Grocerant Fresh Food Growth Drives Disruption

Consumer migration from legacy CPG products, legacy grocery stores, filling the pantry has hit an ebb and the preference for Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food is now leading according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson.

The undercurrent foodservice battle brewing is one for Share-of-Stomach as the lines between Restaurants, Convenience stores, Grocery stores, meal component channels grow ever thinner and the battle for top-of-mind intensifies.

Meal Kit’s, Meal Delivery, Restaurant Advance ordering Pick-Up stations, Food-trucks, and Kiosk at farmer’s markets are all full of customer relevance, authenticity  expanding consumers’ options for buying food away-from-home. 

Last year (2016) foodservice Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food generated more than half of food industry sales, exceeding grocery by 1.2%, according Acosta. The NRA’s forecast for U.S. foodservice is outpacing inflation with more than 5% expected gains as consumers face lower food and fuel costs.

The halo of ‘better-for-you’ encompassing fresh prepared meals and meal saving consumer time empowering choice in mix and match components is another leading factor driving customer adoption according to Johnson as outlined at our Grocerant Meal Mash-Up last week during the NRA show. 

A new report from Mintel shows “79% of sandwich-buying consumers are willing to pay more for premium sandwiches. And seven in 10 say they want high-quality sandwiches made with all-natural ingredients.” Clearly the ‘halo’ includes hand held food for immediate consumption.

That same ‘halo’ extends to “Hot food offerings are an integral part of convenience store foodservice with nearly nine in 10 consumers (88%), surveyed in 2016 by Technomic, stating they buy hot food items at c-stores, and purchasing is up, with 44% claiming to buy hot foods more often than last year.”

So are you wondering if Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food is still booming take a look at this VideoMining study that “demonstrated food-to-go boosts the average transaction in convenience stores by more than 14%. Sales increase by more than 19% for evening/late night baskets.”

Most legacy grocery stores lack authenticity within their offerings in the grocerant space. Many legacy grocery stores excelled at being all things for everyone back in the 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s however that was a strategy that worked yesterday is not working today and will not work tomorrow. 

What’s the problem with the grocery sector they lack a cohesive grocerant strategy.  What they have done is ignore or deny the core values of the grocerant niche and simply thrown a plethora of tactics into an existing footprint and new locations as if grocerant niche products were a new CPG product.  We all know how many CPG products don’t work out.

Individually most of tactics have some merits but when bundled together they do not create an avenue for customer migration but rather they create a highway without a reason to stop.    Consumers are not blurring the line between Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food so please retailers quite trying to make grocerant offering a CPG product. That CPG mind-set has been an Achilles heel for many trying to regain customer adoption. If you do you risk continued decline in market share.

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us 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.