Food Sales Thriving at the Intersection of Grocerants & Consumers

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® says that Grocerant means any retail food item that is Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat prepared fresh. The word Grocerant is a result of the blurring of the line between restaurants and grocery stores and was coined in 1996 by our own Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson as regular readers of this blog know.

A grocerant today can be found almost anywhere fresh prepared meals or meal components are offered.  These components can be bundled into a meal and or packaged for Take-Out, Take-Away, or To-Go. Today’s pictures come from Jaya Grocer a culinary Grocerant located in Malaysia.

Grocerant meals and meal components are increasingly found in liquor stores, drug-stores, fast food restaurants, fast casual restaurants, full-service restaurants, and restaurants inside grocery stores, in legacy “deli” departments, furniture stores (Ikea), club stores (Costco) and clothing stores from Tommy Bahama, Macy’s, and Nordstrom’s.  

When our own  Grocerant Guru® say’s retailer, he is broadly defining supermarkets, mass drug merchants, C-Stores (convenience stores), Furniture stores, Club Stores, Clothing retailers and fast food , fast casual restaurants and full service restaurants selling fresh prepared food, and restaurant meals and meal components sold TO-GO or delivery.

What is Driving the Grocerant Trend?

At noon 83.7 percent of US consumers do not know what’s for dinner.  At 4 PM 68.7 percent of consumers still do not know what is for dinner. Time Starved Consumers are looking for high quality Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. Today, time starved consumer wants to purchase meal components that they can bundle into a customized family meal that will please everyone without spending time cooking or doing dishes.

The retail industry has expanded and is evolving to keep up with the demands of consumer’s desire to save time, improve food quality, and increase the family flavor profile, while enabling personalization and family meal customization.

Grocerant Meal Components Can Be Found At:

Restaurant including: McDonalds, Pret A Manger Burger King, Pizza Hut, Papa Murphy's and Starbucks, each having a fresh Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. In the Casual Dining sector Maggiano's Little Italy offers a buy one take a 2^nd home for free in their Classic Pastas menu section, Olive Garden, Chili’s, Boston Market and Denny’s.  That is to name but a few.

Drug Stores including: Duane Reade, Walgreens which sells fresh soft-serve yogurt, coffee, sandwiches, salads and sushi at selected stores.

Convenience Stores including:   Wawa, Sheetz, Sheetz, 7-Eleven, and QuickChek, all of which sell fresh and prepared sandwiches, salads, beverages.

Clothing Stores including: Tommy Bahama, Nordstrom, Macy’s 

Furniture Stores & Liquor Store including: Ikea sells over $ 2 Billion a year in Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food in its stores (mostly meatballs-mash potatoes), Pinkies in San Angelo, Texas this past holiday season even offered complete fresh prepared full Turkey Dinners will all of the traditional side orders.  All of the fresh prepared food is prepared on site and sold To-Go. 

Supermarkets including:  Whole Foods, Trader-Joes, Central Market, and Wegmans sell fresh prepared chicken, salads, sandwiches and most offer sushi and beverages. Many are now opening in-store restaurants including fast food, full service sit down and bars all offer fresh prepared To-Go as well.

Around the world we are now seeing sections in department's stores, kiosk in malls in Europe, Asia and airports around the world. These items can range from entrees to side items and deserts. Some examples of items range from fried chicken, mash potatoes, cream spinach, to liver and onions, pizza, hot dogs, steak, prime rib, various casseroles (hot-dish) to salads, side salads pie, cake and any single proportioned deserts. They can be picked up at the specific unit, or delivered.

Are you ready to join the grocerant niche if so visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  if you are interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® Five P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization or you can learn more at Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant