Grocerant Growth continues to fuel Foodservice Customer Migration

Regular readers of this blog remember that restaurant sector customer migration that continues today began in 2005. That was the first year in 35 that spending on food for home increased over food away from home. 

Non-traditional retailers have exploited consumers desire for fresh prepared food expanding grocerant niche food offerings while leveraging the FIVE P’s of Food Marketing garnering share of stomach from the restaurant sector; according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. 

While legacy industry consulting companies and research firm simply missed this shift in consumer focus, the team at Foodservice Solutions® did not.  These same firms to save face and protect turf want you to believe there is a universal consumer convergence within the “fast casual” sector.  Guess what?. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. If you are a food retailer and think that you only compete with restaurants, get over it.  There is a race for share of stomach in retail specifically within fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat sector by well-financed competitors. They want your customers.  The fresh prepared food sector is booming according to Nielsen’s Volume 3 of the Total Consumer Report fresh prepared food sales were up 108% last year alone. The retail food world knows it and restaurateurs you should too.

Its 4 PM: your customers are just beginning to think about what's for dinner a June 2018 FMI report found that. 65% of American consumers are unsure about what's for dinner. Time Starved Consumers are looking for high quality Ready-2-Eat foods and or Heat-N-Eat meals. Today's time starved consumer want to purchase meal components that they can bundle into a customized family meal that will please everyone without spending time cooking.  The one universal commonality driving customer trial and migration is fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food aka Grocerant niche food.

If you’re company is spending money on outdated legacy focus information based on yesterday’s metrics you will continue to lose share of stomach and share of wallet to those focused on the consumer. Fast Casual, Casual and QSR restaurant chains have all lost share to new non-traditional retailers. Don’t be fooled trying migrate into a place defined by groups that simply missed the fork in the road the consumers took.

New non-traditional points of distribution and retail food competition are opening daily and it important to be mindful of the migrating consumer. Do you know how to build sales with a grocerant focus?  We do.

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 and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Domino’s Smooth Technology Integration is ‘Better-for-You’

Integrating marketing with the ‘halo’ of better-for-you is hard to do for most food marketing teams.  However at Domino’s Pizza it stated with branded oven loaded delivery cars and today it is  driving saving pizza sales, one pothole at a time garnering attention, elevating differentiation, all while elevating branded messaging according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

We all know that cracks, bumps, potholes, and other road conditions can put good pizzas at risk after they leave the store. Now Domino’s is hoping to help smooth the ride home for our freshly made pizzas. Domino’s is asking customers to nominate their town for pothole repairs at www.pavingforpizza.com

Russell Weiner, president of Domino’s USA. “Domino’s stated “Have you ever hit a pothole and instantly cringed? We know that feeling is heightened when you’re bringing home a carryout order from your local Domino’s store. We don’t want to lose any great-tasting pizza to a pothole, ruining a wonderful meal,” Domino’s cares too much about its customers and pizza to let that happen.”

Domino’s has already worked alongside four municipalities to help repair roads that directly affect their customers, including Bartonville, Texas; Milford, Delaware; Athens, Georgia and Burbank, California. Customers interested in nominating their town for a paving grant from Domino’s can enter the zip code at pavingforpizza.com. If their town is selected, the customer will be notified and the city will receive funds to help repair roads so pizzas make it home safely.

Customers can celebrate smooth roads with Domino’s carryout special, featuring large three-topping pizzas for $7.99 each. Customers can order the carryout deal over the phone, in-store, at dominos.com, via Domino's mobile ordering apps or any one of Domino’s AnyWare platforms, including text, tweet, Google Home or Apple Watch.

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Where is your new electricity coming from?  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.

C-store Maverik’s Private Label BonFire Drives Sales

Brand messaging is very important and consistency in messaging not only edifies the customer to the brand it drives incremental value to new product introductions according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®, Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson.

Rich Green, director of foodservice for Maverik understood that Maverik BonFire brand launched in 2009 alongside a revamp of Maverik's coffee program, BonFire tied Maverik's food items together under a single identity with an adventurous theme and color-coded labels based on the type of product, such as a red flame for high-traffic hot items and a green flame for fruit and salads.

Consumers were moving on buying Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food and the team at Maverik knew it was time elevate BonFire to the next level. Enter Maverik’s new BonFire Grill made-to-order program provided a platform to capture customers searching for fresh food.

Maverik’s, BonFire Grill concept, "That effort, particularly in new stores, definitely swung the pendulum more toward foodservice," Green.  Just as the team at Maverik’s had anticipated. Here are a few of the things Maverik did to build up its foodservice program:

1.        Experimenting with creative, "out of the box" limited-time offers (LTOs), some of which became mainstays on the menu, like the M.O.A.B. (Mother of All Burritos).

2.        Reexamining what went into its products and improving the quality to become a more ingredient-based operation

3.        Hiring a new corporate chef who brought a different perspective to the business. Chef Kyle Lore spent much of his career working in fine-dining restaurants.

4.        Creating a taste profile that is spicier and more flavorful — something that differs from its competitors, which include quick-service and fast-casual outlets, as well as other convenience stores.

So, just what is next Maverik may include a made-to-order beverage program, which the company is in the initial stages of exploring. Green acknowledges that such a program is a "tough one" for the company, describing how he's observed sudden beverage orders like a made-to-order milkshake disrupt the rhythm of the kitchen.

Then Delivery as Maverik is working with third-party delivery services, such as Uber Eats or DoorDash, is also something the company is exploring. However, the logistics are more complicated than they seem, particularly when taking into account the multiple delivery services customers use and the labor necessary to fulfill delivery orders during all dayparts, Green explained. Are you ready for grocerant niche fresh food?

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

H-E-B faces the Grocery store Conundrum Restaurant or Fresh Prepared Food

Many legacy grocery stores simply do not understand the consumer according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Regular readers of this blog know that Johnson believes that category managers have destroyed the grocery shopping by looking at what was sold in the store and its profitability while ignoring what customers are buying and at what price in other retail foodservice channels. 

Consumers in Texas where H-E-B is located are just like the consumer around the US according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant ScoreCards.  The team at Foodservice Solutions® was wondering out loud why in the word did H-E-B open a restaurant ‘taco shop’ inside one of their stores.  As outside observes they speculated that H-E-B opened the restaurant because their store are simply to damn big and/or the category managers can’t find enough food to sell customers or slotting fees to break even.

The “grocerant” trend is not just about restaurant sales it is about Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food that consumers can buy in single, or family sized portions and mix and match meal components into a perfect family meal. 

It just might be time to talk about Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  That is not food that is made in a commissary and scooped out of a bucket for two weeks and sold a fresh.  Today consumers can tell the difference.  Fresh is onsite or a regional kitchen that makes and distributes fresh food daily.  It is not meant to come in sealed plastic buckets, sit on the shelf for 6 weeks then be scooped out. That is not grocerant fresh food too consumers today.

Restaurants sales per square foot range on average from $525 to $580 dollars per square foot.  Yes, there are exceptions but it does not make much of a difference if it is a fast food format, fast casual, or full service the sales per square foot remain within those average.  My point is we have no problem with what the concept is we have a problem with the fact that most grocery stores don’t first make a serious effort to integrate a quality fresh prepared food program selling meal components before opening a restaurant.

Most regular readers of this blog remember what we said when Hy-Vee opened Wahlburgers. You have to understand that Hy Vee also has very large stores kinds makes you wonder just how Hy-Vee will integrated Wahlburgers brand values into their store.  We ask after one year will Walhburgers in Hy-Vee exceed the volumes of those outside / not in Hy-Vee?

In the last 12 years there are now 47% fewer traditional grocery stores in the US.  At the same time there are now 31 restaurants in the US for every grocery store.  Restaurants have problems of their own and restaurant customer counts remain flat.  Restaurants are not the solution to solving grocery store customer migration.  Success does leave clues and the team at Foodservice Solutions® has the clues and understand that a new business model is required if legacy grocery stores intend to regain foodservice importance.  Are you looking at what you sell or do you know what your customers are eating and where and why?

So just what is your New Electricity? Success does leave clues www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  is the global leader in grocerant niche business development.  We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  Has your company had a Grocerant ScoreCard completed a Grocerant Program Assessment, or new Grocerant niche product Ideation?  Want one?  Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Salsarita’s Fresh Mexican Grill Picking up all the right Clues

The restaurant industry can prove to be a difficult platform to find success.  The simple fact of the matter is give the customers what they want and how they want it and you will find success according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Consumers will tell you what they like by their actions.  If you open a restaurant and sales continue to climb you are most likely doing all the right things.  However consumers like more than just going in to a restaurant and sitting down and enjoying dinner.  Here is one example from North Carolina based Salsarita’s Fresh Mexican Grill.

Recently a Salsarita’s Fresh Mexican Grill franchisee, Steve and Pam Stallings added a drive-thru window to their existing location in Louisville’s Middletown neighborhood. It features the chain’s new drive-thru model which also offers Mexican favorites such as five flavorful house-made salsas, custom burritos, tacos, nachos and salads made fresh to order with an extensive selection of proteins, toppings and fillings.

This location marks the third Salsarita’s drive-thru added or built to a new restaurant. Salsarita’s drive-thru’s now generate 22 percent of restaurant sales. “The Stallings have been great partners all along,” stated Phil Friedman, president and CEO of Salsarita’s Fresh Mexican Grill. “They are the highest producing sales volume franchisees in our system. The drive-thru concept will enhance sales even further and make the dining experience more convenient for their guests.”

“We’ve been really excited to grow the brand in Louisville, and this turned out to be the perfect time for us to add a drive-thru option to our existing restaurant,” said Steve Stallings. As deeply rooted residents of Louisville, the Stallings are active in their local community and host regular fundraisers at their Salsarita’s locations to benefit local charitable organizations and sports teams. 

The simple fact is drive-thru’s are not new to consumers they are increasingly in demand however. If you have a sit down, fast casual, fine fast, or full service restaurant you just might want to expand your service by giving consumers what they have grown to expect, like and even demand according to Johnson. 

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Where is your new electricity coming from?  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.

Food and Generation Z is your Brand Selling what they Want

Each generation of consumers seems to elevate demands on food retailers.  There are a set of common undercurrents including increased speed of service, delivery, bolder flavors, and foods with a ‘halo’ of better-for-you’ that have been and will continue to drive change in food retailing according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. 

Since Generation Z will make up more than 40 percent of buying power by the year 2020 if you are not focusing on them now you should start soon according to Johnson.  The generation after millennials, is Generation Z.   Gen Z is made up of those born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s.  Gen Z accounts for 25 percent of the U.S. population, making it a larger cohort than baby boomers or millennials.

The first thing that is different about this group is they like shopping in stores vs online. So I guess differentiation discovering what on the shelf. Gen Z, or Pivotals as consumer trends consultancy FutureCast also calls them, range in age from pre-tween to 21, and they already claim more than $40 billion in buying power.

Bharat Rupani, president of Interactions, which recently released its Next Generation of Retail study."Generation Z is constantly connected to technology, which retailers may find intimidating to overcome when it comes to in-store engagement. However, our study found that this group is longing for retailers to provide an engaging in-store experience. In fact, when given the choice, the majority prefer shopping in-store vs. online," 

The Interactions study continued finding that Gen Z consumers are very price-conscious and prefer to spend money on experiences vs. material items, and they are not brand loyal (81 percent are willing to switch from their favorite brand if they find a similar product at a higher quality).

Convenience Store News polled various retail, consumer and convenience industry experts and here’s what they had to say how retailers could best garner Gen Z consumers:

1.        First off, treat this consumer group like valued customers despite their young age. Go after low-hanging fruit like free Wi-Fi and clerks who greet them.

2.        Creating engaging in-store experiences are a good way to hook Gen Z. Think along the lines of snacks they can’t find anywhere else.

3.        Bolster your business with Gen Z by creating newsworthy pop-culture events around a wide variety of ethnic and international foods; Gen Z is a very diverse group.

4.        Leverage technology in ways that appeal to Gen Z, such as the availability of Apple Pay at the counter. The idea is to create a journey whereby they can get in and out without looking up much from their phones.

5.        Promote and advertise through social media; work with "influencers" as part of the strategy. Don't waste time on TV advertising as they're not really watching.

6.        Present the very best mobile shopping experience possible; pay attention to content and image guidelines from outsourced professionals, if necessary.

7.        Brace yourself and your store for 2020 when the Zs are predicted to be the driving force of the consumer world.

In a digital world retail foodservice discovery at each store is important to Gen Z.  For the retailer to win Johnson believes that retailers need to make the inside of each store digitally inclusive, interactive, and participatory.

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

Del Taco Looks to Differentiate With Two Tier Pricing and Fresh Food Fast

Fresher, faster, and more flavorful Del Taco is rebranding itself to out-position the competition in the minds-eye of the consumer before Taco Bell or Chipotle according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Del Taco’s new tagline is Fresh Mexican Grill just like McDonald’s Del Taco is betting that when you combine a two tier pricing strategy with freshness and innovative new products customer trial and migration will follow

Del Taco unveiled its system wide brand refresh which included implementing a combination of new back-of-house and guest-facing initiatives to further differentiate and separate itself in the crowded quick-serve and fast casual landscape. Initiatives included in the brand refresh are:

1.       Reimagined packaging, with a more contemporary design and color palate inspired by the brand’s Southern California heritage

2.       Hospitality initiatives, including a focus on creating more personalized interactions, such as calling guests by name vs. order number, as well as team members introducing themselves by name

3.       Redesigned panels of interior and drive-thru menu boards7

4.       Quesadilla equipment innovation designed to provide a more caramelized exterior and melty interior8

5.       Crew uniforms that celebrate the fresh preparation Del Taco teams do everyday in each restaurant

6.       New concept tagline—Fresh Mexican Grill

7.       New holistic advertising campaign, “Celebrating the Hardest Working Hands in Fast Food,” reinforcing fresh ingredient preparation, including chopping, grilling, slicing and shredding, which is prevalent across the brand’s menu items

8.       Fresh Produce Chalkboard posted in each restaurant, showcasing where produce is sourced from, when it was picked, and which team member prepared it that day

M. Barry Westrum, Del Taco’s chief marketing officer stated “The $1 Chicken Quesadilla Snacker is a perfect example of our barbell menu strategy, which highlights ingredients that are prepped fresh across our entire menu, from value to premium. It’s a Del Taco differentiator, and an attribute we’re fully leveraging, while empowering our team members to deliver a service experience that is on par with leading fast casual concepts,”

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Where is your new electricity coming from?  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.