Fresh & Easy it is not: but looks at the casualties in the Marketplace where Fresh & Easy is! While legacy regional chain Grocery Stores companies struggle, one example is Phoenix based Bashas Fresh & Easy with its prepared prepped component foods is making friend with consumers. Some regional chain players are excelling at Grocerant style foods that are prepped and focus on local / seasonal flavor profiles. Foods to make and serve at home received very favorable rating over all multicultural categories this is truly where the opportunity is coming from. Consumers palates are a custom to more that one flavor profile. Restaurant Brand managers are concerned more about the “Brand” than the consumer one might think. Maintaining a very narrow focus and losing consumer frequency and dollars.
While the vast majority of Convenience stores in America are franchised owned that is the largest reason many C-stores are slow to enter the Grocerant sector. Franchisee in many cases utilizes family for a work force and think low labor equates to greater profits. It is not untrue. However the chains that are privately owned focused on the consumer are garnering large share of new customer base from there Grocerant style ready to eat and ready to heat meals. The opportunity is tremendous however breaking the labor metric mentality is an entirely different issue. The focus needs to be on the unmet consumer need set, then volume and profits will follow.

The price, value, service equilibrium is resetting in Grocery stores, Restaurants and C- stores. Each is reconfiguring their ready to eat ready to heat Grocerant™ niche food product lineup. Looking for new product, packaging and consumer price points that will drive traffic. All have noticed a discontinuity in consumer food shopping behavior and all are fighting for share of stomach. Contributing to this displacement is a focus by restaurant chain leaders on short term market metrics particularly price and away from the consumer. Which in turn has caused a loss is consumer traffic as important as price might be other attributes are much more important. The consumer is turning to the grocery store hot food section (ready to eat). The problem is the grocery stores were not ready for it. The have dropped the ball, food quality is reflective of a bygone era of fried food or heat lamp food warm with few qualitative attributes. Groceries do not understand foodservice customer service in the hot food ready to eat niche! There are of course exceptions like Wegmans, Central Market, A&P and Metropolitan Market. Consumers will not stay long if things don’t improve rapidly. The battle for the consumer dollar continues in the Grocerant ready to eat ready to heat niche is on.
http://www.anything4restaurants.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/restaurant-consumer-discontinuity-the-consumer-moved-first/
Or Grocerant The Next Big Wave can be found at: http://www.foodandbeverageunderground.com/grocerants.html

Convenience Stores, Grocery Stores, Supermarkets can benefit greatly by branding and building their private label ready to eat ready to heat Grocerant™ style food. Recent comments to Convenience Stores News global research specialist The Nielsen Company CEO David Calhoun when asked about the growth of private label or store brands, “Calhoun observed that retailer brands will continue to gain at the expense of secondary and smaller brands. "U.S. retailers are still in catch up mode toward world class brand strength," said Calhoun, who added retailers’ move into store brands is "not a zero-sum game. It’s a partnership to fulfill consumer needs."
The opportunity in private label ready to eat Grocerant™ has never been better. Most organizations now have category managers and brand or product private label brand managers. Resetting of the price value quality equilibrium will benefit those whose brand established brand identity with validity. That is just what brand managers do. Grocerants the next big wave article can be found with the following link.
http://www.foodandbeverageunderground.com/grocerants.html
or additional article at:
http://www.anything4restaurants.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/restaurant-consumer-discontinuity-the-consumer-moved-first/

Does one go from Deli to Grocerant or Grocery Store to Grocerant? When the consumer cooks at home more often than not it is a component bundled meal. Delis have been packaging up ready to eat and ready to heat meals around the country many for over 50 years. Grocery stores on the other hand focused on raw ingredients, struggling with cost of distribution, and fluctuating commodity cost. The consumer does not pay specific attention to either of those cost. What the consumer pays attention to is the end price. The value that the consumer is willing to pay is higher on a prepared meal than raw ingredient. Recent studies show that the margins are substantially higher on prepped and prepared food. No matter what business your in today, you will be getting into the grocerant business soon enough. The metrics of how it works is difficult for long established companies to overcome. Department “rice blowing” will have to end the big picture will be on the end result a happy customer not which department managers wins.
http://www.foodandbeverageunderground.com/grocerants.html
http://www.anything4restaurants.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/restaurant-consumer-discontinuity-the-consumer-moved-first/

Supermarket, Restaurant, Grocery stores and Convenience stores have witnessed the rapid rise in organic foods. Grocerant style ready to eat and ready to heat food is no exception. The “organic” niche continues to widen its points of distribution and can now be found on nearly every isle at Wal-Mart. Research firm Mintel and SPINS state that sales of organic food increased 51% between 2002 and 2004 from $3.5 billion to $5.3 billion. Today the organic/sustainable push is coming in the way of Restaurant food within chain restaurants several are leading the way. Just one example is Burgerville USA located in Vancouver Washington with most units in the Portland, Oregon area is leading the way in local, fresh and authentic menu items. In the Grocery and C-store sector we are seeing more and more local, “sustainable” or organic products all the time. Organic, sustainable or local; grocery stores and C-stores will all benefit from this fresh trend and are now incorporating them into there menu mix. Incorporating the halo of sustainability into your Grocerant program is something that we look at in during our Grocerant assessment program review. For more on Grocerants read this article in food-and-beverage by Steven A. Johnson at: http://www.foodandbeverageunderground.com/food-and-beverage-magazine.html

Grocerant food from Supermarkets, Convenience Stores and Restaurants comes ready to eat or ready to heat. However Kids meals are not positioned or presented as predominately in any of those locations. That by no means that grocerant style food is not available or convenient for children. While the avenues of distribution of food continue to evolve and develop, kids meals are as well. No only are grocerant kids meals growing in popularity they can be found on line at: www.gopicnic.com/All-GoPicnic-Products/MightyMunch-Meals.
MightyMunch kids meals look fun, they sound tasty, MightyMunch says that they are kid-tested and good. What I saw on the site and like was “Each kids meal is balanced to limit overall fat, saturated fat and sugar content, and contains protein, grains & fruit as well as a sweet treat and a fun surprise. Natural ingredients are at the core of MightyMunch kids meals – our food contains no trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, artificial flavors or artificial colors. MightyMunch kids meals also have no peanut or tree nut ingredients. Every food product includes full allergen and manufacturing warnings about cross-containimation. Each food item is individually packaged and needs no refrigeration or heating – that means you can eat MightyMunch kids meals anytime, anywhere!” The fact that each packet needs nor refrigeration or heating is appealing to time starved parents. The opportunity of Grocerant style food for all segments is growing and so are the avenues of distribution. Success leaves clues and Foodservice Solutions can assist you in building a successful grocerant program starting with a ready to eat ready to heat niche program opportunity assessment.

Industry giant NPD who is now a food research leader in 9 developed countries released a report by Ann Hanson called A look into The Future of Eating on Tuesday July 7, 2009. In the press release most interesting was the note that Restaurant meals eaten in-home would rise 20 during the next ten years. This report appears to reaffirm ilk reports from The Hartman Group, and Technomic that “better for you” food and how people are eating is changing. Restaurateurs may face the largest challenges for restaurant quality style, packaging and a large variety of prepared food components that are portable are surfacing in Supermarkets, Grocery Stores and Convenience Stores. I call this trend that is obviously garnering much attention the Grocerant niche.
Restaurant quality food, prepped and portable is empowering the consumer’s choice on what and where to eat. No longer do consumers have to drive out of there way to a “destination” restaurant they can stop on the way home and pick up a variety of qualitative food components ready to eat. In the Grocerant sector the competition is heating up in Take-out & Take-Away. Bundled meal components are changing and evolving by region and family size. If you would like a strategic grocerant niche opportunity assessment leave a comment or contact Steven A. Johnson Foodservice Solutions in Tacoma, WA.