Cook & Do Dishes Heck NO Get Grocerant Niche Fresh Fast and Flavorful Meals

 

Today, Grocery stores, Conveniences stores, Restaurants, and Dollar Stores are all evolving, expanding or exploiting the undercurrents of grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  Grocerant niche food has the halo of ‘better-for-you’, with food experiences that are customized, personalized, while creating a new points of fresh food distribution according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Whole Foods is growing oyster mushrooms right in the store, Domino’s Pizza has voice ordering via Amazon’s Alex.  Even Kroger is testing Scan, Bag and Go technology. Fresh food, fast service with digital marketing, with a halo of ‘healthy’ offerings will drive customer migration from legacy grocery stores to food retailers that evolve focused on the valued consumer touchpoints fresh food, fast food, and flavorful food. The following findings from two different studies that were conducted focusing on Grocerant Niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat Food: 

1. 88% of those we surveyed desire more healthy offers.

2. 52% of shoppers say they always read the labels.

3. A surprising 20% strictly follow special diets like gluten-free, Paleo or vegetarian.

4. Shoppers are looking for keywords on the labels like all-natural, heart-healthy, sugar-free, low-sodium, low-fat, or clean.

5. 60% would love digital scanning for nutritional information.

A. They want you to reward their loyalty with exclusive offers. And their desire for more personalization has increased over the previous year. If they are your loyal customers, they feel you should truly know them.

B. For many shoppers, true personalization and convenience would equate with one click-option to select all the available digital coupons.

C. They want stores to provide new offers on a regular basis.

D. Shoppers prefer stores to provide information in a way they want it, whether that is by mobile or online/offline.

E. 32% of shoppers want bundled offers that naturally go together. Shopper data can provide insights into items that are frequently purchased together.

F. 86% of shoppers want stores to highlight the coupons and deals for them.

G. Many shoppers enjoy the convenience of digital coupons so that they don’t lose them and find it easier to track them in a digital wallet. But 43% report they forget to redeem their digital coupons. Geo-location technology has the potential to identify shoppers on their shopping journeys so timely reminders can be sent.

Fresh products sit alongside convenience and price as top desires of today’s shoppers. Beating out assortment, cleanliness and high-quality products, freshness is now in the top three most important characteristics for a grocery store today.

H.77% of our respondents said they typically go no further than 5 miles to get their shopping done. These trips are not fill-in trips but stock-up trips. And while they’re out, they visit on average two stores to get everything they need — choosing to shop at supermarkets and mass merchandisers.

I. 45% know what they are going to buy before they go to the store. 89% create shopping lists and 62% purposely look at store circulars and pair offers with digital coupons. In fact, 79% use the physical or online store circulars on a regular basis.

Evolving how you sell the food you prepare, how you package the food, and where you sell food will drive incremental top line sales.   Does your retail brand look more like yesterday than tomorrow?

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Yum Brands Elevate Educate Execute Success Clues

 

Success does leave clues and Yum Brands has picked up its share of them. In an ongoing effort to garner a broad market appeal created a new platform to recruit, elevate, educate, and execute on both long-term and short team goals and objectives according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

The future looks bright as Yum Brands and the University of Louisville announced the creation of a business education program on franchising and targeted at women and people of color. The Yum Center for Global Franchise Excellence will focus on recruiting and educating underrepresented people of color and women on the possibilities franchising holds as a “pathway to entrepreneurship.” The effort is targeted at both new and existing franchisees.

So, the center is part of the Louisville, Ky.-based Yum’s “Unlocking Opportunity Initiative” in which it committed $100 million over five years to promote equity and inclusion for employees, frontline restaurant teams and communities around the world.

University of Louisville President Neeli Bendapudi, stated, “We believe that combining the resources and expertise of the University of Louisville with Yum Brands will create an unrivaled resource for world-class training in franchising that will help people everywhere, particularly underrepresented people of color and women, succeed in franchise ownership and management”.

Regular readers of this blog know that, Yum Brands operates KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Habit Burger. The vast majority of the chains' 50,000 global restaurants are owned by franchisees. Thus this center builds on the university’s existing franchising education tracks within the College of Business, which include a graduate program and an executive-level franchise management certificate. This will create new electricity for both the University and Yum Brands according to Johnson.

So, the center added an undergraduate franchising track within the bachelor of Business Administration program in the spring semester this year. Franchising industry experts at the university, with experts from Yum Brands, will lead the curriculum development.

Focused on improving equity, the center will recruit diverse students to its programs, research the reasons for lower ownership among women and people of color and create podcasts and a journal to share franchise education and news with owners and managers.

Once again regular readers of this blog know that franchising is strong in the U.S. The International Franchise Association projects the industry will have more than 780,000 total outlets and employ 8.2 million people in the U.S. alone by the end of this year. But women and people of color have historically been underrepresented as franchise owners.

“Franchising is one of the best paths to entrepreneurship, creating an opportunity to build generational wealth,” Kathleen Gosser, executive in residence at the University of Louisville College of Business, said in a statement. “Our goal is to uncover and reduce barriers to franchise ownership, starting with education.”

According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new menu related 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, music, developing brands, unique urban hemp clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All 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.  How is your brand building new electricity?

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 and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Casey's Insights Drive Customer Traffic

 

When customer traffic is up, brand value is on the rise, according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Garnering incremental customer insights from outside eyes is a great way for retailers to focus on consumer touchpoints that drive transactions, top-line sales and bottom-line profits

In a continuous search to drive customer relevance and thus new electricity into Casey's General Stores customer base they tapped Engage3 for solutions for a partnership that will expand visibility to market information and improved efficiency.

So, in addition to utilizing Engage3's cloud-based visualization and insights, Casey's will leverage the company's suite of mobile applications, including CIM: MissionScanner. The solution is currently in use at six of the 10 largest retailers in North America and provides a comprehensive view of market data to retailers to drive incremental relevance.

According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new menu related 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, music, developing brands, unique urban hemp clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All 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.  How is your brand building new electricity?

Keith Day, retail pricing and analytics manager at Casey's, stated, "The mobile capability provides us flexibility and the data seamlessly integrates into our system,

Engage3 was founded by the creators of KhiMetrics (acquired by SAP), who are credited with inventing the retail price optimization space. Its leadership team is composed of former KhiMetrics, SAP, Revionics, dunnhumby, KSS Retail, IBM/DemandTec and Nielsen executives.

Engage3 CEO Edris Bemanian, stated, "We are proud to welcome Casey's, one of the world's fastest-growing retailers in recent years, as a customer,"  …"We look forward to partnering with the Casey's team to enhance their market visibility as they ensure a great experience for all their guests."

For international corporate presentations, regional chain presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert, and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit GrocerantGuru.com, FoodserviceSolutions.US or call 1-253-759-7869

Dollar General Learned What Whole Foods Did Not

 

What did Dollar General learn that Whole Foods did not?  That’s easy the consumer is dynamic not static.  But that’s just the beginning according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Let’s take a look:

1.       Time is the only commodity.

2.       Customer outcomes are more important that products.

3.       Fresh Food Fast is the only difference between profitable differentiation and commodity competition.

4.       Price = Transparency

Consumers are not dumb.  Well, there are some retailers out there that have told me “less than 30% of consumer read a daily newspaper, watch a nightly newscast, even fewer do real food research.  Consumers now know that there is no nutritional difference between a non-organic carrot an organic carrot.  So, why pay more. It makes them feel better. 

Dollar General like one of the worlds largest food retailers and sister company that Trader Joe’s knows, “Poor people must save, Rich people like to”. Today, brand messaging must be transparent misleading knowledge influencers will always backfire over time.

Recently, a team of Yale University public-health professors published a 34-page study that explained how to end the pandemic in America. The researchers’ conclusion? Dollar General.

Dollar General is currently the closest grocery store for millions of U.S. consumers; 75% of Americans live within 5 miles of a Dollar General. Adding COVID-19 vaccination clinics to Dollar General’s massive store footprint would get vaccines in the arms of the people most in need of them, thus giving America its best shot at ending the COVID-19 crisis, the researchers argued. Yes, get this, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) quickly agreed.

Now consider that in 2020, Dollar General opened more than 1,000 new stores, and remodeled another 1,670 locations. This year, Dollar General plans to open 1,050 new stores, remodel 1,750 stores and relocate 100 stores, representing 2,900 real estate projects in total. With a footprint of 17,275 stores, Dollar General is projected to have 18,316 locations by the end of 2021. How fast is Whole Foods growing or Amazon Fresh for that matter.

Success does leave clues and at Dollar General the clues are in the numbers.  The number of stores that they have and continue to add each and every year while Grocery Stores numbers continue to shrink.  Over the past 12 Years 50% of traditional grocery stores have closed while Dollar General continues to grow by selling more food. 

THE ROAD TO 34,000 STORES

2021: 18,227 (est.)
2020: 17,177
2019: 16,278
2018: 15,370
2017: 14,534
2016: 13,320
2015: 12,483
2014: 11,789
2013: 11,132
2012: 10,506
2011: 9,937
2010: 9,372
2009: 8,828
2008: 8,362

Source: Dollar General financial reports

 

For the fourth quarter ended Jan. 29, Dollar General (DG)  reported that same-store sales increased by 12.7% on a year-over-year basis and operating profit was up 21% to $872 million; revenue increased 17.6% to $8.4 billion. For fiscal 2020, Dollar General’s same-store sales were up 16.3% and its operating profit grew 54% to $3.6 billion; revenue increased 21.6% to $33.7 billion.

Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos, stated that “The larger market share and new customers can most likely be attributed to the retailer’s key initiative for growth: fresh food. Vasos continued “DG Fresh continues to be the largest contributor to the gross-margin benefit we are realizing from higher initial markups on inventory purchases, and we expect this benefit to grow as we continue to scale this transformational initiative”.

The fast is as Dollar General’s traditional stores that have been remodeled with coolers, the company typically sees a 4% to 5% rise in same-store sales. At its larger stores, where there’s room for 34 higher-capacity coolers, there’s a 10% to 15% rise in same-store sales.  Fresh Food Fast and for less, how is it that Kroger, Whole Foods, Publix, Walmart, and Albertsons still don’t get it?

Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® 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 us on our social media sites by clicking the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

7-Eleven Fresher Faster Delivery than from a Grocery Store

 

Consider this 7-Eleven can delivery beer, wine, milk, eggs, pizza, salads, and a new flavored Slurpee for the kids as fast as a restaurant and in most cases, and much faster than just about all grocery stores according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Partnerships matter and at 7-Eleven.  Each partnership is designed to edify a consumer touchpoint that drive incremental engagement, top line sales, and bottom-line profits according to Johnson.  Partnership can expedite customer migration, drive frequency, or speed-up new product development all creating new electricity for the brand and franchisees.

 So, get this Instacart, and 7-Eleven have expanded their partnership to an additional 4,000 U.S. store locations, enabling the nation’s largest convenience retailer to offer half hour deliveries to roughly 60 million households. That’s right the Big Bite, Big Gulp, a Pizza and a Beer can delivered to just about every household in the U.S. within 30 minutes or less.  Give it a try. 

Raghu Mahadevan, 7‑Eleven SVP and head of digital, stated, “7-Eleven strives to be the world’s leader in convenience, which means giving customers what they want, when, where and how they want it,”. “Customers on Instacart can now benefit from thousands of products to be delivered from a 7-Eleven store to their door in 30 minutes or less.”

Regular readers of this blog know that 7-Eleven began its relationship with Instacart last September with a pilot program involving 750 stores in select metro areas. Consumers can choose from thousands of products including pantry staples, household items, alcohol, snacks and over-the-counter medications in 33 states and Washington D.C. In addition, customers in California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, New York and Ohio Washington D.C. can also have alcohol delivered in as little as 30 minutes. The companies plan to scale alcohol delivery to more states and stores over the coming months.

Chris Rogers, VP of retail at San Francisco-based Instacart, stated, “As more people turn to Instacart to help put food on their tables, we’ve seen customer demand for convenience retailers increase over the last year, with convenience orders on Instacart up by more than 350% since last August,”. “To meet this growing demand, we’re proud to expand with 7-Eleven to nearly 6,000 stores, and give customers across the country access to thousands of essential goods they can now have delivered from the store to their door in as fast as 30 minutes.”

The intersection of the consumer and fresh food fast is getting blurred even more once again according to Johnson. This move is the latest example of how the definition of convenience continues to be transformed and comes amid the ongoing transformation of 7-Eleven’s physical presence.

There is no doubt that the new battleground for Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food; revolves around how quickly products can be delivered to shoppers, whether that is at home, work, or a park.  

According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new menu related 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, music, developing brands, unique urban hemp clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All 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.  How is your brand building new electricity?

We now can see that the definition of convenience includes a dimension of delivery, and more importantly, delivery speed, 7-Eleven is pressing on its proximity advantage.  7-Eleven is looking a customer ahead competing within grocery stores, restaurants, dollar stores, and new non-traditional retailers.

7-Eleven is not too big to continue evolving.  Success does leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the consumer is dynamic not static”.  Regular readers of this blog know that is the common refrain of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Our Grocerant Guru® can help your company edify your brand with relevance.  Call 253-759-7869 for more information. 

Wendy’s Chicken Flavor Everywhere is a Good Thing

 

Have you tried the new Wendy’s Spicey Chicken Sandwich? Did you like it?  Well, that flavor can be gotten off most any grocery store shelf, and according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®, that is a good thing for Wendy’s and its franchisee.

Wendy’s marketing messaging is about driving new electricity into the Wendy’s brand, garnering customer trial, product adoption, and customer migration. How is your brand building new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new menu related 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, music, developing brands, unique urban hemp clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All 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.  How is your brand building new electricity?

In a partnership with Pringles, Wendy’s has focused on Wendy's original Spicy Chicken Sandwich to garner incremental customer trial.

The result? A new line-item snack that allows you to enjoy the magic of Wendy's Spicy Chicken in a single Pringles crisp that fits just between your fingers, perfect for everyday and everywhere snacking moments and new point of distribution for Wendy’s.

Battle for Share of Stomach

Gareth Maguire, Senior Director of marketing for Pringles, stated "Our partnership with Wendy's is a match made in flavor-heaven, so we're thrilled to have another collab with an equally talked about, fan-favorite menu item". "Following the enthusiasm for Pringles Baconator, we knew we had to challenge ourselves and perfectly capture the flavor of another popular menu item. The debut of Pringles Wendy's Spicy Chicken provides a crunchy, unnecessarily genius way to enjoy the spicy, juicy deliciousness of the #1 hands down best chicken sandwich in the U.S. … in a single crisp."

Each can come’s with a code on the seal that unlocks a free spicy chicken sandwich, available with purchase via mobile order. That should drive trial.

Carl Loredo, Chief Marketing Officer for The Wendy's Company, stated, "Pringles Wendy's Spicy Chicken crisps perfectly encapsulate everything fans have come to know, love and expect from Wendy's iconic chicken sandwich." … "Wendy's fans can now enjoy our insanely flavorful Spicy Chicken Sandwich in their crisps to satisfy taste-buds until their next restaurant visit." The limited-edition Pringles Wendy's Spicy Chicken is available on shelves at retailers nationwide starting in June.

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 GrocerantGuru.com 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.