Dash In's Fresh Food Connects with Consumers

It was not long ago that consumer’s idea of going to a convenience store for a fresh meal meant little more than a Hot Dog on a Roller Grill and a day old donut. Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® has helped changed that at many food retailers around the world over the years.

The demand for grocerant niche Ready-2Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food shows no signs of slowing down in large part to the growing base of time-strapped consumers according to Johnson.  Companies large and small are welcoming the new sales opportunity fresh food brings to retail.

Recently Dash In in an effort to develop a reimagined brand experience unveiled the fruits of its labor with an all-new, large-format "neighborhood concept store" in Chesterfield County, Va., that prominently showcases local products and the retailer’s elevated fresh food and beer/wine offering.

Julian B. Wills, president Dash In, a Wills Group company state  "[This store] achieves what we’re trying to do at Dash In. Other c-stores focus on transactions associated with normal customer pit stops, but for us and our mantra, we want to make time more rewarding for people by emphasizing a sense of local and personal connection that transforms the necessary errands of today’s busy lives into engaging experiences,"

At the core of the new concept is ‘craveable foodservice’. An expansive kitchen serves as the centerpiece of the Chesterfield County location, allowing customers to clearly locate it upon walking into the store. The move to put foodservice at the epicenter of the store design was intentional.

Wills continued "From a trust perspective, we wanted customers to be able to see the food being produced because we wanted to have that transparency. It also illustrates the freshness of everything being made on-site, on demand,"  Its Chef’s Craveable foodservice program — which includes all-day breakfast, artisan sandwiches, grab-and-go wraps and salads that are prepared in-house daily — has been adapted to the fit the concept of localized.

Specific to the Chesterfield County location, Dash In is testing two new menu items: a Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla and Chicken Parmesan sliders. The latter is the seventh variety in the retailer’s slider sandwich program. Thanks to the size of the kitchen, Dash In anticipates using this location to introduce and test more localized menu items before rolling them out to its other stores. So what is your new electricity?

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.