Grocerant Success Drives Retail Innovation

Once again Success does leave clues this time those clues have been picked up by more non-traditional fresh food retailers that want to drive customer relevance according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Those retailers are Ralph Lauren, Lululemon, and Crate & Barrel.  They operate at the intersection of customer consumer relevance and cultural trend adoption.  Each is a leader all are continually evolving giving consumers what they want more grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food options according to Johnson.  Each is looking less like a retailer of yesterday and more like a retailer of today and tomorrow.

You know that Lululemon, is an athletic apparel company known for its yoga gear.  Well they have opened a restaurant called Fuel  in their flagship flag ship store in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. The restaurant will be selling find healthy (acai bowls, smoothies, salads, protein boxes), beefy (an 8-ounce burger), and draft beer.) Sounds like Lululemon understand today’s consumer according to Johnson who stated “consumers are dynamic not static and retailers must be as well.

Not to be over looked Crate and Barrel, opened its first full-service restaurant. Table for Crate opened inside Chicago which has clearly become a hot sport for grocerant growth with companies the ilk of Eataly that continue to do well.

Crate & Barrel’s first full-service restaurant, called The Table at Crate, is a collaboration with Cornerstone Restaurant Group. The Table is the retailer's first full-service restaurant and the restaurant group's first foray into retail. James Beard-nominated chef Bill Kim will lead the eatery. 

Get this, The Table guests can take signature cocktails into the adjacent Crate & Barrel retail space as they shop. Now that is consumer interactive and participatory as regular readers of this blog know are hallmarks driving grocerant niche adoption.

Regular reader also know that Nordstrom is launching a flagship store in New York that will include six food and beverage concepts rather than the typical Nordstrom Cafe. Nordstrom teamed with James Beard Award-winning chef Tom Douglas and Seattle-based chef Ethan Stowell to create the in-store restaurant experiences.

Yes, and regular readers know that Ralph Lauren's Coffee Shop Returned to New York City and it’s mobile what can we say.  The customer adoption of grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food is driving retail innovation, top line sales and bottom-line profits.  Does your retail outlet look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Buy the way don't for get IKEA. 

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 Foodservice Solutions® is the leader in the Grocerant Niche.

Battle for Share of Stomach