Dollar General's Express Unit too Garner Grocery Customers

When the Dollar store sector began selling fresh food Foodservice Solutions® team noted that it would be an more than an incremental sector game changer.  So last week when Dollar General announced that had opened an express store (DGX) with a focus on fresh food fast our team and regular readers of this blog were not surprised, rather we cheered its opening.

With a smaller footprint the 3,400 square-foot store filled with food including grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food in the form of Grab-N-Go food and beverages out team knew it would continue to garner customer adoption. 

In DGX Dollar General will attempt build on past success clues for growth and all indications more fresh food is the answer. It must be noted that between 2010 and 2015, according to research consulting firm Conlumino, annual dollar store sales increased from $30 billion to $45 billion, a 50% growth rate that far outpaced retail sales growth during the same period.

The fastest growing grocery store in the United States is Aldi.  Aldi is famous for saying “poor people most save, and rich people like to”.  I guess the Dollar General understands that as well. According to the NPD Group, one quarter of the shoppers at three of the top dollar store chains are millennials from households earning $100,000 a year or more.

Millennials are as time starved as any generation and they love the value and the quick convenience dollar stores offer. Dollar General has taken extra steps here by offering home décor, electronics and other upmarket offerings in the new DGX.

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food portioned for one or two that can be sold as meal components empowering mix and match meal bundling will be a success for Dollar General as long as they remember fresh, flavorful, fast make for fabulous food sales. 

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? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Complexity Free Food is Todays Consumer Choice

Complexity free food is more than just transparency in food according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson. Grocerant niche ‘Better-for-you’ fresh prepared food that is portable and portioned for one or two continues to drive demand in retail foodservice. Consumers today are seeking ‘better-for-you’ fresh prepared food as meal components that can be bundled in to a customized family meal according to Johnson.

Grocery stores of a bygone era thought they could responded to consumers demand to drive sales simply by opening more stores, larger stores, or ‘scale’.  That did work when food choice came from a can or a box that could sit on a shelf for years and slotting fees paid for the shelf space. However, that simply put was a mindset of yesterday’s food retailers the ilk of A&P and others still taking slotting fees.

Johnson continued “retailers back in the day felt that all they need was more scale to compete successfully with other grocery stores. Today, grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food can be found at companies the ilk of Wegmans, Green Zebra Grocery, New Season Market, Wawa, Sheetz, KFC, McDonald’s, and Papa Murphy’s.

Complexity free in the minds-eye of the consumer according to the team at Tacoma, WA based FoodserviceSolutions.us means, less meal preparation time, little or no cooking, less food waste, less time shopping, less packaging, local, fresh fast food, in-season food, and portions for one or two. In fact one of the key findings was no matter the size of the household fresh was best and the ability to mix and match meal components was crucial.  Does your company look more like yesterday or tomorrow?

Foodservice Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom line profits. Are you looking a customer ahead? Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success. 

What’s For Dinner? Meal Planning Innovation

Consumers continue to be time starved, lacking a cooking from scratch skill-set that empowers meal innovation have found a solution. That solutions is grocerant niche mix and match meal component bundling too create a platform were every family meal is a ‘happy meal’ according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson.

Johnson continued “grocerant niche fresh prepared food that is portable and portioned for one or two people has become a weekly mainstay in most US households. Consumers are buying grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared meal components from restaurants, Conveniences stores, Drug stores, and Grocery stores. 

Excluding restaurant meal take-out mix and match items Technomic a Wingsight Media publication research company reported that the size of the grocerant niche market currently is $12.9 billion and the largest category within that is grocery store with approximately $2.9 billion.

Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food can be found in at many restaurants in the form of Take-Out, Take-Away, or To-Go items.  At convenience stores as fresh prepared sandwich, pizza, or from a Grocery or C-store as a meal component item offered in self-service chilled or heated merchandiser.  

Increasing restaurant’s the ilk Olive Garden and McDonalds have are offing grocerant meal options including Dinner Today and Dinner Tomorrow or Blitz Box creating a pantry busing platform that consumer are migrating too. 

Grocerant niche mix and match bundling empowers consumers to customize and personalize each meal for each dinner without having to cook each different item from scratch and saving enormous amounts of time.  We are in a time where multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational families continue to expand the grocerant niche is the platform that can make each meal a ‘happy meal’.

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? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Fine Fast Food BRYN+DANE's Grocerant Growth

Filled with contemporary customer relevance DRYN+DANE clearly has the ‘halo’ of grocerant niche ‘better-for-you’ fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food as an asset according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®.

DRYN+DANE has cultivated point of differentiation platform consisting of an “innovative environment, serving healthy and delicious meals of the finest basic ingredients in customer driven creative combinations”.  Clearly that is working for them as this week the company is announced a 100-store expansion. 

The platform of ‘better-for-you’ has proven to be a successful invitation for “busy moms and school kids in for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner take-out, to sales men and women, looking for a smarter road food alternative,  according to the staff at BRYN+DANE.

Bryn Davis Founder and CEO of BRYN+DANE's "We are very consciously challenging the conventional fast food industry," The ability to garner new customer adoption with customer relevance is important BRYN+DANE ability to leverage technology a “touch screen ordering system which opens up, rather than restricts the variety of offerings available to patrons, and local sourcing of foods from traditional farms and industrial scale urban indoor grow houses” expands its customer relevance according to our own Grocerant

Retail foodservice continues to evolve and companies the ilk of BRYN+DANE, Snap Kitchen, New Season’s Market, and Green Zebra Grocery that simultaneously offer ‘better-for-you’ fresh prepared grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and or Heat-N-Eat food that is portable in a contemporized setting with technology will continue to find incremental success.

www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  is the global leader in grocerant niche business development.  We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  Has your company had a Grocerant ScoreCard completed?  Want one?  Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Starbucks Evolving with Consumers is Very Important

Success does leave clues and while Starbucks sales continued to grow Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson believes that the most impressive numbers that were reported during Starbucks fiscal first quarter this week were those that highlighted how well they were evolving with consumers.

As retail customers are dynamic not static it’s clear to the entire team at Foodservice Solutions® that Starbucks ability to adapt, evolve, while edifying customer relevance is second to none in the retail foodservice industry.  Here let’s look at some of the numbers we find very important:

1.       $2.1 billion loaded on Starbucks Cards in the U.S. and Canada in Q1, up 15 percent year-over-year

2.       Starbucks Card transactions reached 40 percent of U.S. company-operated transactions.

3.       Record Active membership in Starbucks Rewards grew 16 percent year-over-year to 12.9 million members in the U.S.

4.       Mobile Order and Pay represented 7 percent of U.S. company-operated transactions in the quarter, up from 3 percent in the prior year

5.       Mobile Payment reached 27 percent of U.S. company-operated transactions

So, why are these numbers so important?  The answer is they are branded.  Every time a company can edify the customer relationship with a branded item it’s important.  However when payments and money are branded the relationship is even more valuable. 

Starbucks U.S. comparable store sales increased 3 percent comprised of a 5 percent increase in average ticket and a 2 percent decrease in transactions. Credit an increase in Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Snap Kitchen Fresh Fast Convenient Grocerant niche Success

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson as regular readers of this blog know has called Snap Kitchen concept simply Fine Fast Food and a grocerant niche success. Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food that is deemed ‘better-for-you’ continues to drive customer adoption according to Johnson.

Johnson continued stating “call them small meals, smart meals, or savory meals Snap Kitchen is cultivating customers in search of food with the ‘halo’ of better-for-you’ and Snap Kitchen is offering fresh fast convenience with focusing on quality, healthy food as the foundation to expand nationwide.  

Utilizing three of Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® FIVE P’S of Food Marketing as foundational elements edifying the brand to consumers.  The three are Portability, Positioning, and Price. Snap Kitchen makes healthy, handmade meals from scratch for consumers who want fast food that isn't junk food according to the company. Each mean can fit into gluten-free, paleo, vegan, and other diets. They have a shelf life of five to seven days and result in very little food waste another ‘better-for-you attribute particularly for Millennials.

Snap Kitchen CEO David Kirchhoff  stated "If Whole Foods and 7-Eleven had a baby, it would be Snap Kitchen" … "It's as if we took a classically trained chef and put them in a cage fight with a nutritionist."

Here are some of Snap Kitchen's menu breakfast offerings include almond butter maple pancakes (180 calories) for $4.79 and chicken sausage egg tacos (300 calories) for $5.49. Lunch and dinner options include brisket hash (under 500 calories), shrimp and chorizo paella (370 calories) and soups, salads, snacks and sweets.

Kirchhoff t continued “The company's biggest day is Monday, when customers purchase multiple meals for the week, and the average check for a "mature" store is $25. …Our cycle is counter to the restaurant cycle. We solve for what's for dinner on Tuesday, not the big outing on Saturday," old the news outlet.

Snap Kitchen understands our Omni-Channel retail world and even though they only have 45 units opne today that begun operating a wholesale business alongside its retail operation, and provide prepared foods to some Whole Foods Markets.

Success does leave clues and edifying customer relevance you can place a Snap Kitchen order online for in-store pickup. The mobile app also provides delivery through Uber Rush in certain markets, including Chicago according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®.

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? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Game On: Chipotle in Timely Partnership

Edifying Chipotle Mexican Grill’s brand with Millennials and Gen Z consumers is key to regaining lost customer while increasing current customer frequency.  With the Super Bowl fast approaching Chipotle has entered a partnership with Avocados from Mexico for a new online game called ‘Cado Crusher, where users have three rounds to smash and combine ingredients to make their own version of Chipotle’s delicious guacamole.

Ok so I’m not a Millennial but it does sound both inviting and fun. Game players are rewarded with a mobile offer good for a free order of chips and guacamole, with purchase of an entrée, at any Chipotle in the U.S. Users may play ‘Cado Crusher anytime January 24 through February 7.

Mark Crumpacker, chief marketing and development officer at Chipotle  stated “This game provides a fun way for our customers to see the short list of quality ingredients that go into each and every batch of our scratch-made guacamole, while also giving them a chance to enjoy some chips and guac on us to complement their meal,”

Foodservice Solutions® team says this is all about customer relevance. Millennials and Gen Z’s like to play games and 85% of all Millennials have a mobile smart phone. Fresh and fast are key drivers of grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-n-Eat fresh prepared food sales success according to our own Grocerant Guru®. The fast is Chipotle’s guacamole is made from scratch throughout the day. Interestingly each of Chipotle’s 2,200-plus restaurants goes through approximately five cases of avocados a day.

Alvaro Luque, president of Avocados From Mexico noted that  “Avocados From Mexico is excited to partner with Chipotle this month to celebrate the star ingredient in their popular guacamole—fresh, great-tasting avocados,” stating “Guacamole super fans, and those new to Chipotle, will enjoy the ‘Cado Crusher game as part of our promotion around the Big Game, and we are thrilled to team up with Chipotle to provide free guacamole to their customers across the country.” At Chipotle it’s Game On  and Super Bowl season.

 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  is the global leader in grocerant niche business development.  We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  Has your company had a Grocerant ScoreCard completed?  Want one?  Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

C-Stores Branding Foodservice Disrupts QSR’s

Success does leave clues and companies the ilk of Rutters’s Farm Stores, Sheetz, Wawa, Green Zebra Grocery all find success with branded grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food others follow according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson.

Regular readers of this blog know that Stripes Convenience stores found incremental success when they edified their foodservice offerings with Laredo Taco.   The branded program emphasizing Ready-2-Eat handmade, made-to-order food at the chain's new next-generation stores in Texas and Louisiana is proving very successful.

Eduardo Pereda, vice president of marketing, convenience brands at Sunoco stated “"When we first envisioned our new store design, we knew based on customer feedback that it was very important that our 'Made Right Here' approach came through loud and clear," ..."As a result, the next-generation design brings the tortilla-making experience front and center. That means our customers are able to see for themselves that our kitchens consistently serve up delicious, authentic Mexican food that is made in-store from the freshest ingredients."

Regular readers also know that our Grocerant Guru® maintains that visceral food prep is both consumer interactive and participatory each are key to garnering incremental customer migration.

Pereda continued "The new design also showcases our much-loved Stripes convenience store offering with a clean, modern interior, and spacious aisles that allow our guests to move throughout the store seamlessly as they shop. We know our customers love the variety of our fountain and packaged beverage vaults," …  "Making these high-traffic areas easier to access, and placing our check-out in the center of the store, helps our teams to assist our customers quickly. Our customers have responded very positively."

Non-traditional fresh food retailers including Walgreens, Everytable, Wegmans, Ikea, Whole Foods, and Central Market continue to gain momentum garnering new customer adoption and an increase in Share of Stomach driven by an increase in offerings of Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat grocerant niche fresh prepared food.

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.

Grocerant Guru’s Top Food Trends at Retail in 2017

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson continues to work with manufactures and retailers positioning Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  So, what does out team think will see as emerging trends in 2017?

1.       Increased offering of prepacked meals, meal components with full flavor.  Specifically multicultural consumers will demand more options in Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food that reflect their heritage.  Specifically in the US we will see Vietnamese, Korean, Philippines, and Spanish influence will continue to grow.

2.       “Better for you” foods including seafood that are lower in fats with high protein sold as Ready-2-Eat mix and match meal components bundled with vegetables. 

3.       Digital Marketing of fresh food will offer “What’s for Dinner” specials of seasonal items Salmon in the fall, cod in the winter, Lobster in the summer, priced with equal portions of seasonal urgency and ease of preparation on a platform of convenience.

4.       Fast, Fresh Simple will be the retail meal mantra fresh prepared meal kits, meals and grab-N-go will drive retail foodservice growth in 2017.

5.       Plates, Portions, and Protein restaurants will once again begin using smaller dinner plates, grocery stores will increasingly sell smaller single serve portioned meal components, and protein will return to appropriate size more in line with FDA portion guidelines.

The halo of ‘better-for-you’ will continue to be a key undercurrent developing in 2017 according to the team at Foodservice Solutions®. Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food both as meals and meal components will expand into new non-traditional retail locations. Thus expanding customer migration, elevating disruption for traditional chain restaurants, while pantry busting legacy grocery stores.

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? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Is Global Grocery Pantry Busting The Next Big Thing?

Remember when Thomas Friedman wrote the book ‘The Word is Flat’ few understood the undercurrents of a flat world were having within the foodservice sector.  Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson and regular readers of this blog however were well aware of the pantry busting disruption the Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food was causing. 

Here is a great example of just how the fresh prepared food space is driving disruption.  This example comes from Korea where the Korean Bizwire reports that today convenience stores lead rice consumption due to the dramatic increase in ‘lunch box sales’.  Foodservice Solutions® team has reported the dramatic growth of the Korean Lunch Box for the past five years.

Here is some background: “Once a diet staple, rice consumption is rapidly declining in Korea. Over the past 30 years, Korea’s rice consumption per capita has more than halved, dropping from 128.1kg in 1985 to 62.9kg in 2015, with Koreans adopting Westernized diets seeking alternatives like wheat or bread. 

Amid the changing food culture, however, rice purchases by convenience stores are on a steep rise, driven by the recent popularity of convenience store lunch boxes.”

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According to convenience store franchise CU, its food manufacturing facilities “purchased roughly 5,500 tons of rice in the first half of 2016, which was a 71.9 percent increase from H1 2015 (3,200t). 

At this rate, CU’s total rice consumption for 2016 will almost double the value for last year (6,400t) to 11,500 tons, a company official said. “

7-Eleven has seen a similar increase, “with its H1 2016 figure standing at 5,400 tons, and officials are expecting this year’s figure to see an 80 percent increase from last year’s amount of 6,100 tons. 

Together with GS25, the three convenience store enterprises will be accounting for more 30,000 tons of rice consumption in 2016.”

Pantry busting indeed as from January to August 2016, “CU saw its sales of lunch boxes almost triple compared to the same period last year, while GS25 and 7-Eleven sales increased by factors of 2.76 and 2.54, respectively.” So what does a ‘Lunch Box Look Like”:

Lunch meals sold at conveniences stores come in a wide variety of options, including menus like ribs, pork cutlets, and bulgogi (grilled marinated beef), and at affordable prices, ranging between 3,000 won ($2.66) and 4,000 won.

Outside eyes can deliver top sales and bottom line profits.  Invite www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  to provide brand and product positioning assistance or a grocerant program assessment. Have you completed a Grocerant Scorecard? Contact: 253-759-7869 or Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us