The Next Big Thing in Food Retail a Battle for QSR Customers.

Restaurant customer migration is being documented month after month in Nation’s Restaurant News with regular reports by Black Box Intelligence focusing on both Same-Store Sales and Traffic.  Black Box reported that in November traffic at US restaurants declined 0.09 percent, in December they reported a decline of 4.5 percent, and in January a decline of 2.2 percent. Uneven as these numbers are restaurant customers are not all on diets or eating less according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru they are in fact “eating fresh prepared food somewhere else; at new Non-Traditional points of fresh food distribution aka at grocerants.

Restaurant consumers are dynamic not static.  Restaurants must change with consumer or risk losing consumer relevance. In a recently released study titled The Why? Behind The Buy found “65% of Millennials say losing this phone or computer would have a greater negative impact on their daily routine than losing their car.”   That is a dynamic shift in consumer mindset.   Are you willing to give up your car? Soon Millennials will out spend Generation X and the Boomer Generation.  Is your company prepared for the customer of today?

That same study found that young shoppers are adapting to new food trends including buying Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  That is something all food retailers need to pay particular attention too. In fact that study found that in the past 30 days: “ Bought Home Prepared Foods  GenY / Mellennials 78%  Gen X only 68%, and Boomers 60%.”  The battle for share of stomach is taking place not just in the drive-thru it is occurring everywhere fresh food is sold.

Another study conducted by Technomic found “Fifty-seven percent of consumers say they have purchased prepared foods from c-stores, while approximately one-third of consumers who visit c-stores for fresh-food items purchase them at least once a week from these stores.”  Does your company need Outside Eye’s to help you drive Inside results?  Foodservice Solutions® can do just that.  Have you been following SBUX?

Retail food merchant extraordinaire Howard Schultz, president and CEO of Starbucks stated he sees a “seismic shift” to online shopping.  So concerned was Schultz he has reorganized Starbucks leadership team.  His concern was based on retail research indicators (and I think SBUX sales numbers) pointing to the fact that legacy brick and mortar retail stores locations are at an “inflection point” in losing traffic to e-commerce shopping. So, just what does that mean to your brand, your sales?

The battle for customer’s hearts, minds, and wallets is not between QSR’s any longer.  The battle is about a battle for share of stomach. Legacy QSR’s and restaurants must revalue brand touch points edifying contemporary relevance or continue risk losing customers. Channel blurring is not in the minds-eye of the consumer.  Channel blurring is only in the minds-eye of Neanderthal brand mangers that do not understand the concept of share of stomach.  Proactive brands are producing positive same store sales and positive customer counts.  Do you need Outside Eyes?

Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  if you are 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 or you can learn more at Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter