Whole Foods Primed for Continued Growth

Success does leave clues and Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® is a suburban customer of Whole Foods and a regular visitor to Amazon GO’s first store in Seattle, WA. Johnson believes that as a Amazon acquisition of Whole Foods will drive incremental change in food shopping for years to come. 

The simple fact is Amazon has become a marketing powerhouse according to Johnson.  Johnson observed that my local suburban Whole Foods went from being a slow or underperforming store, too a busy location albeit not yet a high volume unit, but the progress has been remarkable.  

While Amazon Prime members have already saved “millions” by utilizing the newly established discounts at Whole Foods stores, what is remarkable is that Amazon Prime has become a branded invitation for trial and Prime Members discounts is as one customer described to Johnson “like a unannounced bonus, money in the bank”. 

The halo of ‘better-for-you’ has encompassed Whole Foods since its inception and continues to drive consumer adoption.  Yet the halo of saving money and discounts daily at Whole Foods has created a ground swell of trial that will over time according to Johnson become a platform for incremental same store sales growth, bottom line profit margin expansion, and additional store growth.

Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky stated “Prime members have adopted this [Whole Foods] benefit; it's one of the fastest rates we've ever seen for a Prime benefit “They've already saved millions of dollars on everything from seasonal favorites to … popular daily sales.”

Remember that Amazon just began rolling out Prime benefits to Whole Foods shoppers in May 2018 and had expanded to stores nationwide by late June. It provides paid members of Amazon’s loyalty club with a 10% discount on sales items at Whole Foods stores, along with perks such as delivery through Prime Now where available.

While Whole Foods is the hub of the ‘better-for-you’ fresh food offerings at Amazon; Amazon Go is the wheel that will drive innovation and brand adoption in urban centers.  That will lead to additional growth at Whole Foods via technology and consumer food consumption learnings from Amazon Go.  Fresh food fast is the platform of commonality at both food retailers. It’s at that intersection that Amazon will be able to out preform most legacy food retailers.

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, brand, or 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

Olive Garden finds Success Giving Customers What They Want

Success does leave clues and Olive Garden is one of the very best chain restaurants at taking the time to listen to customers, focusing on customers, and giving customers what they want.  While customer count declines continue to rattle the restaurant sector Olive Garden is once again doubling-up on customer meals according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

This will be the sixth time that Olive Garden brings back 'Buy One Take One' deal placing itself right in the middle of the fastest growing retail food segment the grocerant nice.  While the promotion runs for a limited time, customers who purchase a meal will also get a second meal to take home at no extra cost that’s doubling-up according to Johnson. The ‘Buy One Take One grocerant niche promotion starts at $12.99.

While for most chain restaurants find customer count growth elusive this promotion elevates customer relevance reinforcing the FIVE P’s of Food Marketing according to the team at Foodservice Solutions®.  The Olive Garden ‘Buy One Take One focus on Portability, Packaging, Product, Placement, and Price.  

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.

Grocerant niche Fresh Prepared Foods Drive Sales Facts

Are you a retail foodservice company struggling to drive top line sales and bottom line profits?  Consumers have been showing you the way if you want to evolve with them.  Now just look at these numbers: “Fresh and perishable foods generated sales nearly 14 times as high as all online food and beverage sales this year, Nielsen notes in its June 2018 “Total Consumer Report.”

Regular readers of this blog know that grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food continues to be the platform consumers are adopting when they ask themselves, ‘What’s for Dinner’ according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

In the battle for what Johnson calls ‘share-of-stomach’ and ‘share-of-wallet’ consumers of all ages are migrating to Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  The simple fact is 83.7% of dinners served at home have at least one grocerant niche meal component according to Johnson.

Think about this Nielson found of the top-growing categories in terms of sales during 2017, prepared foods leads the pack, surging 139.5 percent over the prior year.  In second place: combo meals, also under the prepared food heading, with 68.9 percent growth.

Regular readers of this blog know that sales of food eaten away from home recently surpassed sales of food eaten at home for the first time, creating an increase focus on the battle for a larger ‘share-of-stomach’ according to Johnson.  With Chick-fil-A entering the meal kit niche grocery retailers must reposition what and how they are selling items for the dinner daypart or fast food restaurants will displace, disrupt, and destroy the existing grocery business model.

With access to an ample supply of the finest ingredients and enhanced culinary firepower, there are now 29 restaurants in the US for every grocery store. Need I say more? Restaurants understand what they are doing and are evolving grocery stores.

The convenience store sector over the past five years have had the highest growth in same store sales year over year than the grocery sector or the restaurant sector.  C-stores understand that the emergence of this food culture shift at the intersection of time, fresh food, and price.  One thing is clear consumer demand for Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food shows no sign of letting up.

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Carl's Jr. Branded Consumer Interactivity

Regular readers of this blog have been constantly reminded by Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® of the importance that branded food discovery, consumer interactivity that is participatory with the brand is. So when we find a great example we try to highlight it. 

Today that example is from Carl’s Jr. who is giving away fanny packs to ‘tweet decoders’. The Carl’s Jr. ‘Slider Hider’ Fanny Pack promotion is one of the best interactive promotions that we have seen this year it digital marketing and merchandise promotion will be an important part of the new electricity that drives top line sales and bottom line profits according to Johnson.  .

Here is how it works; Carl’s Jr. is challenging their Twitter followers to decode a series of tweets for the chance to win a Slider Hider fanny pack, the ultimate Sliders on the Sly swag. The Carl’s Jr. Slider Hider Fanny Pack is perfect for sneaking Sliders wherever you go.

The Sliders start at $1.25 each/ $1.75 for a double and are available at Carl’s Jr. locations now. Beginning yesterday (Friday July 27th at 2 pm (eastern), Carl’s Jr. begin blasting a series of coded tweets. There will be a total of 10 coded tweets (and 10 winners) over the course of the next two days. For each code, the first follower to quote-tweet with the decoded message will win a #SliderHider fanny pack (a fanny pack that perfectly fits Carl’s Jr.’s new Charbroiled Sliders) along with a gift card. On July 27, Carl’s Jr. will announce the winners and the decoded phrases.

When branded food marketing is combined with digital interaction, food, beverage, and logoed merchandise this will be a marked up-tick in interaction and an increase in consumer top-of-mind interaction. Success does leave clues and Carl’s Jr. has pick up all the right ones.    

Does your brand need a refresh? If your brand looks more like yesterday than today or tomorrow it just might be time that you called for outside eyes to help you drive inside results.  What is the new electricity that is driving your top line sales and bottom line profits?  Are your customer counts growing? 

According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, urban clothing, grocerant consultants, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, cash-less payments, digital hand held marketing. This program has all of that.

Foodservice retailers 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 not different.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

Success does leave clues 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 a Grocerant Program Assessment, or new Grocerant niche product Ideation?  Want one?  Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Indulgent Branding Drives7-Eleven Customer Counts UP

Success does leave clues and 7-Eleven is one of the very best food retailers at picking up all the right clues to drive top line sales and bottom line profits according to Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Once again this past July 11, 7-Eleven Day, experienced a significant increase in foot traffic due to its giveaway of free Slurpee’s between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. GasBuddy, the smartphone app that connects drivers to their Perfect Pit Stop, found that the giveaway had a major positive effect at the more than 2,400 U.S. 7-Eleven stores that sell fuel.

The annual July 11 branded indulgent promotion drove the average number of visits per 7-Eleven gas station up 43 percent when compared to the previous 30-day period, according to GasBuddy's data. When compared to the previous four Wednesdays, including Independence Day, there was a 51-percent increase in station visits the report found.

The GasBuddy data showed there was a 36-percent increase in market share on July 11 compared to the past four Wednesdays. Typically, 7-Eleven ranked No. 3 in foot traffic after Shell and QuikTrip. 7-Eleven jumped to the No. 1 spot that day.

Frank Beard, convenience store and retail trends analyst at GasBuddy stated "This is a great example of how in-store promotions can separate a brand from the competition," … "More than 80 percent of convenience stores sell fuel, and the challenge has always been to convert pump traffic into in-store traffic. 7-Eleven used a well-known branded product Slurpees to drive customer counts.  What are you doing?."

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Grocerant niche Mix & Match Meal Component Bundling is What’s for Dinner

Consumer’s meal preparation patterns while evolving continue to show that we like to eat at home in front of our 65 inch HDTV as noted back in 2012I by  Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  In fact last year 80% of all meal were prepared and eaten at home with one evolving point of differentiation according to Johnson.

That point of differentiation is; of the meals prepared at home in 2017, 83.7% of the meals included at least one Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared item according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant ScoreCards.

It might just be that grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food items make it much easier to fix a meal at home.  What is even more interesting is Americans are now eating more meals at home than they did 10 years ago prior to the great recession which has clearly help change the way we think about meal preparation and the cost of a meal eaten out.

The NPD Group reported that “a restaurant meal has historically cost more than an in-home meal, typically as much as three times more.” Which customers became ever so reminded of during the last recession and continues to be leading reason for continued flat, declining, and stagnant year over year customer counts that chain restaurants have been posting the past five years according to Johnson.

The team at Foodservice Solutions® believes that many chain restaurants continue to practice brand protectionism of the 1980’s, 1990’s and early 2000’s and that alone has become their Achilles heel.  In short most chain restaurants have fail to evolve with the consumer.  Those chains look more like yesterday that today and a far cry from tomorrow’s restaurants.

Today 46.9% of dinners purchased from a restaurant are consumed at home and a growing number of in-home meals are a blend of dishes prepared and items purchased Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food from a non-traditional foodservice outlet.

Today’s consumers lack the skill-set to prepare / cook many of the full flavored ethnically diverse menu items that they have become accustom to enjoying. Restaurants today new to find what Johnson call some new electricity to drive brand relevance, top line sales and bottom line profits.  That new electricity should be in the form of grocerant niche meal components that can be offer for consumption today or tomorrow according to Johnson.

Are you’re sales stifled by brand protectionism of the past?  Are you prepared for tomorrow’s customers? Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Where is your new electricity?  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.

Biggby Coffee Expands Points of Distribution

Opportunities within the grocerant niche today are endless when it comes to driving top line sales and bottom line profits according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru®, at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Consider Biggby Coffee’s new partnership with Guernsey Farms Dairy to roll out three Ready-2-Drink beverages inside Biggby locations as well as at select grocery stores.

The three new Ready-2-Drink beverage flavors are Caramel, Chocolate, and Slightly Sweetened cold brew and they have started to make their way into Meijer locations with plans to continue folding in other grocers. Guernsey Farms Dairy is based in Northville, MI and was an easy choice for the partnership due to their local ties, their family-owned structure, and of course, their award-winning milk.

Stephanie Schlichter, Best Sphere Director stated “Innovation is a BIGG part of our overall model and we were thrilled to be able to launch a competitive ready to drink product for our customers,”.. “Guernsey has an amazing product and the same family feel that our company embodies, so when we paired up with them it just felt like a natural fit!”

 Biggby Coffee also has an in-house Product Developer, Brandon Trudelle, who stated “We have many things in the works and launching ready to drink for the warmer months was an awesome accomplishment so far this year,” .. “Keep your eyes peeled for our future rollouts and don’t forget to visit your local Biggby Cofee to see what our awesome baristas can craft for you.”  Who is your company partnering with?  Where is your new electricity  to drive sales and customer relevance coming from?

The unique and eye-catching “milk container” packaging is due to the fact that the product actually moves down a dairy production line, but a lid was added so you can drink it on the go! They’re the perfect buy now and drink later option for a group event or a road trip! A fresh product with limited ingredients also means shorter expiration dates and less time sitting on a shelf in-store.

In case you did not know Biggby Coffee has over 270 cafes open or under contract across nine states including: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Florida, and Texas. In 2018, Biggby Coffee launched an Area Representative Program and currently has 4 area representatives in 3 states.

So, just what is your brands new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, urban clothing, grocerant consultants, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, cash-less payments, digital hand held marketing. This program has all of that.

Foodservice retailers 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 not different.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

 So just what is your New Electricity? Success does leave clues 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 a Grocerant Program Assessment, or new Grocerant niche product Ideation?  Want one?  Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Chick-fil-A Edifies Customer Relevance with Meal Kits

Menus, meal kits, and marketing Chick-fil-A extends their brand into the home building a deeper relationship with the consumer.  Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® described this brand extension as an example of industry leadership at the intersection customer understanding and building a new food sales platform to drive incremental growth. 

Successful restaurant chains must evolve with the consumer and Chick-fil-A is doing just that by evolving its business model into the grocerant niche with its own meal kit brand, Mealtime Kits, at 150 locations in its home city starting Aug. 27, 2018. If success does leave clues and it does the restaurant business model will be forever changed according to Johnson.

Convenience stores, grocery stores and legacy meal kit companies will be watching this move closer than many restaurant chain executives. However, if successful in this ideation or the next ideation the retail food-space is forever changed according to Johnson.

It is now clear that Chick-fil-A’s insights from ethnographic research, industry syndicated studies, and internal data indicate that customer migration into the grocerant niche will continue and that they are not going to sit back and capitulate customers or the opportunity for growth. Chick-fil-A is first major quick-service chain to offer meal kits according to Johnson.

With a full understanding of consumers fresh food desires Chick-fil-A is edifying consumer’s desires for a non-subscription service.  By limiting the options of five meals with premeasured ingredients that customers can pick up in the drive thru-or at the front counter they eliminate the paradox of choice overload.

Chick-fil-A understands that driving incremental year over year same store customer counts requires doing something different. The c-level team at Chick-fil-A also understand that differentiation does not mean different it means familiar but with a twist.  Meal Kit’s available for pick-up at the drive thru is a fresh fast food option that consumers have been looking for according to Johnson.

This just might be the new electricity to drive the entire fast food sector to new highs over the next ten years according to Johnson. So, just what is your brands new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, meal kits, urban clothing, grocerant consultants, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, cash-less payments, digital hand held marketing. This program has all of that.

Foodservice retailers 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 not different.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

Michael Patrick, an innovation program lead at Chick-fil-A who is leading the Mealtime Kits effort stated “We know our guests are busier than ever and need a variety of convenient dinner options,”... “We designed our offering so our guests don’t have to order ahead, subscribe to a service or make an extra stop at the grocery store. They simply pick up a Mealtime Kit at one of our restaurants at their convenience.”

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  Are you looking for a new menu product, food segment, brand, or menu integration strategy?  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche since 1991

At Tijuana Flats Differentiation Means Familiar

Success does leave clues and regular readers of this blog know that Steven Johnson our Grocerant Guru® regularly states that “in food retail differentiation does not mean different it means familiar’. Tijuana Flats has picked up the right clue as it rolled out a summer Limited Time Offer (LTO).  The new menu item is Dos Cheeseburger Tacos, which includes two tacos with seasoned fries, for just $7.89.

Yes, Tijuana Flats is bringing together the best of both tacos and burgers this summer for one epic mash-up of deliciousness with the Cheeseburger Taco. The LTO  is available at all Tijuana Flats locations from July 30–September 9.

As you can see from the picture and the description differentiation does not mean different.  The Cheeseburger Taco is a tasty concoction consisting of a tortilla filled with seasoned ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, ketchup and mustard. Instead of chips, Flats fans that order the Cheeseburger Taco will receive a side of seasoned fries and queso.

Throughout the summer, Flats guests can order Dos Cheeseburger Tacos, which includes two tacos with seasoned fries, for just $7.89. Fry lovers (and who isn’t a fry lover?) can get a side of fries for $2.99, an order of fries and queso for $5.29 or upgrade Flats chips to fries on any Flats dish for just $0.99.

Rick Van Warner, CEO. “We know Flatheads love a good twist on a classic dish, and we can’t wait for our guests to dig into the best of both tacos and burgers at Tijuana Flats.” How is your brand edifying it’s relationship with consumers? 

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Where is your new electricity coming from?  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.

The Grocerant Niche is Upsetting the Foodservice Status Quo

Gen Z and Millennials in search of food discover consumers are now driving the growth of Omni-Channel food retail according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®. The success of Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food has been documented, talked about and written about for one reason of late. It is driving top line sales and bottom line profits within existing points of distribution and more importantly at non-traditional points of fresh food distribution garnering share from legacy food retailers.

If you are not cultivating a brand you are simply curating your brand? Are you still doing what you did in 1999, 2005 or 2014?  Is your food company prepared to succeed in 2018, 2019 … 2025? Here are some of the advantages to entering or expanding your business within the grocerant niche.

Abandon Brand Protectionism

If you want to garner additional customers to drive top line growth you must look outside of for current box.  Brand protectionism is dying.  Are you over protecting your brand?  Most large food retailers, big companies, have a narrow brand focus.  That ways yesterday’s strategy for yesterday’s customer.

It time to look a customer ahead not protect what worked 20 years ago. Most legacy retail food brands have honed their brand and supply chain. They have set and defined boundaries, and continue to limit the brand to those predefined boundaries.

Time and technology have redefined the consumer playing field. Your brand must become dynamic again or risk losing consumer relevance. There is a huge opportunity for share of market if you elect to evolve you brand with migrating fresh food consumers in take-out and take-way options.

Customer Outcomes Trump Customer Status Quo

Are you paying your C-team to play it safe? Large food retailers typically pay more at the C-level, and are seen as stable employment currencies (not-taking risk). While do no harm was the C-Level mantra of the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s no one ever said do noting or do the minimal.

The grocerant niche when vertically integrated into an existing brand creates a new level of excitement within the entire company. When sales grow, the opportunity for advancement expands, building team momentum, excitement explodes like a wildfire. Customers can feel the proactive positive buzz from employees. Doing the same old thing is simply doing nothing and is boring for your team.  Doing something new is soaring. Customers notice companies on the move and reward them,

Consumers are Dynamic not Static Exposure to change is a positive

Change is incredibly dynamic, consumer focused changed is contagious. Change evolves and will go through a bell curve, and you see the whole thing step by step when you vertically integrate change into brand and consumer values. If not integrated you do not really get to escape the velocity of the event, but change is exciting nonetheless and customers will still follow.

Consumer Relevance Will Drive Momentum

Are you going to tangibly impact your company or maintain the status quo? Today like never before companies have the ability to evolving a brand at a speed not seen since your company was a start-up. What impact are you going to have on your company? There is a difference between the work you do and the impact you have. Fresh Food retailing is evolving at break neck speed, evidenced by the Dollar Store formats selling more foods and Walgreens selling fresh foods and doing it well as you can see from this video of a Walgreens in San Francisco. Is your brand evolving fast?

Success Steps are a Springboard to Profitability

Are you not growing because of Obama Care, the minimum wage hikes, or lack of qualified workers? If you do nothing but wait, watch or blame the economy you are very likely to simply spin out of control. Redefining your brand with consumer relevance will position you too either create a positive spin off or springboard to the next level. Legacy organizations need to be mindful that springboards do great things for your organization, your team and your shareholders.

Foodservice Solutions® is clue # 1

Today, LTO's (Limited Time Offers) can drive top line sales and bottom line profits while taking you in a new direction. Are your LTO's leading your brand, testing your brand or simply copy-cat marketing tactics absent strategy?

Fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food in non-traditional outlets poses an ever increasing threat to restaurant growth, is a pantry buster for grocery stores, and a quagmire for C-stores. . Want to know how to best address these new competitive threats?  Contact Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  1-253-759-7869