Grocerants Yesterday and Grocerants Today

A Grocerant is a term used to describe any retailer that sells fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  Today, it can be a traditional brick-N-mortar outlet, ecommerce outlet, or both. The word Grocerant and term Grocerant Niche were coined by Steven Johnson of Foodservice Solutions® shortly after the first Eatzi’s opened in Dallas, Texas in 1996. 

(The term first appeared published in an Op-Ed article titled “CALL THEM GROCERANTS in Foodservice Director, August15, 1996. Then again in an Op-Ed article titled “Home-meal-replacement niche is the future of foodservice” in Nation’s Restaurant News, August 19^, 1996. Both authored by Steven Johnson)

Now, just think about how you can now go into your local grocery store, convenience store and walk out with your standard bread, milk, and now fully cooked chickens, a growler, fresh salad, and custom desert.

Many retailers today offer a growing variety of fresh prepared items as single portion meal components that can be bundled into a customized complete meal for one or a family meal.    It’s a time saving, cooking skill-set reduced convenience and a growing niche focused on local fresh ‘better for you’ products driving profitable and customer frequency.

In 2014 the Hartman Group reports that only “70% households that usually or always eat the same things when they eat together.” With after school sports, music lessons, required travel for work, and life’s normal disruptions the opportunity for personalized, customized personal meals is growing fast.

Driven by customer demand today high end restaurants, liquor stores, and many other new non-traditional outlets are selling fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food that is portable and intended for Take-Out, Take-Away, or Delivery only.

These new grocerant entrants already have the customers, so now they are focusing on providing quality foods, fully prepared, in appealing packaging.  The convenience of picking up a meal for the family, while running errands, is driving foodservice growth in every sector of retail.

Here are popular examples of grocerant outlets:

·         Walgreens

·         Liquor Stores

·         Gyms

·         Green Zebra

·         Ikea

·         McDonalds

·         Costco

·         Hello Fresh

·         Plated

·         Corner Bakery Cafe

Is your company ready to grow within the retail food space?  It’s a natural extension to many existing retailers business to become a grocerant. Retailers simply need to position Ready-2-Eat and or Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food next to a service or items that would typically need to be prepared at home.  For example, some Gym’s are now offering healthy meals for sale.  This allows customers to work out, then grab a complete meal To-Go, to simply heat up and eat later.

How can you work grocerant niche products into your establishment to grow profits and capture customers while they are in your store? Call 253-759-7869 as for the Grocerant Guru™,

visit  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us