Walgreens finds Success with Fresh Prepared Food Expanding Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat.

Legacy restaurants, legacy convenience stores, and legacy grocery stores are increasingly facing competition from non-traditional fresh food retailers.   Expanding new points of food distribution have never been so well funded.  The battle for Share of Stomach in the fresh prepared food space is now on.

Walgreens focus is on fresh food as it opens its 8,000th U.S. store and its first flagship store on the West Coast, located in Los Angeles at the iconic corner of Sunset and Vine. The store, which opens at 10 a.m.  today, features an extensive collection of innovative and fresh food offerings, plus products and services unexpected from a drugstore.
Walgreens understands the need set of today’s time starved consumer.  This new store will offer “a wide variety of fresh hand-rolled sushi and sashimi prepared daily....An Upmarket Café offering a barista preparing fresh brewed premium coffee, espressos, as well as iced and frozen options.

A juice and smoothie bar featuring fresh fruits and vegetables included in the 24 distinct recipes available. Customers can also enjoy eight flavors of self-serve frozen yogurt accompanied by an enticing toppings bar. Hundreds of fresh food items including produce and high-quality, on-the-go meal options such as wraps, sandwiches and salads made fresh daily.”

Beverages a plenty Walgreens will have a “best-in-class wine selection boasting more than 700 fine wines that will pair well with the store’s assortment of artisan and brie cheeses as well as specialty meats, decadent chocolates and more. A Beverage Wizard kiosk provides food and beverage pairing recommendations. A Coca-Cola Freestyle machine dispensing 130 varieties of Coca Cola fountain drinks.”

Legacy restaurants, legacy convenience stores, and legacy grocery stores must be mindful that Walgreens just might be your next largest fresh food retail competitor. With 8,000 retail outlets in the U.S. and 72 billion in sales Walgreens is a very formidable competitor.

Interested in learning how the 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization contact us via Email us at: grocerant@q.com or visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant