The Grocerant

Top of the day to you! By way of introduction I am Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru at Tacoma, Washington based Foodservice Solutions. This blog focus is on my specialty: GROCERANTS.

 A grocerant is a result of the blurring of the line between restaurants and grocery stores aimed at the time-starved consumer with ready-2-eat  or heat-N-eat fresh prepared food components that can be bundled into a meal.

Grocerant food refers to any retail food item that is ready-2-eat or heat-N-eat  / reheat sold in a Grocery store, Convenience store or Restaurant To-go via Drive-thru or Take Away format.  Traditionally these items can be found in grocery stores  in the deli / lifestyle section,  C-stores in the prepared food area and prepackaged, ready to eat items and in restaurants under the To-go, takeout or Drive-thru  or delivery  section of the menu or on the website.

However around the world we are now seeing sections in department’s stores and kiosk in malls in Europe and Asia and airports around the world.   The items can range from entrees to side items and deserts.  Some examples of items range from fried chicken, mash potatoes, cream spinach, to liver and onions, pizza, hot dogs, steak, prime rib, various casseroles (hot-dish) to salads, side salads pie, cake and any single proportioned deserts.  They can be picked up at the specific unit, or delivered. 

Having followed this area for 12 years, I am now mad as hell at the quality, presentation and packaging options now being exhibited. I waked into a grocery store the other day they had macaroni and cheese with a harden crust that was so undesirable I did not want to by a can of peas it the store! This has to change! My goal is to assist the industry in elevating the quality, presentation and packaging of ready to eat and ready to heat foods.

Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us ,Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development leverage out Outside Eyes for inside Profits. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy.