NORR Kitchen a Portland, OR Grocerant

 

If you picture great food looking good you might be thinking about NORR Kitchen, that opened today in Portland, Oregon. Developed by a group of collective passionate creatives. Consider that NORR Kitchen was a production studio turned eatery, originally designed for creating, testing, and video-graphing beautiful cuisine.

The NORR Team wanted to share their passion not only in pictures but in dishes for the community to enjoy at home, at the office or in NORR’s production studio in the heart of downtown Portland. Its clear that’s why they are focusing on elevated grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

NORR Kitchen founder Christiann Koepke, stated, “We built NORR Kitchen to expand from digital work inside our four walls to also bring incredible food to the Portland community around us,” …. “This has allowed us to provide multiple offerings including on-site and off-site catering, multi-course ticketed dinners, and take-out and delivery services through a delicious and dynamic menu.”

Matt Hobbs, best known as chef de cuisine at Rosa Rosa, and previously as executive sous chef at the Michelin-starred Blue Duck Tavern in Washington, D.C., has been tapped as executive chef and director of culinary operations at NORR Kitchen. It’s clear they have a talented team.

While at Rosa Rosa Hobbs garnered a deep understanding of the Portland palate, Hobbs will hand-craft starters, entrees, and desserts made with seasonal ingredients, local sources and innovative preparations. The goal is to have dishes will be as delicious as they are beautiful, aligning seamlessly with the NORR Team’s elevated culinary vision and aesthetic.

“We look at the food we make from so many perspectives; it needs to look beautiful, taste extraordinary, and be life-enhancing. The experience should make our customers’ lives both easier and more delightful,” says Hobbs.

So, when you take your next trip to Portland, you can find NORR located at 920 NE Glisan St. NORR Kitchen’s take-out and delivery menu will showcase elevated and updated versions of well-loved classics and regional specialties while always paying attention to sustainable ingredients and ethical sources.

The menu selection will be updated regularly as the culinary team and NORR Kitchen founder Christiann Koepke, explore seasonality and inspiring cultural trends. Highlights include:

·         White Truffle Garlic Bread with fresh Ricotta, Buffalo Mozzarella, Grand Padano, and herbs

·         Smoked Tomato Arancini with Smoked Tomato Risotto, Basil, Scamorza, Parmesan Reggiano, and Pomodoro Sauce

·         Tuscan Kale Salad with Crispy Chickpeas, Pear, Almond, Pancetta, Aleppo Pepper and Parmesan Vinaigrette

·         Ditalini with Pork Fennel Sausage, Rapini, Seasonal Squash, Parmesan Cream, and Aleppo Chili Oil

·         Olive Oil Cake with Lemon Ricotta Whipped Cream, Seasonal Fruit and Pistachios

NORR Kitchen’s takeout and delivery will be available Wednesday through Sunday from 10.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. and the weekly menu will be available online and on Instagram with weekly specials to be announced each week. Take-out orders can be placed by phone for pick up or delivery through Door Dash and Postmates.

Talk about being in the center of the grocerant niche, NORR Kitchen also caters events of all sizes both on and off-site. Catering inquiries can be made by calling 503-941-0407 or emailing hello@norrkitchen.com. Intimate ticketed, chef-led dinners inside the studio are planned for phase two of the NORR Kitchen experience. Details on dinners will be forthcoming soon.

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

Rite Aid Evolving with a Fresh Food Focus

 

Retailer after retailer find that evolving with consumers pays off in the long run. Consumers are dynamic not static and retailers must be as well.  Demand for grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food had created new growth for many a retailer as regular readers of this blog know.

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® believes that Rite Aid will benefit from its new partnership with Uber Eats garnering new electricity for its food, beverage, and snacking offerings. So, how is your branding extending your brand invitation this fall?

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.”  That said, what are you waiting for?

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, 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. 

So, when Rite Aid announced the expansion of its partnership with Uber Eats to offer same-day delivery of grocery and healthcare products the undercurrents of customer demand were once again in play.

Get this, now on-demand delivery is now available for 2,185 Rite Aid drugstores across 17 states on Uber Eats. Customers who wish to order Rite Aid items for delivery open the Uber Eats app, tap the convenience or pharmacy icons, select Rite Aid, and begin shopping. Within the app, users can access a full catalog of healthcare and grocery products from their local Rite Aid store. Uber Pass and Eats Pass customers will also enjoy no delivery fee and 5% off on all orders over $15.

Battle for Share of Customer Dollars

Jim Peters, chief operating officer of Rite Aid, stated, “Consumer shopping preferences are changing, so we are continuing to evolve our retail business to ensure customers are able to conveniently get what they need to keep their family happy and healthy – whether they visit us in-store or buy online,” ... “By adding Uber as a delivery option, we are doubling down on an omnichannel approach that complements the busy lives of our customers. Ensuring convenient access to whole health essentials enables us to live our purpose of helping people achieve whole health for life.”

So, Uber Eats now becomes Rite Aid’s latest partner for on-demand delivery service for front-of-store products. The Camp Hill, Pa.-based drugstore chain has offered same-day delivery of groceries and OTC health products at all of its stores through Instacart under a partnership announced just over a year ago. This past May, Rite Aid teamed up with DoorDash for same-day delivery of nonprescription health, wellness and convenience products. And most recently in August, Rite Aid joined with Shipt nationwide to offer delivery in as soon as an hour.

Raj Beri, Uber’s global head of grocery and new verticals at Uber Technologies, stated, “Convenience is a key component of Uber’s delivery strategy, allowing us to create a seamless delivery experience by ensuring we have the essential stores and products customers need," said. "With our partners at Rite Aid, we're thrilled to make shopping for everything from cold medication to cosmetics more 'convenient' than ever."

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

What’s New in Food Marketing? Menu Subscriptions

 

Millennials and Gen Z continue to seek new avenues of food discovery and one of the best that Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® has recently come across targeting digital natives Gen Z and Millennials is a ‘secret’ menu subscription.

This could very well be the next big thing according to Johnson.  Right now, you have to live in or be visiting either Los Angeles, Orange County or Dallas, TX but Johnson is sure that this subscription service is sure to grow.  So, whether you’re diving into delicious queso and margaritas at a chic Tex-Mex restaurant or indulging in premium brisket at an authentic Texas barbecue joint, it’s no secret that Dallas’ vibrant, diverse culinary scene is one-of-a-kind, and so is this service.

Dallas, TX is home to Off The Menu Club, a popular subscription service that offers local foodies an exclusive new way to discover more restaurants – and in-the-know menu items – throughout the area. Yes, currently the service is only available in Los Angeles and Orange County, Off The Menu (OTM) Club made its Dallas debut on Sunday, Sept. 26.

What does this service cost? It’s just $20 a month. For that, $20 members receive one complimentary secret menu item per day from a list of carefully curated establishments that partner with Off The Menu. Every Sunday, new restaurants are released on the OTM app featuring seven new secret menu items. 

To become a member, Dallasites can join the waitlist at offthemenuco.com/dallas. When the app officially launches, those on the list will receive an invitation code to register and share with friends. As soon as the subscription is activated, it’s time to eat! Members simply show the phone app to their server to redeem the featured, free menu items. 

Our Grocerant Guru® thinks this is a deal all Gen Z, Millennials and Foodies will want to get in on from the start, both to lock in the introductory $20 subscription price and to enjoy exciting new items – like a buffalo chicken pizza bagel, strawberry waffle with fried chicken, spicy fajita grilled cheese and more – from a wide variety of local favorites such as Christie’s Sports Bar, Dahlia on Ross, Harper’s, The Rustic and more. 

Founder and CEO Lawrence Longo, stated, “Off The Menu has developed a cult-like following since we first launched in LA, so we can’t wait to expand to another awesome foodie city like Dallas and show everyone what our unique membership is all about,” ... “OTM Club is the golden ticket to enjoying a rare dining experience at popular local restaurants and under-the-radar eateries you may not have tried yet. At just $20 per month, members can enjoy a different secret menu item every day at some of the most popular eateries across the area. We look forward to giving our members even more reason to explore Dallas’ amazing food scene.” 

So, the Off The Menu Club will initially showcase restaurants across Dallas proper and surrounding suburbs, like Plano, Addison and Frisco. Plans are already underway to expand the Club’s coverage to other cities across the Lone Star State, including Fort Worth. 

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

Battle for Share of Stomach

Fresher Faster Grocerant Food via Vroom Delivery

Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat grocerant niche fresh food has a new platform that speeds up service, delivering fresh food fast.  That platform is call Vroom Delivery and according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® it is “an elevated step in the food delivery process that is long over do.”

So, get this, Vroom Delivery is now enabling convenience stores to automatically route orders between multiple third-party delivery services on an order-by-order basis, based on cost, speed and serviceability.

How does it work you ask? Well, this follows Vroom's addition of national last-mile delivery service Skipcart to its platform, joining DoorDash Drive and robot delivery service Tortoise.

Now, Vroom's fulfillment management tools can now direct orders to multiple providers automatically so that when an order is received, the delivery brokerage service recommends the best third-party service based on the delivery location and driver network availability.

Any food retailer and C-stores can also choose to deliver some orders with their own drivers and utilize Vroom's proprietary driver app

This is important as it will bring down both the average fulfillment cost and delivery times of orders relative to traditional third-party marketplaces, according to the company. Vroom will add additional third parties to its network to expand the efficiency of its offering.

Vroom CEO John Nelson, stated, "The high cost of delivery and the lack of control of customer data on the third-party marketplaces are the two biggest complaints we hear from stores," ... "With the addition of Skipcart and our automated brokerage service, we aim to solve both of these issues through our platform."

Pay attention to this, your deliveries are fully ‘white labeled’, ensuring that the entire process remains self-contained within retailers' proprietary apps and websites. Stores retain access to their customer data, automate their price-book maintenance through Vroom's back-office integrations and have direct communication with their customers.

So, it simple by partnering with Vroom to manage the ordering and payment processes, the cost of the third-party fulfillment to stores will be dramatically reduced, as the stores are able to set the delivery fees charged to customers to offset some or all the cost of the third-party deliveries, the company said.

What does our Grocerant Guru® think?  Well, he suggests you check out Chicago based, Vroom Delivery.  Vroom is a full-stack e-commerce solution platform, providing every technical aspect required for chains to operate and manage their own e-commerce and delivery services.

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. 

The Restaurant Business Model has Evolved

 

Does your restaurants business model look more like 2005, 2015, or 2022? Once again shifting demographics, work form home, technology, and yes, the COVID, have combined to create and undercurrent of change that no one would have predicted five years ago. 

Maybe this was one, yes, our very own Grocerant Guru® who pontificated on the convergence of shifting demographics, work from home, technology and grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food delivery. However, he never in his wildest dreams considered a deadly pandemic.

What was forecast was how both Millennials and Gen Z were digital natives, in search for food discover and that delivery would more to the forefront. When he started pontificating it was 1996. Back in the day our Grocerant Guru® consulted for and was working with companies like cyberslice, cybermeals, Food.com and Webvan.  His journey has been non-stop since as most of you know.

In new research according to the 2021 edition of the "Restaurant Readiness Index," a collaboration between Paytronix Systems Inc. and PYMNTS shows just how far the restaurant industry has moved.

The found that “67 percent of average restaurant sales generated by orders placed digitally or by phone for off-premises dining.”

That means that “remote food orders now generate most of the average restaurant's revenue, the extent to which restaurants rely on remote vs. on-site sales varies based on the type of restaurant in question. Sit-down restaurants generate more in-person sales than quick-service restaurants (QSR) at 40 percent vs. 25 percent, respectively. This underscores how important digital food sales have become since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report found.”  We note here that 68+% of all fast-food orders are now sold through the drive thru.   

According to the study findings, online orders account for at least 40 percent more revenue than phone orders for the average restaurant and orders placed by phone call generate just 28 percent of total restaurant sales. Aggregators alone generate 16 percent of the average restaurant's revenue, but mobile order-ahead is close behind, totaling 14 percent of the average restaurant's revenue.

Other findings include: 

·         Remote food orders are now restaurants' primary source of revenue, with the average QSR generating as much as 75 percent of sales from orders made online or over the phone. Online orders account for 40 percent more revenue than phone orders to the average restaurant, and aggregators drive more revenue than any other digital ordering channel.

·         Remote vs. on-site sales varies with the type of restaurant. QSRs generate more off-premises sales than sit-down restaurants. Food orders placed and eaten on-site generate 25 percent of the average QSR's total sales but 40 percent of the average sit-down restaurant's total sales.

·         Remote orders vary by channel. The average restaurant now generates 16 percent of its total sales via aggregator, 14 percent of its sales via mobile order-ahead, and 10 percent of its sales via desktop website. 

The full report is available for download here.   We ask once again what are you selling, to whom, and how? Are you ready to look a customer ahead? The Grocerant Guru® has been leading the industry insights for Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food for 26 years?  Maybe its time to talk.

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

Combine Snacks, Fresh Food, Beverages and more GoPuff Growth is Grocerant Great

 

Restaurant chains are closing stores, grocers are blaming the cost of labor for store closures, convenience stores are reshuffling their fresh food line-up to focus on daypart customers customer visit shifts; all the while Gopuff is adding more fulfillment centers garnering a larger share of stomach from all of the above.

According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® “it is at the intersection of technology, food discovery, and American’s never-ending desire for instant gratification that has help propel great growth at Gopuff.”

While Americans Consumers have a deep affection for breakfast, with three in five Americans (62 percent) saying breakfast is their favorite meal of the day and more than half (56 percent) saying they love breakfast food more now than they did a year ago. That meal is now most often consumed at home.

Thus, opening the door for Gopuff to extend its delivery daypart options for snacks, fresh food, beverages, and incremental grocerant niche related products as Gopuff knows that:

 

1.       Recent Grocerant ScoreCards found 82.3% of consumers don’t know what’s for dinner at Noon, and 61.1 don’t know what’ s for dinner at 4PM %.

2.       83.1% all dinners have at least 1 grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal component and 68.4% have two meal components.

3.       When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 90.4 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 82.7% chose meal components.

4.       Seventy-three percent of retail prepared food purchases are taken to go

5.       Prepared food purchases are frequently a planned purchase among 59% of shoppers, while 41% of shoppers said they buy prepared foods on impulse. Dinner has the highest amount of prepared food buys with 79% of respondents making purchases for that meal, while lunch comes in at 77% and breakfast at 62%.

6.       55% of consumers would like to try autonomous EV delivery

Now eight years after launching, Gopuff continues to grow not only in geographical reach but in product reach as well. Recently, Gopuff co-founder and co-CEO Yakir Gola stated that Gopuff is adding 40 or 50 micro-fulfillment centers every month while entering new categories as well.

When a student at Drexel University, Gola and co-founder Rafael Ilishayev launched the startup as a way to get late-night snacks without running to a convenience store. The company began delivering those goods, along with hookahs and tobacco products.

While in school other companies entering the "instant needs" space — a term Gopuff coined — Gola said he believes Gopuff "is in a category of one." Now the company operates in more than 1,000 cities and carries more than 4,000 items, and its network includes brick-and-mortar stores, which double as warehouses. Its valuation reached $15 billion in July.  We ask, how many locations has your company opened during the last eight year?

So, in late 2020, Gopuff entered into a definitive agreement to acquire BevMo! for $350 million, and this past June it acquired Liquor Barn, a chain of beer, wine and liquor stores based in Louisville, Ky., from private equity firm Blue Equity. Regular readers of this blog know that consumers are dynamic not static and companies most be dynamic as well.  Are you looking for profitable growth?

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Grocerant Convenience Drives Fresh Food and Beverage Sales

 

At the intersection of fresh, fast, flavorful food is the convergence of time starved consumers looking for What’s for Dinner.  Regular readers of those blog know consumer want a meal, that is full flavored, fast to fix, and

Restaurants with drive-thru’s have been clogged for two years, as consumers look for a quick solution to what’s for dinner.  Convenience stores are not sitting back just watching consumers migrate from them back to fast food restaurants. While Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® insist that the line between a meal, snack, or coffee break may be a bit blurred right know to an untrained observer, he assures us consumer go where they can get just what they want and when they want it.

Recently in Datassential’s 2021 Convenience Store Keynote they took a close look at bite-sized snacks and easy-to-grab-and-go meals are more important now whether they are needed during a morning commute or a road trip.

Datassential’s 2021 Convenience Store Keynote, helps us begin to understand the attitudes toward the c-store market, which found “58 percent of operators say that hot breakfast foods are driving their sales. Consumers focus on grocerant niche fresh fast flavorful foods and operators need to think of ways to get traffic into their stores, all-day breakfast availability and ready-to-grab and-go options should be top of mind.

Once again Datassential’s fund that handheld breakfast options like quesadillas, burritos and tacos are the perfect innovation when thinking of grab-and-go as they can be easily customized for every diet type, from vegetarian friendly to extra protein.

According to Datassential’s MenuTrends database, “Healthy enough” breakfast dishes, like avocado toast, have seen a spike the past few years., avocado toast has grown on breakfast menus by 691 percent the past four years, and it’s not stopping there. The ‘halo’ of better-4-you foods continue to drive consumer adoption and growth within the grocerant niche according to Johnson.

So, when Dunkin’ introduced avocado toast on its menu topped with cherrywood smoked bacon on sourdough toast — for just $4. It became a home run for Millennials and Gen Z.

One thing is clear C-store have pushed the boundaries when it comes to what a convenience store can make in-house. C-store menu innovation tracked in Datassential’s SCORES database shows that frozen and blended beverages stand out for both unique appeal and frequency, which drive repeat ordering. Blended beverages have increased in presence at both c-stores and other quick-service operators. Unique flavor profiles can elevate craveable beverage and food profile that garner incremental visits.

Datassential’s noted that blended beverages like smoothies and milkshakes are standout items that have become more interesting over time. For instance, nostalgic flavors like cotton candy, s’mores and birthday cake are indulgent and bring out the kid in anyone. (Well almost anyone.)

Get this, cold brew, which has grown 795 percent on blended beverage menus, has made an appearance at quick service operators like Jamba and Smoothie King, which offer smoothies with cold brew, fruit and protein powder as a morning or afternoon pick-me-up.

Customization and personalization success driven by grocerant niche mix & match meal component bundling works. Datassential’s found that by the Slice Fifty-one percent of consumers say they would be interested in customizing their own pizza at convenience stores; however, only 16 percent of operators offer the option. Pizza is a ubiquitous platform that can be customized from the crust to sauce, cheese and toppings. Sauce, in particular, can change the whole flavor profile of pizza — as it has for other foodservice items. 

Operators have incorporated sauces such as Thousand Island Dressing to reimagine sandwiches like Reubens or McDonald’s Big Mac. C-store chain Casey’s General Stores Inc. has introduced a variety of pizzas the past year from Chicken Quesadilla Pizza to Philly Cheesesteak Pizza, which has grown by 17 percent the past four years on permanent pizza menus. It’s evident that Americans love pizza by the fact that 26 percent of consumers say they purchased pizza the last time they visited a c-store. Build-your-own pizzas are a great way to personalize each slice. Mix and Match Meal Component Bundling works.

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.