Beating QSRs at the Foodservice Game: The Grocerant Has Been Playing This Game for Years

 

The foodservice battlefield is changing again, according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Convenience stores are investing more heavily in prepared food. Quick-service restaurants (QSRs) are accelerating menu innovation. Grocery stores are expanding fresh prepared foods. Restaurants are improving takeout and delivery. And consumers continue to move seamlessly among all of these channels looking for one thing:

A good meal, when they want it, where they want it, at a price they believe represents real value.

A recent Convenience Store News webinar, “QSRs vs. C-Stores: The Battle for Foodservice Dollars,” offered plenty of smart observations about how convenience stores can compete with QSRs.

But from my perspective as the Grocerant Guru®, there is a bigger story here.

Much of what the industry is now describing as the future of foodservice has actually been developing for decades.

Leading non-traditional food operators have been selling prepared food for takeout, delivery and consumption at home for years. They have been blurring the lines between restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores and foodservice long before the word grocerant became part of the industry vocabulary.

Foodservice Did Not Begin With the Drive-Thru

The foodservice industry sometimes talks about innovation as if every new foodservice idea begins with a restaurant.

It doesn't.

The history of food sold for consumption away from the traditional restaurant table is much broader.

Takeout has been part of food culture for generations. Delicatessens, bakeries, pizzerias, Chinese restaurants, supermarkets, butcher shops and neighborhood markets have long prepared food specifically for customers to take home.

Then came increasingly sophisticated prepared-food departments in supermarkets.

Consumers could buy a rotisserie chicken, deli sandwich, prepared salad, soup, entrée or side dish and take it home for dinner.

That was an early version of what I call the Grocerant Revolution.

The restaurant wasn't necessarily preparing the meal.

The grocery store was.

Then convenience stores began expanding beyond gasoline, cigarettes and packaged snacks into fresh sandwiches, pizza, roller-grill food, coffee, breakfast and increasingly sophisticated prepared meals.

Delivery created another major shift.

Pizza companies demonstrated that the restaurant did not have to be the destination. The meal could come to the consumer.

Then technology accelerated everything.

Online ordering, mobile apps, third-party delivery platforms, curbside pickup, drive-thru, grocery pickup and increasingly sophisticated foodservice programs have transformed the consumer's relationship with food.

The consumer doesn't think in channels.

The consumer thinks in occasions.

“I'm hungry.”

“I need dinner.”

“I don't have time to cook.”

“I need something for the family.”

“I want something quick.”

“I want something healthier.”

“I want a good deal.”

“I want it delivered.”

That is the real foodservice competition.

Welcome to the Food Channel Blurring Era

This is why I have spent years talking about Food Channel Blurring.

The traditional definitions of restaurant, grocery store and convenience store are becoming less meaningful.

A supermarket can operate like a restaurant.

A convenience store can operate like a restaurant.

A restaurant can operate like a grocery store.

A grocery deli can compete with a QSR.

A c-store can compete with a fast-casual restaurant.

And a restaurant can compete with the supermarket's dinner solution.

The consumer simply sees food.

That is the fundamental premise behind the Grocerant niche: fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food moving across traditional and non-traditional channels.

And this is precisely why the current QSR-versus-c-store conversation is so interesting.

What QSRs Do Well

The webinar correctly identifies several areas where QSRs have developed significant competitive advantages.

They understand operational consistency.

They understand portion control.

They understand speed.

They understand menu simplification.

They understand promotions.

They understand limited-time offers.

They understand marketing.

And perhaps most importantly, they understand that consumers need a reason to come back.

QSRs are also increasing the cadence of menu innovation.

Limited-time offers create urgency. New flavors create excitement. Sauces create differentiation. Chicken remains a powerful traffic driver. Beverages continue to expand. Better-for-you options address changing consumer expectations.

But there is another important point here.

Innovation isn't innovation simply because it is new.

The real question is whether the consumer believes the new product is better.

That brings us to perhaps the most important part of the current foodservice value equation.

Price Is Important. Value Is Bigger.

Consumers absolutely care about price.

But price by itself does not define value.

Consumers increasingly ask:

“What am I getting for what I'm paying?”

That is a very different question.

A $10 meal can be expensive if the consumer doesn't like it.

A $12 meal can be a bargain if the consumer believes the quality, portion, convenience and experience justify the price.

This is why I believe foodservice operators should think about Price, Value and Service as an equilibrium.

Lowering price is not always the answer.

Improving the food may be more powerful.

Improving packaging may be more powerful.

Improving portion size may be more powerful.

Improving speed may be more powerful.

Improving convenience may be more powerful.

Making the customer feel recognized may be more powerful.

The winning foodservice operator doesn't necessarily offer the lowest price.

The winner delivers the strongest perceived value.

The C-Store Has a Different Weapon

This is where convenience stores have an enormous opportunity.

QSRs are highly structured businesses.

That structure creates consistency, but it can also create limitations.

The convenience store has something different:

Convenience.

It is right there.

It can be open when other foodservice operators are closed.

It can sell gasoline, beverages, snacks, grocery items and prepared food during the same visit.

It can create a highly localized assortment.

It can know its customers.

And it can potentially change its food offer much faster than a large national restaurant chain.

That last point deserves considerably more attention.

A national QSR may have to navigate corporate development, testing, supply chains, packaging, equipment, training, marketing and technology before a new concept reaches thousands of restaurants.

A well-run convenience retailer can sometimes identify a local opportunity and move much faster.

Speed to market is a competitive weapon.

The question is whether c-stores will actually use it.

The Grocerant Advantage: Think Beyond the Store

The biggest mistake any foodservice operator can make is thinking only about what happens inside the four walls.

The future of foodservice is about the food occasion.

Breakfast on the way to work.

Lunch at the job site.

Dinner on the way home.

A family meal when nobody wants to cook.

A prepared meal for an older consumer.

A protein-rich snack between activities.

A beverage occasion.

A late-night meal.

A weekend gathering.

A meal ordered for delivery.

A meal purchased for pickup.

These are all foodservice occasions.

The operator that understands the occasion can build the offer around the consumer rather than forcing the consumer to adapt to the operator's business model.

That is exactly what leading non-traditional food operators have been doing.

Prepared Food for the Home Changed Everything

The growth of prepared food for home consumption may ultimately be more important than the battle between QSRs and c-stores.

For decades, consumers were taught that dinner meant buying ingredients and preparing the meal at home—or going to a restaurant.

That binary choice has largely disappeared.

Today, consumers can buy a fully prepared meal at a grocery store.

They can buy a partially prepared meal.

They can buy a restaurant meal for takeout.

They can have a restaurant meal delivered.

They can pick up a hot meal at a convenience store.

They can order groceries and prepared foods together.

They can purchase a refrigerated or frozen prepared entrée and finish it at home.

The kitchen has become an extension of the foodservice industry.

That is the Grocerant opportunity.

The New Competition Isn't QSR vs. C-Store

I don't believe the real battle is QSRs versus convenience stores.

The real battle is for the consumer's next meal occasion.

That competition includes:

·       QSRs

·       Fast-casual restaurants

·       Convenience stores

·       Grocery stores

·       Supermarket delis

·       Club stores

·       Food halls

·       Delivery platforms

·       Prepared-meal companies

·       Specialty food retailers

·       And increasingly, retailers that never traditionally considered themselves foodservice operators

The consumer doesn't care who wins the channel battle.

The consumer wants the best answer to today's meal occasion.

That changes the competitive equation.

What Should Foodservice Operators Do?

The lessons from QSRs are valuable.

Build a strong innovation pipeline.

Use LTOs.

Improve existing products.

Manage portions.

Control execution.

Create compelling promotions.

Use culturally relevant marketing.

Deliver consistent quality.

But don't simply copy the QSR playbook.

Use the strengths of your own channel.

For convenience stores, that means using convenience, speed, location, extended hours, product diversity and local customer relationships.

For grocery stores, it means leveraging fresh food, shopping frequency, prepared meals and the ability to combine ingredients and finished foods in one trip.

For restaurants, it means recognizing that the restaurant is no longer limited to the dining room.

And for every operator, it means understanding that foodservice is no longer a channel. It is an ecosystem.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Stop Thinking in Channels. Start Thinking in Food Occasions.

The consumer doesn't wake up thinking, “Today I'm going to give my foodservice dollars to a QSR.”

They think, “What's for breakfast?”

“What's for lunch?”

“What's for dinner?”

“I'm hungry.”

The operator that solves the occasion better wins the transaction.

2. Convenience Is More Than Location.

Convenience isn't simply being five minutes away.

Convenience means reducing friction.

It means having the right food, at the right time, in the right format, at the right price, with easy ordering, pickup or delivery.

Convenience is the new currency of foodservice.

The winners will be the operators that make the consumer's life easier—not merely the operators with the lowest price.

3. The Grocerant Is Not the Future. It Is the Evolution of Foodservice.

For decades, innovative non-traditional food operators have been preparing food for people to take home, delivering meals, selling prepared foods through grocery stores and convenience stores, and blurring the line between retail and restaurants.

What is happening today isn't the beginning of that movement.

It is the acceleration of it.

The next generation of foodservice winners will not ask, “Are we a restaurant, grocery store or convenience store?”

They will ask a much better question:

“What foodservice problem can we solve for the consumer today?”

That is where the real growth opportunity lies.

And that is why I believe the Grocerant niche—fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food—isn't taking foodservice away from traditional operators. It is redefining what foodservice means.

For international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit www.GrocerantGuru.com , www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or call    1-253-759-7869

The Frozen Food Court Meets the Fresh Food Revolution: PDQ Shows How Restaurants Can Own the Game-Day Meal

 

The football season has always been about more than football. It is about gathering, grazing, sharing, snacking and—perhaps most importantly—feeding a crowd without spending the entire game day in the kitchen according to Steven Johnson, The Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®

That is why PDQ’s latest promotion caught my attention.

PDQ, known for its crispy, hand-breaded chicken tenders and sandwiches, is launching a football-season offer that is a textbook example of how restaurants can extend their brands beyond the traditional restaurant occasion.

From September 9 through September 13, customers can buy a platter of 25 Reheat Tenders and get another 25 tenders free. Pre-orders begin August 27, with pickup available September 9–13. Customers order in-store or online using the code BIGGAME, with a limit of two redemptions per check.

In other words, PDQ is not simply selling chicken.

PDQ is selling a solution to a meal occasion.

And that distinction matters.

Consumers Don't Want to Cook—They Want to Assemble

The food industry has been talking about convenience for decades. But today's consumer is redefining what convenience actually means.

Convenience increasingly means getting a high-quality meal on the table with almost no preparation.

Circana's 2026 research makes the point dramatically: about half of all meals now take less than five minutes to prepare. That includes 65% of breakfasts, 56% of lunches and 35% of dinners. Circana also reports that frozen dinners and entrées now account for nearly 5% of in-home eating occasions, compared with less than 1% in the 1980s.

That is not merely a frozen-food story.

It is a foodservice opportunity.

PDQ understands something many restaurant marketers still miss: the restaurant does not have to own the entire eating occasion to own a meaningful piece of it.

A consumer can buy restaurant-quality food, take it home, reheat it and create a social occasion around it.

That's grocerant thinking.

Fresh Food Has Become a Foodservice Destination

The grocery industry is discovering the same opportunity from the opposite direction.

FMI's Power of Foodservice at Retail 2025 found that the share of consumers choosing deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals more than doubled—from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025.

Even more revealing, 53% of Americans are taking a hybrid approach, combining deli-prepared foods with food they prepare themselves. Retail foodservice dollar sales reached $52.1 billion, up 1.6% over the preceding 12 months.

Read that again.

Consumers aren't necessarily choosing between restaurants and grocery stores.

They are using both.

That is the foundation of the modern grocerant economy.

Costco's Rotisserie Chicken Is the Poster Child

Look no further than Costco.

Costco sold approximately 157.4 million rotisserie chickens globally in fiscal 2025—more than 431,000 per day.

That isn't simply a successful grocery product.

It is a foodservice phenomenon operating inside a retail environment.

The Costco rotisserie chicken became an iconic value proposition because it delivers something consumers understand immediately:

Dinner is ready.

And the product doesn't necessarily end with the chicken itself. Prepared chicken can become sandwiches, salads, soups and other meal components.

That is precisely how the foodservice-at-retail model creates additional occasions.

Fresh Isn't the Only Winner

For years, food marketers treated frozen as the lesser cousin of fresh.

That thinking is outdated.

The Frozen Food Court—my term for the increasingly important space where restaurant brands, foodservice concepts and recognizable food brands compete for attention in the grocery freezer—continues to evolve.

Frozen provides something fresh cannot always match:

inventory flexibility.

It gives consumers the ability to purchase a meal today and eat it days or weeks later.

That matters when consumers are managing busy schedules, food budgets and unpredictable meal occasions.

Circana continues to track frozen food as a major component of the center-store opportunity, with frozen-food sales and category shifts being closely monitored as consumer behavior evolves.

And the restaurant industry should be paying attention.

The Frozen Food Court gives restaurant brands an opportunity to put their name, flavor profile and food proposition into the home without requiring the consumer to visit the restaurant.

That is an enormous expansion of the brand's addressable eating occasion.

Restaurant Brands Are Learning to Travel

The winners in foodservice increasingly understand that their brands need to travel.

A restaurant's relationship with a consumer shouldn't necessarily end when the customer leaves the parking lot.

The brand can travel home through:

·       Reheat meals

·       Family meals

·       Catering

·       Party platters

·       Frozen products

·       Grocery partnerships

·       Take-home sauces

·       Meal kits

·       Prepared foods

·       Delivery

·       Digital ordering

PDQ's Reheat Tender Platter is particularly interesting because it bridges two worlds.

It is fresh restaurant food designed for a future consumption occasion.

That is different from simply selling a hot meal.

The consumer doesn't have to eat it immediately.

That creates a new dimension of convenience.

The Fresh-Frozen Divide Is Disappearing

Here is where I believe food marketers need to rethink the conversation.

The future isn't necessarily fresh versus frozen.

It is fresh plus frozen plus ready-to-eat plus heat-and-eat plus restaurant foodservice.

Consumers are becoming channel agnostic.

They care about the food, the price, the quality, the convenience and whether it solves today's meal problem.

FMI's 2026 research continues to position fresh food as central to food retail's ability to attract shoppers and create competitive advantage.

Meanwhile, frozen provides affordability, availability, convenience and longer shelf life.

Restaurants provide craveability, culinary credibility and brand recognition.

The smartest companies are finding ways to combine these advantages rather than forcing consumers to choose one.

Football Is the Perfect Test Case

PDQ's promotion works because it starts with the occasion, not the menu.

Football creates a predictable need:

"I have a bunch of people coming over. What am I going to feed them?"

Twenty-five tenders isn't necessarily a restaurant meal.

Fifty tenders certainly isn't.

It is a social food solution.

And that is the difference between menu marketing and occasion marketing.

PDQ isn't telling consumers:

"Come to our restaurant and buy chicken."

It is effectively telling them:

"We'll help you feed the crowd."

That is a much bigger proposition.

And football is just one occasion.

Think about birthdays, children's sports, office meetings, graduation parties, movie nights, family gatherings, holidays, tailgating, neighborhood parties and last-minute entertaining.

Every one represents a potential foodservice occasion.

The Real Opportunity: Own the Meal, Not Just the Restaurant Visit

The restaurant industry has historically measured success by transactions, traffic, check averages and frequency.

Those metrics still matter.

But the bigger question is:

How many meal occasions does your brand participate in?

That is the metric I would want food marketers thinking about.

A restaurant that sells one dinner to a customer owns one meal occasion.

A restaurant that sells a 50-piece platter for a football party may participate in an occasion involving 10, 15 or 20 consumers.

A restaurant that also sells frozen products or take-home meals can potentially participate in dozens of additional occasions without adding another dining-room seat.

That's leverage.

Three Insights From the Grocerant Guru®

1. Stop marketing food products and start marketing meal solutions.

Consumers don't wake up thinking about your SKU, menu architecture or merchandising strategy. They wake up wondering what they are going to eat—and how much work it will take to get it. The brand that solves that problem wins.

2. The Frozen Food Court is not competition for restaurants—it can be an extension of the restaurant brand.

Restaurant marketers should stop looking at grocery freezers solely as a competitor. The freezer can become another distribution channel, another billboard and another way to create brand trial and household penetration.

3. The next battleground isn't restaurants versus grocery—it is whoever owns the consumer's next meal occasion.

Fresh, fresh frozen, restaurant takeout, grocery deli, convenience stores and delivery are increasingly colliding around the same consumer. The winners won't be the companies defending yesterday's channel boundaries. They will be the companies willing to follow the consumer wherever the next meal happens.

Something to think about:

If your brand only knows how to sell a meal when the consumer walks through your front door, you don't own the meal occasion—you only own the dining room.

Success Leaves Clues—Are You Ready to Find Yours?

One key insight that continues to drive success is this: "The consumer is dynamic, not static." This principle is the foundation of our work at Foodservice Solutions®, where Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru®, has been helping brands stay relevant in an ever-evolving market.

Want to strengthen your brand’s connection with today’s consumers? Let’s talk. Call 253-759-7869 for more information.

Stay Ahead of the Competition with Fresh Ideas

Is your food marketing keeping up with tomorrow’s trends—or stuck in yesterday’s playbook? If you're ready for fresh ideations that set your brand apart, we’re here to help.

At Foodservice Solutions®, we specialize in consumer-driven retail food strategies that enhance convenience, differentiation, and individualization—key factors in driving growth.

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