Dunkin' Donuts Success Steps = Prepared Food Kiosks

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food continues to drive top line sales and bottom line profits for Grocery Stores, Convenience Stores and chain restaurants the ilk of Olive Garden according to Foodservice Solutions®, Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson. 

Consumers today are on the move, The NPD Group reports that 79% of all restaurant visit occur at fast food outlets last year. If one read the main stream restaurant trade magazines you might think fast casual and casual dining restaurants reigned supreme.  However our own Grocerant Guru® warned industry insiders two years ago about the lack of innovation and customer migration to non-traditional channels. 

Clearly Dunkin' Donuts listened and it is testing “Ready-to-Go” Choices kiosks that offer a selection of sandwiches in some markets, reported Nation's Restaurant News. The grab-and-go kiosks are placed in front of the store's ordering line and include sub and sandwich items, such as Dunkin's Italian Sub and its Fruit and Cheese Platter, according to Stephen Anderson, analyst with Maxim Group LLC. 

Do you want to check them out for yourself? Well, Anderson reportedly saw the kiosk inside a Connecticut Dunkin' Donuts location and confirmed that it was part of a market test. The initiative could boost same-store sales by 1 percent to 2 percent if a broader rollout in late 2016 or 2017 occurs, he estimated. 

Regular readers of this blog know that 2% is just the beginning of how grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food can drive sales.  Foodservice Solutions® team is confident that as Dunkin continues to evolve its test it will learn what our team has witnessed, that consumer adoption to branded Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food that is portable is remarkably quick.  Dunkin gets it.  They have been selling branded K-cups for two years. 

The kiosks could help with Dunkin' franchisees' labor cost structure as we outlined in our LinkedIn article Restaurants Labor Conundrum.   Success does leave clues as the when we outline the case that customer migration was taking center stage driven by new packaging options few listened.  Well they are now.

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way? Ready to get a Grocerant ScoreCard completed?   Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions FIVE P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.