Back in the day, the mid-1980’s
Home-meal Replacement / Solutions (RMS) was the talk of the retail foodservice
industry. Many research companies and retailers dismissed RMS as it morphed
from a sideshow to the main stage (Top of Mind) for consumer’s seeking
convenience. Foodservice Solutions®
Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson did not dismiss RMS rather he define the evolution
as the Grocerant niche.
In fact Steven Johnson first
warned restaurant industry in 1991 about the undercurrents change within the
consumer mind-set. Then in 1996 Johnson penned an Op-Ed article titled: Call Them Grocerants in August in both FoodService Director and Nation’s Restaurant News which highlighted
undercurrents of food industry evolving consumer migration patterns.
What many legacy grocers failed to
understand was the opportunity for fresh prepared food as a day-part meal
opportunity / solution. Most grocery
retailers do not believe they are in the meals business. More important most
grocery retailers did not want to be in the fresh prepared meal business then
or now. They wanted to be in ‘fill
customers pantry’ business. The fill the pantry business has long since
vanished as have many legacy grocery chains.
Grocery retailer’s mind-set in the
1980’s was Home Meal Replacement specifically in store fresh prepared food cost
too much to produce, threw their labor out of line, created scheduling
problems, and had too much wasted food. That same mind-set holds true today for
many legacy grocery retailers today. Walk around most grocery stores today
and you can see that they continue to try and make fresh prepared food into a CPG product.
Maybe that’s why most legacy grocery
stores continue to struggle driving profitability with grocerant Ready-2-Eat
and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. Just look how Kroger stumbled with their
new concept Main and Vine. Winn Dixie on the
other hand
opened a new customer focus fresh food focused new concept store to find
incremental success and increased customer relevance.
Legacy grocery retailers simply did not
want to deal with fresh prepared food back in the day nor do they today. I
guess that is why they cut corners, mass produced product that they call fresh,
packaged it like it was a CPG brand, and let it sit on display or under heat
lamps way to long. In short they blew it then and most are making the same
mistake today.
The pantry business
is rapidly diminishing according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®.
While category managers can quickly tell grocery retailers what is selling
inside their stores, how to price it, and where to position it. Category
managers have no idea where the customers went. Nor can they explain how
start-up mail-order meal-kits companies in three years have annual sale of $1
billion a year. That is pantry disruptive growth, and a concern for legacy
retailers.
In an era of consumer transparency
category management tactics have fallen out of favor with consumers. Or as our Grocerant Guru® put’s it “the
consumer is not stupid, they have figured out what retailers are doing and
dislike any company trying to trick / fool customers into buying a product in
the era of transparence legacy retailers utilizing such tactics will face
customer rebellion.” Fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food has the
‘hallo’ of ‘better for you’ from the consumer perspective and continues gaining
momentum.
Consumers are dynamic not static, the
Grocerant niche continues to grow around the world and our Grocerant Guru® has
been leading the drive for top line sales and bottom line profits within the
grocerant niche since 1991.
Food manufactures are searching for
new, fresh food opportunity and that is something Foodservice Solutions®
continues to excel at. Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® as regular
readers of this blog know has repeatedly stated that “consumers never take step
back in food quality or freshness”. The food retail industry today is no longer
at a crossroad. The consumer has moved. It’s simply a question within the
legacy grocery retailers if they want to move forward with consumer or not.
Back in the day it used to be
restaurant chefs were the industry tastemakers and retail eventually playing
copy-cat caught up with the trends. Today many tastemakers come from Grocerant
niche retailers. Yes, the times they are a changing.
Driven by increased demand and customer
migration from cook from scratch to Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared
food everyone from Soccer Mom’s to Senior Citizens are putting pressure on
retailers for fresh prepared food. All retailers are in a fierce battle to
garner a larger share of stomach and the battle for customers is taking place
within the grocerant nice Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food space.
Grocery stores are now playing catch-up
with the fast expanding Convenience store sector that is focusing on Grocerant
niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. Companies the ilk of
Wawa, Sheetz, and Rutter’s Farm Stores all are finding success with fresh
prepared food. Overall convenience stores are doing a better job within the
grocerant niche than legacy grocery stores according to our Grocerant Guru®.
Seemingly trapped in footprint malaise
traditional grocery retailers are closing stores, capitulating market share.
Success does leave clues and legacy food retailers must adopt a new view, and
new business model, the Grocerant model. Foodservice Solutions® can help any
retailer looking to drive top line sales and bottom line profits within the Grocerant
sector.
www.FoodserviceSolutions.us specializes in
outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify
additional food retail segment opportunities for your product or your brand.
Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche
since 1991 Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us
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