Grocerant Meal Solutions 9 Winning Clues for Success

Success does leave clues Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® has continually pointed out over the past several years that empowering consumer choice around grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food would garner incremental customer transactions, larger share of food dollars, and larger share of stomach.

If legacy restaurant brands are going to survive or thrive they will new a new electricity to drive incremental top line sales and bottom line profits with new strategic partnerships. According to Johnson; partnerships specifically strategic partnerships will be  driving retail success in 2018. 

Johnson stated “in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply chain and includes such things as digital hand held marketing, local fresh food,  grocerant consultants, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, cash-less payments, delivery, and voice ordering.

Grocery store Service Deli’s and Chain Restaurants to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar but with a twist.  Johnson had identified 9 foodservice undercurrents driving both retail food consumers migration and adoption.  Here they are:  

1. Evolve or Fade Away: Increased completion had elevated the blurring of retail channels expanding foodservice fragmentation.  According to a study by Deloitte, consumers on average shop at four to five different types of stores to fulfill their grocery needs. Foodservice Solutions® team has found increased SKU’s of grocerant fresh food at restaurants, online Meal Kits, drug stores, dollar stores, supercenters, discount, specialty, convenience, club stores and Mobile e-commerce ‘home’ stores. 

2. Ethnic Melting Pot:  The US Census reports the undercurrents of our evolving demographics will continue broaden, expanding the population of “multicultural consumers.” In fact in a new Nielsen study found that the “buying power from the Hispanic, Asian and African-American populations will be 17% of a $4.2 trillion market. The Melting Pot of opportunity is overflowing with grocerant niche success points according to the team Looking A Customer Ahead at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

3. Halo of ‘Better-for-You’: Consumer tell us that grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food is ‘better-for-them’ as the halo includes not doing dishes or cooking from scratch. Acosta found that “nearly one-third of shoppers surveyed considered leaving a store if fresh and healthy options were not available.”

5. Customization and Personalization:  Retailers the ilk of Green Zebra Grocery, EveryTable, and Wegmans continue to attract loyal customers with convenience, quality, value, and customer service. Customization and personalization via mix and match meal component bundling are hallmarks of success found within the grocerant niche according to the Grocerant Guru®.  Restaurants continue capitulating customers as consumers seek fresh food in non-traditional fresh food retail outlets that are becoming more of a priority.

6. Price and Private label: Trader Joe’s private label products have the ‘halo of better-for-you’ according to non-client information aggraded from over 8,116 Grocerant ScoreCards. A recent Nielsen/PLMA study, sales of private label products generated a record $120 billion last year, and continued to outpace national brands. Trader Joe’s, Aldi, Lidl will continue to increase market share leveraging price and quality private label foods.

7. Hand Held Marketing:  Mobile smart phones continue to garner adopting in fact according Nielsen 85% of Millennials have a smart phone. Consumers of all ages continue to embrace digital technology and social media as a means to connect and communicate about food or when looking for food. A recent study showed that 37% of shoppers use their mobile devices in store for comparing prices, searching for product information, or checking product availability.

8. Mini Meals at Mini Locations:  Rent is expensive and more and more retailers have no locations or smaller locations virtual dining from a home or local kitchen is a growing trend. According to a Package Facts study, even the average square footage of supermarkets has fallen since 2006 and is now approximately 46,000 sq. ft. Even smaller size formats of 25,000 sq. ft. or less, modeled by chains like Trader Joe’s, Aldi’s and Lidl, have proven to be successful.

9. The Price Value Service Equilibrium is Resetting:   Foodservice Solutions® team identified, quantified and qualified a new formula for the foodservice Price, Value, Service, Equilibrium. That formula can be found with this link. Consumers are dynamic not static and food retailers must evolve their brands to both maintain and garner consumers frequency levels.

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869