Everytable Expands the Halo of ‘Better-4-You’ into Industry Disruption

 

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® was one of the very first food industry insiders to write about, talk about and commend the team at Everytable for their food offering and company focus. Back in the day, Everytable (2015) concept focus was to bring healthful grab-and-go food to lower-income neighborhoods at an accessible price that has now grown into an omnichannel fresh prepared food business with big plans for expansion, and they did a good job of that.

Today, Everytable has 13 retail outlets offering grab-and-go meals in Los Angeles. So, get this, in 2022, that number will grow to 60, expanding throughout Southern California and moving to New York City for the first time. The concept also has a booming e-commerce business offering meals for delivery, as well as a subscription service. Technology matters and Everytable will be adding a new app will launch this year for ease of ordering and cashless payment in stores.

Even further, Everytable is growing its more than 100 unmanned Smart Fridges in sites like hospitals or schools with fresh food offerings. The company has partnered with city agencies to feed seniors and folks in temporary housing programs. And Everytable is planning to expand catering in 2022, offering large-format meals for business meetings or events.

Success does leave clues and it now looks as if, 2022 will be the year the first group of franchisees graduate from Everytable University and take ownership of their own stores after going through a rigorous training program that includes coursework on leadership — from financial management to dealing with the loneliness that can come with being an entrepreneur.

A different business model at Everytable is sure to garner industry attention; as those approved will, be able to open units with no up-front costs removing what is often an insurmountable hurdle. Traditional franchising can require operators to bring as much as $2 million upfront.

That’s right no up-front cost, at the center of this franchising initiative, which today has six franchisee candidates, is Christine Hasircoglu, Everytable’s senior vice president of store operations, who has been with the company for almost five years since Everytable was a team of five.

This model may not be for you, but it just might be for a lot of other new companies that are looking for quality people and want to grow according to Johnson. Now, Hasircoglu’s challenge is not only building a vertically integrated food production, and delivery system that makes healthful food available at a price lower than fast food, but also working to put ownership and leadership of that system in the hands of women and minorities.

Christine Hasircoglu, stated, “When you look at women and minorities in our industry, it’s oversaturated at the frontline hourly work level. But as you ascend the ranks, their representation decreases”. “So, when you get to the executive level, the percentage of minorities and women in those roles is low. My big idea is to level up the next generation of hospitality leadership and talent in our industry with the goal of redistributing power and wealth by creating pathways to ownership and pathways to leadership.”

It gets even more interesting, when you consider that working with Hasircoglu is Bryce Fluellen, executive director of social equity franchises, who joined Everytable in September 2020. Previously a regional director for Starbucks who later worked with Magic Johnson Enterprises’ restaurant operations (Starbucks and TGI Fridays), Fluellen cofounded a catering business and worked with the American Heart Association on community education before joining Everytable.

Fluellen believes the Everytable model can transform franchising the same way it intends to disrupt the food system.

In a Battle for Share of Stomach

Will you be Competitive in 5 Years?

Fluellen, stated, “It’s not easy to bring something to life that you see and no one else sees, but I like to be in those situations”. “Three or four years from now, we will have franchisees who not only are successful in their one store, but may have multiple stores, are able to have economic mobility and create wealth for their families, and are able to have a dream of buying a house or investing money and having money saved. That’s when I feel like I’ll be successful.”

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.

Technology is replacing Front-line Foodservice Employees

 

Consumers are dynamic not static. Chain restaurants continue to look for ways to reduce cost and drive up profits while providing an incremental service, specifically for time-starved consumers seemingly always on the run according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Today remote service models are a proactive tool used my marketers to reduce menu ticket time, ordering times, and wait times according to Johnson and a success clue for 2021.  Technology is the platform of choice for remote services models, these are connectivity and limited data sharing, proactive service models, next to connectivity, more extensive data sharing and an intelligent correlation engine are needed.

Think about restaurant technology the way consumers do.  When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 91.1 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 83.6 chose meal components. So, getting the order, in and out the door is much the same.  Today, it simply needs to be driven more by technology then people.

 Technology that empowers consumer to solve their own pain-point the ilk of ‘self-service app or kiosk is quickly turning into a mission-critical process for consumers and retailers alike. This places much higher demands on self-service uptime and availability.

Think about it, by removing the buffer of the store associate, when a system failure occurs it will be first discovered by the consumer, which creates a tremendous loss of trust in the solution itself. So, self-service consumer journeys must be always available nonstop, full stop.

That said its easier said than done, since retailers are usually working with a diverse set of hardware and software solutions—typically provided by a wide array of disparate technology vendors. This leads to complexities in managing the end-to-end solution.

For international retailer’s operations, the puzzle is even more complicated: How to create operational standards on a multi-national scale while ensuring the swift delivery of local support services that truly understand the solutions?

Today, consumers increasingly expect a seamless, personalized and hassle-free shopping trip. Having the right self-service devices readily available in store significantly contributes to positive consumer experiences. Device availability has become a KPI for success. This means retailers no longer want to hold their service providers accountable for individual time-to-fix SLAs, as the technology should simply be up and running at all times!

 According to a recent survey Nielsen1, “73% of shoppers are very interested in—or already use—some sort of solution to call a staff member directly to the shelf where they need help. When asked about annoying shopping experiences like waiting in a queue or finding an item out-of-stock, 77% of shoppers indicated they would prefer to self-scan their items, and 78% would like to be able to check item availability online before going to the store.”

In order to meet their clientele’s requirements, retailers need to support and implement solutions that put the consumer in control. In this respect it is worthwhile to mention that, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic many store owners have—almost overnight—implemented various self-service measures to reduce interactions between shoppers and staff.

Think about contactless payments, self-scanning items in store, online ordering, or curb-side pickups; all are examples of low-touch ways to conduct shopping that are suddenly being used by large groups of consumers. It is likely that many of these measures were originally meant for temporary use, but will actually remain in place, because they are more efficient, and because they increase the shoppers’ overall in-store experience. What will your business platform look like next year? Will you look more like you did in 2018 or will you be looking a customer ahead? Partnerships matter.

Looking for success clues of your own? Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  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

Will Grocery store Fresh Prepared Food Evolve in 2021

 

Once again looking a customer ahead grocery store grab-and-go, Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat grocerant niche fresh prepared food can be the go to platform that takes the stress out of cooking a family dinner in 2021 according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  That is, if grocery stores evolve from 5-gallon shovel ready buckets of prepackaged food, to fresh prepared.

While Foodservice Solutions® recent Grocerant ScoreCards indicate that 88 percent of Americans feel stressed celebrating the holidays, with 30 percent dreading cooking a holiday meal. So, guess where they searched for mix and match meal component options?  Well according to Johnson, consumers are turning to the service deli at their local grocery store, with an undercurrent of disappointment.

Eric Richard, education coordinator for the International Dairy Deli Bakery Association (IDDBA) stated that “Side dishes play an important role in connecting with today’s shoppers, who are looking for prepared foods,” “It’s really important for supermarkets to know what their consumers want in terms of different flavors and tastes from their prepared foods.”

What grocery retailers are now elevating side dishes that complement not only holiday dinners but dinner every night? Mix and Match meal components bundling are key takeout fresh food sales.  If you are a grocery retailer with a desire to garner restaurant customers it’s time to up your fresh food game.

Our Grocerant Guru® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant

A&W Renewed Success Clue

Legacy brands don’t become legacy brands by doing nothing.  In fact one success clues that Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® reminds regular readers of this blog is “consumers are dynamic not static and brands must be as well”.

A&W restaurants have been around since 1919. That’s right 1919. You cannot survive over 101 years if you do not evolve.  Well guess what.  Rethinking its growth strategy, A&W entered the C-store sector and guess what happened?

Same-store sales at A&W Restaurants’ franchised gas and convenience store locations jumped by double digits in June, although Americans were driving fewer miles and buying less gas than usual. Sales at A&W’s more than 90 C-store locations were up 10.5 percent, following an 8.3 percent increase in May. They were an average of 11 percent higher during the January-February period before falling off in March and April, the result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The strong performance comes as the iconic brand prepares to expand its convenience store and travel center presence from coast to coast with eight new franchised locations. 

“At a time when Americans were staying off the road, it’s remarkable that sales at A&W convenience store locations were so strong,” says CEO Kevin Bazner. “This shows the tremendous value that A&W brings to C-stores and travel centers.”

“A&W truly is an all-American business opportunity that performs very well in all areas of the country,” Bazner added. He noted that in a recent national poll of 15,000 respondents, 74% had eaten at an A&W.

To help new C-store owners succeed, A&W is lowering royalties in the first year of all new franchise agreements from the standard 5% to 3%. Second-year royalties are 4%. Initial fees on multi-unit agreements also are being discounted.

System-wide, A&W experienced double-digit comp-store sales growth in May and June, despite nearly all dining rooms being closed due to coronavirus. Average unit sales have increased by 38 percent since franchisees acquired the company from YUM! Brands in 2011.

“The pandemic is sadly forcing many stores, as well as independent and other chain restaurants, to close permanently,” Bazner says. “We expect more new franchisees will capitalize on these real estate opportunities and convert facilities that once housed other restaurant brands or businesses to A&Ws.” How are you evolving?

Foodservice Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits. Are you looking a customer ahead? Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Will Positive Buzz, Customer Trial, Drive Sales for Burger King

Say good-by to the Angry Whopper, the M&M Shake, and hello Impossible Whopper.  Burger King has stepped up, to stand-out and Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® thinks it’s about time.

The Burger King marketing team has reason to be angry as the LTO’s have not been up to industry standards rather than creating a platform to drive sales recent LTO’s results seem to have missed the mark as year over year same-store sales rose just 0.4% domestically in the quarter ended March 31, and 2.2% globally.

Consumers are not angry, they are disappointed with the status quo and both the M&M Shake and Angry Whopper were just that. Angry, not the customers they were simply unimpressed.  When Burger King announced that it plans to expand its Impossible Whopper nationally by the end of the year, the marketing team knew the time had come to move beyond the status quo.

Burger King reported that the impossible burger test generated 6 billion media impressions. They said that the product was increasing sales and not taking away orders from its existing Whopper. Consumers are looking for differentiation in products, yet they want familiarly according to Johnson. The Impossible burger does just that with the ‘halo’ of better-for-you’ and better-for-the-environment according to Johnson.

Josh Kobza, chief operating officer for Restaurant Brands International, stated “ delivery is both “highly incremental” and “profitable” for the company’s restaurants. “I think our outlook is to continue to grow coverage over the coming quarters and years, and probably to expand the sources from which we take orders over time,”

Burger King franchisee just might be ready for the status quo to move forward.  Will the Impossible Whopper, Burger King do that?  The team at Foodservice Solutions® thinks that this is a very good start.  Does your brand look more like yesterday than tomorrow?  Success does leave clues and status quo marketing will not drive incremental business.  That is the success clue for today.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us 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:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

No Beef as consumers focus on Protein

Where’s the beef? Was the tagline made famous by Wendy’s back in the day.  In an era of transparency consumers are looking at labels and asking for products with protein not just beef according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Millennials continue to seek food discovery and greater innovation is taking place with plant based protein’s and the industry is marketing them as NOT just for vegetarians and vegans anymore.

“Growing consumer interest in health, sustainability and ethics is propelling plant-derived ingredients and products into high popularity, according to Innova Market Insights. Gravitation toward plant-based diets in general, along with interest in vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian lifestyles and concerns over animal welfare, are contributing factors.”

Four in 10 U.S. consumers increased their consumption of meat substitutes/alternatives during 2017, according to The NPD Group. And plant-based dairy alternatives are expected to comprise 40 percent of the total dairy/dairy alternatives market by 2021, reports market research firm Packaged Facts.

David Sprinkle, research director for Packaged Facts  stated “Vegetarians and vegans together account for less than 15 percent of all consumers and their numbers do not grow very rapidly, but a growing number of consumers identify themselves as flexitarian and lessitarian, meaning they’ve cut back on their consumption of animal-based foods and beverages,”  “It is this group that is most responsible for the significant and ongoing shift from dairy milk to plant-based milk.”

Battle for Share of Stomach

In-home consumption of plant-based proteins has grown by 24 percent since 2015, according to NPD. The heaviest users of plant-based foods are more convenience-oriented than others, the global information company found.

“The plant-based foods industry has gone from being a relatively niche market to fully mainstream,” said Michele Simon, executive director of the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA), which represents plant-based food companies.

2018 marked the second year that PBFA released Nielsen retail sales data. In July, the trade association that represents 114 of the nation’s leading plant-based food companies released new data showing robust sales in the plant-based foods industry, with dollar sales growth of 20 percent over the last year and sales now topping $3.3 billion. Comparatively, overall food sales growth is around just 2 percent.

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 Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or www.twitter.com/grocerant/

The Grocerant

Top of the day to you! By way of introduction I am Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru at Tacoma, Washington based Foodservice Solutions. This blog focus is on my specialty: GROCERANTS.

 A grocerant is a result of the blurring of the line between restaurants and grocery stores aimed at the time-starved consumer with ready-2-eat  or heat-N-eat fresh prepared food components that can be bundled into a meal.

Grocerant food refers to any retail food item that is ready-2-eat or heat-N-eat  / reheat sold in a Grocery store, Convenience store or Restaurant To-go via Drive-thru or Take Away format.  Traditionally these items can be found in grocery stores  in the deli / lifestyle section,  C-stores in the prepared food area and prepackaged, ready to eat items and in restaurants under the To-go, takeout or Drive-thru  or delivery  section of the menu or on the website.

However around the world we are now seeing sections in department’s stores and kiosk in malls in Europe and Asia and airports around the world.   The 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. 

Having followed this area for 12 years, I am now mad as hell at the quality, presentation and packaging options now being exhibited. I waked into a grocery store the other day they had macaroni and cheese with a harden crust that was so undesirable I did not want to by a can of peas it the store! This has to change! My goal is to assist the industry in elevating the quality, presentation and packaging of ready to eat and ready to heat foods.

Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us ,Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development leverage out Outside Eyes for inside Profits. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy.