Fresh Food with Portability Drives Food Sales

Most consumers today are just trying to squeak out enough time to eat dinner. Do you have time cookt, time for doing dishes, or even time for planning a meal? If you are "Ready-2-Eat" there is a very good chance you are looking for fresh prepared multi-flavor, multi-ethnic Grocerant meal components that include Heat-N-Eat and Ready-2-Eat fresh prepared food with portability.

Where are you shopping for you food today is not the same place your mother was nor is the meal prepared the same way. Think about Kroger’s new concept store Main & Vine, its full of fresh prepared food.

As long as multi-generational family's gather for meals together, the demand for more divergent flavors continues to permeate. Grocerant mix and match bundled meal component offerings allow for increased family integration, understanding and acceptance in less time without a required cook from scratch skill set.

Did you know that in the 1940's cooking from scratch was the normal. The average home cooked meal took 150 minutes to prepare. Everyone sat down at the table and enjoyed it or not but they all ate the same thing. Today's "home cooked meal" takes on average less than 30 minutes to prepared. In most cases at least two different entrées are served.

The average time spent inside a McDonalds in the 2,000 was 11 minutes. Today 65+ percent of all McDonald's food is sold via the drive-thru. U.S. fast-food chains are increasingly remodeling restaurants in an effort to garner additional drive-thru customers inside and increase sales, simple because the drive-thru can't hold all the cars.

Walgreens is creating and bundling distinctive differentiated food consumable's as an entity with identity by day part in a mix and match meal component format in select urban setting targeted at both the office worker for lunch and meal components for them to take home for the family dinner. It is a successful program. With over 7,550 units operating in the United States Walgreens has the potential to become the most disruptive force in food retailing in 50 years. Walgreens with its modular mid-sized foot-print is garnering customers from both restaurants and grocery stores.

Consumers Want Easy to Prepare Meals

The grocerant niche continues to grow with companies like Central Market, Whole Foods, Wegmans and 7 Eleven entering the fresh prepared better for you space. Meal time is now becoming a time of convenient meal participation, with differentiation and individualization for the entire family. Safeway with its lifestyle stores are heading in the right direction however the stores are so large consumers are forced to spend more time in them than they want.

More often than not the multi-generational family today is multi-ethnic as well. Creating a demand for more varied flavors and additional cooking skill set that is simply not there. Grocery stores, Convenience Stores, Restaurants and Chain Drug Stores are all selling ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food. Is your focus family dinning? Are you selling meals or meal components for Take-Out, delivery or Take-Away?

Lacking the skill set to prepared fresh prepared multi-ethnic meal components at home coupled with the time it takes to prepare a home cooked meal it is clear the buying habits of consumers will continue to evolve. Bundling mix and match meal components into a meal is one key driver within the grocerant niche. Given that most American family are comprised of multi-cultural background. The fight for share of stomach will only intensify.

Restaurants menu's at one time were very narrow in focus and have moved more upscale with offerings such as Oriental; Chicken Salad, Southwest Chicken Salad, along with a chef salads. Grocery stores on the other hand are expected to sell complete lines of reay-2-eat multi-ethnic food. That places higher expectations on grocers than restaurants or a company like Walgreens. Walgreens might just be in the perfect spot to expand fresh prepared food offerings capturing customers from both restaurants and supermarkets.

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us is the leading foodservice consultancy focused on the Grocerant niche. Are you ready to have a Grocerant ScoreCard conducted? Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Fresh Mini-Meal Solutions Drive C-store Frequency

Success does leave clues and Convenience stores have been picking up the clues and integrating them in food offerings, customer messaging and brand value according to Foodservice Solutions®, Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson. 

Fresh food retailers that leverage the full potential of the FIVE P’s of Food Marketing are finding that they can drive top line sales and bottom line profits while edifying customer relevance.  The Five P’s of food marketing are:

One example of a product that is a perfect fit for food retailers looking to garner incremental sales during non-traditional meal periods is Good Foods’ new line of Grab & Go Snack Cups.  The Good Foods mini-meals exude authenticity attracting both millennials and boomers who are time starved and looking for meal time simplicity.

The mini-meal cups are made with “simple, real ingredients — like fresh, hand-scooped Hass avocados — and are high-pressure processed to capture the flavors and maintain freshness, according Good Foods. Each mini-meal contains between 140 and 250 calories, and has a suggested retail price of $2.49, as you can see what’s not to like about that. 

There are four varieties: Guacamole, Salsa, Avocado Tomatillo Salsa and Artichoke Jalapeno Dip. Packaged in 3.38-ounce, ergonomically friendly cups, each single-serve pack comes with tortilla chips.  The ability for consumers to mix and match these mini-meals as meal component or mid-meal period mini-meal is clear. 

Retailers can garner an incremental advantage offering prepackaged fresh food fast.  Have you evaluated your grocerant options?  Have you completed a Grocerant ScoreCard?  We can help we have been conducting Grocerant ScoreCards since 1991.  Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  or Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us for more.  

Are UberEATS and Amazon Prime Now Restaurant Delivery Winning the Delivery Wars?

What’s for Dinner?  Well if you live in any urban center around the United States there is a very good chance when someone asks: What’s for Dinner? The answer could be let’s ask Alexa, which is a devise from Amazon capable of voice interaction and has full access to Amazon products including: What’s for Dinner?

Amazon’s Prime Now Restaurant Delivery and UberEATS are both expanding the options of What’s for Dinner, no longer are you limited to pizza or Chinese takeout in most urban locations.  In a world of time starved parents, hungry kids, and world of options cooking from scratch is fast become a thing of the past. 

Lacking the cooking skill-set to prepare the vast array of international flavors families can still cook faster by ordering proportioned meals, cooking instruction with all the ingredients from HelloFresh, Plated, or Blue Apron.  One problem, who’s going to do the dishes?  

Even industry Icon Bonnie Riggs restaurant analyst for research firm NPD stated "Consumers want the 'dining out' experience of quality food, but they're saving money and time by having food delivered to their homes,". "There is the appeal of being in the comfort of their own homes and not having to deal with the hassle of the outside world."  Or as our Grocerant Guru® has said for year’s consumer like Eating-Out while Eating-In.

Can food delivery start-up the ilk of DinnerCall and David Chang’s “Momofuku at home” compete with the marketing power of Amazon or the supply chain power of Uber? For start-up cash is king and while

funding has poured into the food tech startups raised a record $5.7 billion globally last year, an increase of 152 percent from 2014, according to CB Insights.

The battle is about garnering a larger share of stomach and new start-ups will need to target specific groups while edifying their own brand with customer relevance.  The Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food niche is driving retail success.  Those companies that incorporate location based retailers with integrated marketing messaging and the FIVE P’s of Grocerant Marketing will find success that last.

Amazon Prime Now Restaurant Delivery and UberEATS both will be facing the likes of the established industry food delivery leader GrubHub, who connects customers to local restaurants, offering pickup and delivery via contracted couriers. The company transacts 227,100 orders a day for its 6.7 million active diners.

Competition is great for the food industry, better yet for the consumer.  Empowering consumer choice, saving consumer time and not have to do dishes is according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® “Better for you”.  Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

 

Olive Garden’s Grocerant Niche Focus is Back now until October

The Grocerant niche continues to drive sales success in every sector of retail foodservice today according to Foodservice Solutions®, Grocerant Guru® and Mix and Match meal bundling expert Steven Johnson. Success does leave clues and Olive Gardens Buy One, Take One is a grocery sector pantry buster, as well as a restaurant sector competitive advantage.  

Once again consumers can enjoy unlimited soup or salad and an entree at Olive Garden, then select a full-size entree to take home starting at $12.99.  The special is available at lunch or dinner, dine-in or takeout.  You can order in the restaurant or online.  Omni-channel distribution is a must within foodservice today as consumers are dynamic not static according to our Grocerant Guru®. 

 How Olive Garden’s Buy One, Take One works:

Buy One
Guests can select one of seven featured dishes served with unlimited breadsticks and choice of homemade soup or famous house salad:

• Fettuccine Alfredo
• Mezzaluna Ravioli with Marinara
• Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
• Five Cheese Ziti Al Forno
• Smoked Mozzarella Chicken*
• Baked Parmesan Shrimp*
• Sausage Stuffed Giant Rigatoni*

*For an additional price

 Take One
With each entrée, guests can take home and enjoy an additional meal around the table by selecting one of the following four free entrées that will be packaged for them ToGo:

• Fettuccine Alfredo
• Mezzaluna Ravioli with Marinara
• Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
• Five Cheese Ziti Al Forntto

Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food meals and meal components are a branded invitation and consumer solution that garners attention, drives top line growth, while garnering bottom line profits.  Do you understand the grocerant niche?  Have you completed a Grocerant scorecard? 

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us since 1991 has been the leader in the Grocerant niche and a global retail food consultancy firm based in Tacoma, WA, leading foodservice innovation in the Grocerant Niche, with Mix and Match Meal Component Bundling Ideations.  Follow us at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant, Steven Johnson Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Call 253-759-7869

For more about Buy One, Take One and to order ToGo online, www.OliveGarden.com