What’s for dinner and where will your customers get it?

Restaurants, Grocery stores and Convenience stores have all been scurrying during this period of high unemployment for new or customers to replace those who have left or reduced check/basket size. Grocerant prepared ready-to-eat and ready to heat food is one niche that continues to grown.

What is most interesting is consumer are finding meals and prepared meal portable components now almost everywhere they look including dollar stores. In the December issue of Bon Appetit magazine here is there list of additional outlets:

• Surfas, in Culver City, Calif., a restaurant supply store with an adjacent cafe.

• Oxbow Public Market, in Napa, Calif., which has five restaurants, plus a micro-winery, culinary bookstore, and specialty tea store.

• Il Cane Rosso, an eatery in San Francisco's Ferry Building Marketplace in the Embarcadero, where you'll also find retailers like Sur La Table and Culinaire antiques.

• B&G Oysters and The Butcher Shop, eateries that are among four foodie places in Boston, all at the intersection of Waltham and Tremont streets. The others are Stir, which offers cookbooks and a demonstration kitchen, and Plum Produce, a shop for specialty foods.

• Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis, which offers more than 40 locally owned shops under one roof, including Taqueria Los Ocampo.

• Despana, in New York City, a boutique in Soho specializing in the foods of Spain. But there's also a hidden lunch counter serving tapas, sandwiches and small-plate appetizers.

• Bolsa in Dallas, which hosts a farmer's market and a cafe with wine and local products like chocolate, cookies and coffee.

Foodservice Solutions is the global leader in understanding Grocerant portable meal components, what drives the success of the niche and how you can win. Do you know where your customers are shopping for their next meal?