Restaurants Missing Out Once Again as Speedway turns to 7-Eleven

 

Opportunity cost is the loss of potential gain from other alternative when one alternative is chosen over another. In this case the cost of customer acquisition just went up for many restaurants trying to garner trial, customer migration, top-line sales, and bottom-line profits according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Recently 7-Eleven announced its popular Laredo Taco Company and Raise the Roost Chicken & Biscuits restaurant concepts will now be available in the greater Columbus, Ohio and Cleveland areas. Now officially open to the public, both locations are the first Speedway stores to feature the quick-serve restaurants known for serving up hot and delicious Mexican food and hand-breaded chicken.

Brad Williams, 7-Eleven senior vice president of corporate operations and restaurants, stated, “We’re excited to unveil Ohio’s first Laredo Taco Company and Raise the Roost restaurants — the first of many to come in the Midwest,” ... “These locations will continue to provide local customers with the convenience they expect from Speedway, plus great restaurant-quality dining options all in one single stop. We plan to exceed customers’ expectations with both concepts, and all the other great products and services found in Speedway stores across the country.”

In case you did not know, Raise the Roost Chicken and Biscuits restaurant is a Southern-inspired, on-the-go chicken concept. Billed as “Chicken Worth Crossing the Road For,” Raise the Roost offers a simple menu with signature and spicy chicken sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, fried chicken tender’s hand-breaded with a proprietary blend of southern spices, fresh baked flaky biscuits, and bone-in and boneless wings with signature sauces, including a house-made ranch. The Columbus unit is a 4,600-square-foot store has dine-in seating options for customers and 20 fueling positions to fuel up vehicles outside.

Once again just in case you did not know, the Laredo Taco Company restaurant offers customers authentic flavors of the Texas and Mexico border. Famous for its tacos, tortillas and expansive salsa bar, customers can find specialty tacos and meals that are not always seen in quick-serve Mexican restaurants, such as authentic barbacoa, chorizo, carne asada, carnitas and breakfast tacos.

Now I want to think about this, in addition to the food options, both Speedway locations are beverage destinations, providing customers with fresh hot and iced coffee, Big Gulp fountain drinks, iconic Slurpee drinks and more. This Speedway location also features a Beer Cave cooler with a wide selection of domestic and international beer and wine. How is you brand expanding?  Where are your customers buying branded fresh food and beverages?

That’s right, there is more, Ohioans can expect more Laredo Taco Company and Raise the Roost Chicken & Biscuits locations to appear across the state in 2022.

You should know that 7‑Eleven operates and franchises Speedway, Stripes, Laredo Taco Company and Raise the Roost Chicken and Biscuits locations. It is known for its iconic brands such as Slurpee, Big Bite and Big Gulp. However, 7-Eleven does have competitors? 

Don’t over reach. Are you ready for some fresh ideations? 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

Fresh, Fast, Food Convenience Store Speedway Focus is on Speed

Success does leave clues and while Speedway has been known for it service, fresh, fast, flavorful, grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food the roughly 3,000 unit chain continues to evolve adapting to the evolving food focused consumer according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Consumers are dynamic not static as smart phones out number land lines more and more consumers have migrated to from cash to digital payment options.  So, customers at Speedway convenience stores can now use Apple Pay at checkout elevating service once again.

Johnson stated that Speedway’s updated digital payments are outstanding as a hand held Food Marketing tool.  It is one key tools that are the undercurrents driving incremental brand adoption putting a new electricity in brand relevance for many younger consumers specifically Millennial's.

Today, new partnerships can drive sales in foodservice today as your brand is searching for the new electricity to help drive the brand forward. So, just what is your brands new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food 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, beer, developing brands, unique urban 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. 

Digital payment is big and getting bigger as Apple Pay is rolling out now in Target stores and more than 7,000 Taco Bell and 2,200 Jack in the Box locations in the next few months.  Customers can also use Apple Pay today at more than 245 Hy-Vee stores in the Midwest.

With the addition of these national retailers, 74 of the top 100 merchants in the U.S. and 65 percent of all retail locations across the country will support Apple Pay, according to the company.   Is your company keeping pace with consumers?

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, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant