Robotic Micro-Bakery Drives Growth with Partnerships

 

Can Robots be ‘fresh’?  If you want to grow, your food brand today you have to think outside the box. Regular readers of this bold know that the restaurant business model has evolved with consumers.  Consumers are dynamic not static and according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® “restaurants need to evolve with consumers, they must stay relevant, to be resilient.

The answer to the question is yes, robots can be fresh particularly if you’re custom branded Bake Xpress, robotic bakery.  Bake Xpress Le Bread Xpress unit announced recently that Macy’s has installed a custom-branded Bake Xpress robotic micro-bakery at its Westfield Valley Fair location in Santa Clara, Calif., offering shoppers convenient in-store meals and snacks.

So, Bake Xpress micro-bakeries are unique robotic vending solutions that offer a selection of pastries, pizza and artisan sandwiches that are freshly baked at time of order. Each food item is prepared and partially baked at a traditional bakery before being stored in the Bake Xpress refrigeration unit and then freshly baked in the machine’s smart oven when the customer places the order.

The Micro-Bakeries food is delivered hot and fresh within minutes, providing restaurant-quality food in a convenient vending solution. Bake Xpress partnered with Macy’s to create a custom menu featuring croissants, chocolate croissants, pepperoni pizza, pasta meals, sausage and ham sandwiches and calzones.

Even robots understand branding as with its full menu of fresh-baked meals and pastries, Bake Xpress complements the beverage and snack options also offered, while providing Macy’s customers with a unique, high-tech experience. Bake Xpress features a Macy’s-branded machine wrap and a custom menu selected by Macy’s to best enhance the in-store shopping experience.

Heather Stallion, Macy’s Westfield Valley Fair store manager, stated, “Food is an important part of our customer experience, and Macy’s Westfield Valley Fair is thrilled to expand the customer experience with a robotic micro-bakery,” … “As we evolve to meet our customer’s changing needs, we’re confident that Bake Xpress will be a tremendous partner by offering hearty, fresh-baked food in a fun and futuristic new way just in time for holiday shopping.”

Get this, Le Bread Xpress combined robotic, artificial intelligence (AI), sensor, wireless and heating technologies with artisan recipes to create Bake Xpress, a ground-breaking vending machine that custom bakes a variety of meals and pastries on demand.

Le Bread Xpress Founder and CEO Benoit Herve, stated, “We are excited to launch the first public Bake Xpress in the Bay Area at Macy’s Westfield Valley Fair after two years of successful operation at private corporate and university locations,”…“Bake Xpress is unique in its ability to provide hot, freshly-baked gourmet food, which sets it apart from packaged snacks in traditional vending machines. We are pleased to see our vision of applying robotics and technology to food delivery continue to gain popularity, and we are looking forward to this new partnership with Macy’s.”

With a customizable menu ranging from croissants and muffins to pizza, calzones and gourmet sandwiches, Bake Xpress is a significant upgrade to traditional vending options. Le Bread Xpress was founded in 2015 and has installed Bake Xpress micro-bakeries in universities, hotels, retail centers, factories and office parks worldwide. Is your brand ready for a robot?

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideas look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® 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 one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Macy’s New Retail Foodservice Concept

Can grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food help save Macy’s? Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® believes it is a step in the right direction, and with a formal grocerant niche focus it very well could drive customer frequency while looking a customer ahead.

Consider that Macy’s has announced that it going to close 125 stores, it is at the crossroad, where the intersection of the consumer and food when I want it, where I want it is top of mind. That said, customer relevance can be driven with a great selection of eat in or take out mix & meal component selections.

Regular readers of the blog know that Millennials are focused on food discovery, and convenience.  So, the new Market by Macy’s with in-store Herald cafe and event center hopes to be more than a retail shopping space it aims to be an experience that foodies will migrate too.

Market by Macy’s, has created what it called a “20,000-square-foot immersive shopping experience that includes Herald, Market by Macy’s cafe that serves breakfast, lunch and snacks daily along with craft cocktails, beer and wine.”

So get this, the food is presented and served on merchandise that is available for purchase within the cafe, featuring brands such as Macy’s Hotel Collection. Areas of Herald are accented by exclusive home favorites, including Martha Stewart Collection copper bakeware and handmade discoveries like Katie Kimmel’s ceramics. Johnson, likes the idea as it is both interactive and participatory.

Lauren Vocelle, manager of media relations for Macy’s Inc. South Region stated “Shoppers can dine in at Herald or grab and go,” …Market by Macy’s is also hoping to lure shoppers with the increasingly popular sip-while-you-shop trend. “Food items are sold within Herald at Market by Macy’s, but shoppers are welcome to bring their coffee or cocktail with them as they shop throughout the store,” Vocelle said.

Are you looking a customer ahead? 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 and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

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

Competition for Food Relevance Heats Up Among Retailers

Restaurants, Grocery Stores, Convenience Stores, Dollar Stores are battling Ikea, Costco Wholesale, Ralph Lauren, and Nordstrom’s for a larger Share of Stomach according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.   Established food retailers and start-up fresh food retailers both strive to create or maintain consumer relevance while evolving their own food brands.  Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® believes that the following ten clues to build a contemporized food brand can help any food retailer maintain relevance.

Purpose:   Why you are there contemporized relevance! The most successful brands are inclusive include values greater than themselves. A lifestyle, a philosophy, an emotion a point in time today that means better for you.

A story: Most major brands have a story. Examples: if you like Ford vehicles, you might be familiar with the story of Henry Ford or if you love your Nike's, you probably know how the Nike swoosh logo was created.

Consumer interaction: When your business is first starting out, don't fool yourself into believing that your marketing efforts are 'brand building' efforts. They're not because to build a real brand, you have to have an extensive track record with consumers. Consumer will build the brand and the story for you.

Trust: When you've consistently delivered for your customers long enough, you'll gain the type of trust that many brands have.  Would you buy a Toyoda today? Maybe so, but how long do they have to rebuild that trust?

Consistency:  When a consumer chooses a product or service because of brand association, he or she is buying an expectation. Perhaps it's the expectation that the branded product is of higher quality or that the service will be provided in a more efficient manner. The expectation must be met time after time.

Differentiation: Expectation is often borne of differentiation. Many brands offer products and services that are commodities but they're successful in developing some differentiation for their products and services that consumers are sold on.

Battle for Share of Stomach

Imitators: Imitation is the sincerest of flattery and you're probably not a 'brand' until you have competitors trying to copy you. Do what you do best and lead your niche don’t follow.

Market leadership: Top brands are usually looked at as leaders in the markets they compete in. Own the space, and understand why you do.

Grow:  The best brands are flexible and capable of reshaping and reinventing themselves and their messages over time. Brands are either growing or dying. Consumers are not static!  Your brand must be dynamic and grow, change and adapt over time.

A strong marketing presence: The information super highway is evolving; your message must follow the traffic.  Don’t get stuck on the road less traveled

For corporate presentations, confidential engagements, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions at: Linkedin.com/in/grocerant Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Yesterday you were Shopping, Cooking, Doing Dishes Today Grocerant Fresh Food is for Dinner

What’s for Dinner? You know that question your kids ask you to many times a day and you ask yourself more times than you ever dreamed possible.  Well, at the intersection of daily task and the family dinner is a set of tasks including shopping, cooking and doing dishes that most consumers believe consumes way too much time according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Today, 82.3% of family dinners service at home included at least one fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh meal component according to the latest Grocerant ScoreCard conducted by the team at Foodservice Solutions®.  Consumer migration from legacy chain restaurants for dinner, grocery stores, is painfully clear in the decline of 51.3% reduction in the number of legacy grocery stores over the past 12 years and the prolonged year over year decline in restaurant sector customer counts.

Saving time continues to be the number one key driver of retail foodservice customer migration from one platform to another according to Johnson.  Second, is the lack of cooking skill-set to prepared the multi-ethnic full-flavored foods consumers have been introduced to and enjoy.

While technology innovations, media innovations, and consumer behavior continue to evolve our eating habits specifically where we eat and when we eat have continued to evolve and 73.6% of consumers now report they prefer eating dinner at home in front of the TV. 

Watching live sporting events, playing games, even watching the news has gain momentum as a driver in what consumers want to watch while eating dinner.  While employee commuting times continue to grow in length, so do options for children’s activities after school shrinking the time available for preparing dinner.

The undercurrent commonality within the retail food sector migration from all age groups is discovery.  The pure joy of finding a Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat meal or meal component in a new avenue of distribution the ilk of Ikea, Costco, Macy’s or from a full-service chain restaurant.

There is a solution to the age or question that is asked all to often ‘What’s for Dinner’.  That solutions is fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat meals or meal components that can be bundled into a Mix & Match prefect family meal.

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

Kohl’s & Aldi Customer Commonality Equals Partnership

Success does leave Clues and understanding your customers is a clue that Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® at the top of your list. When sales are lagging more often than not it’s because you are not listening, seeing, or understanding your customers well enough according to Johnson.

Kohl’s is showing signs of renewed strength as its Q4 earnings per share (EPS) came out to $1.99, well ahead of the $1.77 estimated. Revenue was $6.78 billion as opposed to the $6.74 billion expected by Wall Street, and same-store sale growth was up 6.3 percent compared to the anticipated 5.7 percent.

Kohl’s CEO Kevin Mansell in a statement that they are “committed to rethinking how it uses physical spaces, right-sizing its retail footprint and considering how to rent portions of its stores to grocery and convenience stores, among other options. The company revealed during its earnings call that it would tap grocery retailer Aldi as its first partner to sublet space in downsized stores.”  Kohl’s may have found its ‘new electricity’ to fuel traffic while reducing its footprint overload according to Johnson.

The simple fact is Kohl’s has a common understanding about today’s customers just like Aldi Kohl’s understands that “poor people must save and rich people like to”.  It’s that consumer commonality that has positioned Kohl’s to entice Aldi to lease space in some of its locations. Aldi is a master of success utilizing non-traditional locations and garnering customers from every walk of life into their stores.

Kohl’s Aldi partnership me be the right fuel to drive new electricity into Kohl’s top line sales and bottom line profits according to Johnson.  In the minds-eye of Johnson, there is one dominate element that will power success within retail and foodservice over the coming years and that is partnerships.

Johnson calls it the new electricity that is partnerships specifically strategic partnerships.   The new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh food, grocerant consultants, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, cash-less payments, digital hand held marketing.

Retailers the ilk of Kohl’s to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable in some form.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  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.