 2000: Growing your top and bottom line” Nation’s Restaurant News, April 7, 1997. 

Success does leave clues, outside eyes can deliver inside sales. Are you bundling brand messaging with new products edified contemporized relevance? Where are your customers evolving too?  Where and how can you sell your customers more? For more Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  or http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant  

Steven Johnson is the Grocerant Guru at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions, with extensive experience as a multi-unit operator, consultant and brand/product positioning. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche.

2015 Faster Fresh Food

What time is dinner time, anytime, according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™?  The convergence of consumers and convenience is expanding the reach of fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat in 2015 at a faster adoption rate than ever before. 

The expanded availability of fresh prepared food with portability is evolving how consumers shop. Once limited to a QSR the ilk of Burger Kings drive-thru for fresh prepared food fast,  today consumers can order-from many mobile devices and pick fresh food up or order from Panera Bread, Papa John’s, Whole Foods, Hello Fresh, and Walmart. It’s a battle for share of stomach and that battle is centered around Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food. 

Non-traditional locations with smaller footprints are attracting new customers for fresh food. Increasingly, consumers would rather make more frequent trips to smaller footprint locations where they can pop in and out with ease. That’s one of the drivers behind drug stores netting 54 percent of quick-trip shopping experiences, according to Chicago-based market researcher IRI. 

Is the legacy grocery store dead? Phil Lempert, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based grocery and retail analyst told USA Today “The bottom line: Conventional grocery stores have lost 15 percent of their market share in the last five years.”  

Companies the ilk of Walgreens, Wawa, Sheetz, and Panera Bread have created mobile portability of fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food that can be customized, personalized via bundled meal components into a way of life.  

NPD Group found that even grocery store sales of prepared foods, which include in-store and takeout dining, are up by nearly 30 percent since 2008. The US Census Bureau reports that 50% of Americans over the age of 16 are single. Is it any wonder fresh food fast is catching on? 

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us since 1991 is a global retail food consultancy based in Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant Niche, Mix and Match Meal Component Bundling Ideations.  Follow us at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant, twitter.com/grocerant or Facebook Steven Johnson Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

 

Fresh Food Fast at Green Zebra Grocery

What’s for Dinner?  Well in growing numbers it might just be Green Zebra the ‘better for you’ hybrid convenience store / grocery store started by Lisa Sedlar is proving all of her critics wrong having turned the Green Zebra profitable in less than one year!  

Sedlar while announcing a new Green Zebra coming soon stated “Green Zebra Grocery  hit a big milestone last November marked the Oregon startup's first profitable month, and the company is working to raise money to open two more stores in the near future.”  Want in on a good thing call Lisa. 

In her previous life Seldar was New Seasons Grocery stores CEO. She understood that the average customer buys only 100 different items from their favorite grocery store a year.  They simply buy them over and over again.  Green Zebra is her innovative new business model combining, health-food, in a convenience store format, providing a halo of a ‘better for you’ in a grocery shopping experience.

Every start-up learns a lot about the concept, customers, and drivers of sales during the first year.  The next new store Green Zebra Grocery will be just a little larger at about 6,400 square feet.  That will free up more space for the “store's growler and kombucha areas, as well as wine on tap and more grab-and-go foods.”

Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat mix and match meal component offerings are playing an ever expanding role in the success of non-traditional retail outlets according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™.  Clearly Green Zebra is playing to the mainstream grocerant niche consumer. 

Green Zebra Grocery is a concept that should be on industry professionals must visit, must see, and must follow list. Now profitable, it appears all that is green can be golden.  Non-traditional concepts that turn profitable early prove disruptive and move from non-traditional to mainstream before many notice.  Success does leave clues. My tip of the day, follow Green Zebra.

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information. Bottom of Form