Six Grocerant Niche Growth Success Clues

The pandemic will end, social distancing will be reduced, and restaurants will reopen.  However, will those restaurants that can reopen look more like they did in 1980, 2000, or will they evolve with new customer relevant touchpoints?  

The need for branded, craveable fresh food will be preferred over cooking a meal from scratch.  The simple fact is consumers today have experienced choice overload when forced to cook from scratch, walk around a grocery store for an hour, figure out how to cook, and do dishes, that is not a their first choice according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

There is a new incremental opportunity for non-traditional fresh food retailers that want sell grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat sell meals and meal components to go. Mix & match branded meals and meal components bundled with a ‘Eat-In’ experience is one area that all restaurants should explore. That at that intersection that the opportunity is the greatest and there is now a battle for share of stomach.

Who should be extending their reach with grocerant niche fresh food? That list should include Restaurants, Furniture Stores, Drug Stores, Grocery Stores, Convenience Stores, Clothing Stores, and Dollar Stores to name but a few. 

Here are 6 reasons Eating-Out while Eating-In will continue to gain momentum around the world in 2020:

1.       Technology:  5G is coming around the world in 2020 with new phones, tables, and computers offering 10 times the speed of service, elevating the non-store shopping experience.  Will your brand be watching, waiting, or a leading player in 2020?

2.       During the 2019 Holiday shopping season: 9 out of 10 Belgians reach for their smartphones for holiday shopping.

3.       Food from everywhere: In 2019 Consumers Used All Food Distribution Channels More Than a Year Ago With 39%+ at Drive-thru’s, 34%+ Food Delivery, 29%+ Takeout 44%. Note: 58% of restaurant occasions are now off -premise.

4.       80% of household shoppers: in an IRI survey said they purchased deli prepared foods regularly.

5.       90 percent of guests: research a restaurant online before dining — more than any other business type.

6.       Restaurant year over year customer counts declined 5.7% in December 2019. Consumers are not eating less they are eating somewhere else and buying from new non- traditional fresh food retailers.

Are you waiting, watching, or weathering as others move forward reaching your customers with new products, packaged with the ‘halo’ of better for you, on a new avenue of distribution? Do your stores look more like yesterday than tomorrow? If they are not, your brand is dying.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify, and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, a new menu product segment, or product / menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit us on our social media sites: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter