Prepared food for the home is ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat, and building a new niche, the grocerant niche.

Does one go from Deli to grocerant or Grocery Store to grocerant, Restaurant to grocerant, C-store to grocerant or Drug store to grocerant? When the consumer cooks at home more often than not it is a component bundled meal. Delis have been packaging up ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat meals around the country many for over 50 years.  Today prepared ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat  food can be found in each of the of the sectors and is growing rapidly.

Grocery stores on the other hand focused on raw ingredients, struggling with cost of distribution, and fluctuating commodity cost. The consumer does not pay specific attention to either of those cost. What the consumer pays attention to is the end price. The value that the consumer is willing to pay is higher on a prepared meal than raw ingredient.

Recent studies show that the margins are substantially higher on prepped and prepared food. No matter what business your in today, you will be getting into the grocerant business soon enough. The metrics of how it works is difficult for long established companies to overcome. Departmental “rice bowling” will have to end for some legacy companies to succeed in the future. The big picture will be on the end result a happy customer not which department managers wins.

http://www.foodandbeverageunderground.com/grocerants.html

http://www.anything4restaurants.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/restaurant-consumer-discontinuity-the-consumer-moved-first/

Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant. Or visit my blog at:www.grocerants.blogspot.com.