Nielsen: Convenience Stores out number grocery stores and growing.

Convenience stores are becoming Grocerants with ready-2-eat fresh prepared food. Nielsen’s TDLinx report found, as of December 31, 2011, “the total store count of convenience stores is 30,000-plus locations greater than the cumulative totals of competing channels, including supermarkets (32,924 stores), drug stores (38,526 stores) dollar stores (22,782 stores) and superettes (13,234 stores).”

December 31, 2011, a 1.2% increase (1,785 stores) from the year prior, according to the latest NACS/Nielsen Convenience Industry Store Count.

When you look at the population of the United States as of Dec. 31, 2011, there was an estimated 313 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Today there is one convenience per approximately every 2,100 U.S. residents.”

7 Eleven is an example of one leading chain hat is opening many of its new stores without gas as a component and is instead focusing on Fresh Food. “The continued growth in store count shows our industry is vibrant and adding jobs in difficult economic times. Convenience stores are an essential part of the fabric of everyday life across the country and our core offer of convenience continues to resonate with customers,” said NACS Chairman Tom Robinson, president of Robinson Oil in Santa Clara, California.

Grocerant program assessments can deliver top line sales building information and bottom line profits.

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a grocerant program assessment, brand, product placement or positioning assistance.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant.

7 Eleven is the fastest growing restaurant by new units..

New 7 Eleven Wings

Hungry, odds are good if you lived in the United States or Canada you had the opportunity to stop at one of the 650 new 7 Elevens stores that opened in 2011. With a clear focus on fresh prepared ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat food no one can claim to have opened more food outlets in 2011.

7 Eleven is the world largest Convenience store chain. In North America 650 new units is a lot for one year by any retailer.  They are not slowing down in 2012 this week they announced that “Fifty-five Sam's Mart locations in the Carolinas will be carrying the 7-Eleven banner now that the convenience store chain has entered into an agreement to acquire the stores.” 

The Sam Mart acquisition is part of the company’s accelerated growth plan. An estimated 50% of the new units from Florida to Vancouver BC that 7 Eleven is opening are without gas, and Food is the focus.  With new fresh prepared food delivered daily and fast service 7 Eleven is becoming a Fast Food industry leader. 

Grocerant program assessments can deliver top line sales building information and bottom line profits. Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a grocerant program assessment, brand, product placement or positioning assistance.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant.

Foodservice Solutions® 5 P’s of Food Marketing

Tacoma, Washington based Foodservice Solutions® has been gathering retail food success clues.  Within the clues they discovered some universal commonalities from those commonalities they developed: The 5’P’s of Food Marketing:

1.       Product

2.       Packaging

3.       Placement

4.       Portability

5.       Price

If you are interested in learning how The 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization contact us via this blog or Email at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Grocerant program assessments can deliver top line sales building information and bottom line profits.

Invite www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  to complete a grocerant program assessment, brand, product placement or positioning assistance.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant.

The New American Meal: creating happy meal times.

Alice May Brock said: “Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian, wine and tarragon make it French, sour cream makes it Russian, lemon and cinnamon make it Greek, soy sauce makes it Chinese, garlic makes it good.”

I say: grocerant meal components bundled and portable make a family meal, a happy meal!

Grocerants allow customers to select from Italian, French, Russian or Greek and utilize the components at home any way they like.  The new American meal has become a composite of any prepared food components that the individual may want, that they can mix and pair them together any way they like as well.  Our society is a composed for people from all over the world, with different cultures, traditions and flavor preferences.  The new American meal is a melting pot of flavor and choice bundled from mix and match meal components.

Fresh prepared ready-2-eat and heat-N-rat foods are now available for all comers and can be found at Convenience stores, Grocery stores, Restaurants, Mobile trucks all just waiting for the taking.

Consumers have been exposed to a plethora of flavors and have not the time to master the skill of cooking each.  This growing trend is empowering the consumer to establish new customs and traditions in eating better, more flavorful food.  The Grocerant niche is about convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization.

Success leaves clues: Foodservice Solutions in Tacoma, WA has been gathering them just for you!   

Grocerant program assessments can deliver top line sales building information and bottom line profits.

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a grocerant program assessment, brand, product placement or positioning assistance.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant.

Restaurant guest shifting to other fresh food formats.

Restaurants are losing customers to non-traditional points of fresh food distributions.  Regular readers of this blog have been reading about the success Chain Drug Stores, Convenience Stores, Grocery Store Delis are having selling fresh prepared food. 

A new research survey conducted by Alix Partners highlights a dramatic shift in consumer spending patterns away from restaurants based on heavy user frequency.  

Food Segment       Q 4 2010                       Q 1 2012           Difference

Convenience               1.6                                2.0                    + 0.4

Fast Food                    4.8                                4.1                    -0.7

Fast Casual                  2.5                                2.2                    -0.3

Casual                         2.4                                2.2                    -0.2

Fine Dinning                1.0                                1.0                    Even

The grocerant niche is filled with ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared mix and match meal component options.  7 Eleven has increased the number of fresh prepared foods nationwide since 2010, Wawa and Sheetz continue to expand locations and fresh food offerings.  Walgreens which this report did not include will alter the way consumer shop for fresh prepared food.  Walgreens was once the largest food ready-2-eat food retailer in America and they just might be again.

Grocerant program assessments can deliver top line sales building information and bottom line profits. Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a grocerant program assessment, brand, product placement or positioning assistance.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant.

Foodservice Consumers expect Attractive Digital Signage.

Wal-Mart recently added digital signage to select end caps within their stores. I had a friend remark that after a recent visit to Wal-Mart she was impressed and please to see how viscerally attractive the store was.  Digital Visceral attractiveness is now a contemporary standard in retailing. 

British Petroleum is installing Digital Signage at the Pump and in the store at over 1,000 units.   Digital signage is not an operational efficiency it is now a required step in the consumer’s path of contemporary relevance. The consumer is not static they are dynamic all retailers must keep pace with the customer. 

Supermarkets, Convenience stores and Restaurants all must avoid unwittingly practicing Brand Protectionism and saying no to items that consumer comes to expect.  Visceral attractiveness is now as important as cleanliness and service. The Grocerant sector is leveraging digital informational tools to build a strong consumer base. 

I was reminded as well that the NY Hilton hotel has had CNN in its elevator now for over 12 years.  Visceral information is not new nor is it going away. Don’t let your brand unwittingly practice “Brand Protectionism”.

Grocerant program assessments can deliver top line sales building information and bottom line profits. Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a grocerant program assessment, brand, product placement or positioning assistance.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant.

The Evolving food consumer: Close-Up Look at Food Retailing Today

The grocerant niche is changing the face of retail food sales. As it turns out, a recent analysis / case study of the Philadelphia grocery marketplace will tell us a lot about the changing state of food marketing.[1]  Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised at the findings which I believe reflect the success of the expanding fresh prepared ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat grocerant niche nationally.

The #1 chain in terms of market share is regional brand Wakefern’s ShopRite banner.

But more telling: the #4 “grocery” food retailer is Convenience-store chain Wawa.

That’s right, a convenience store that sells quality ready-2-eat fresh prepared food non-traditional food retailers are expanding at an ever faster rate than ever before.  This July Wawa will open stores in the Orlando, FL Market.

These 20 chains account for 92.1% of the total grocery market. And over $3.8bn of the $13.7bn or 28% of the spend on food in Philly was racked up by “non-traditional” retailers like CVS, Walgreens and Rite-Aid, not to mention 7-Eleven. The latter’s rather poor numbers explode the myth that 7-Eleven dominates the c-store category, which is mostly made up of small chains and single operators.

And if mass merchants Target, K-Mart and Wal-Mart, and club store BJ’s are excluded from the totals, and only traditional grocery stores are factored in ($7.66bn), then the percentage of sales by non-traditional retailers rises to almost half (49%). Clearly the food marketplace is VERY different than what it was just a few years ago, and those changes are having real impact on the way food is sold in the U.S. But just when you think the traditional grocery store in on the way out, North Carolina-based Food Lion (part of Belgium’s Delhaize Group) has announced its intention to tackle the Philly market in a big way.

3 of the top ten are non-traditional food retailers.

Store Name	Number of Stores	Sales ($MM)	Share (%)
1. ShopRite	43	1,700	11.42
2. Acme	69	1,570	10.56[2]
3. Giant Food Stores	47	1,530	10.29[3]
4. Wawa	280	1,440	9.65
5. Rite-Aid	252	884.1	5.94[4]
6. A&P/Superfresh/Pathmark	40	850.8	5.72[5]
7. Wal-Mart	37 SuperCenters	831.1	5.59
8. CVS	187	817	5.49
9. Genuardi’s	28	733.7	4.93[6]
10. Target	29	534.4	3.59
11. Walgreens	90	480.9	3.23
12. BJ’s Wholesale Club	12	413.9	2.78
13. Wegmans	6	371	2.5[7]
14. Save-A-Lot	34	258	1.74
15. Sam’s Club	7	238.2	1.6
16. Thriftway/Shop’N’Bag	21	230.5	1.55
17. Redner’s Market	10	222.7	1.5
18. K-Mart	29	210.9	1.42[8]
19. 7-Eleven	179	201.3	1.35
20. Whole Foods	8	191.6	1.29

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Chain Drug stores Rite-Aid and CVS rank in the top 10 of food retailers in Philadelphia. That makes 3 companies in the top ten that are non-grocery stores.  Walgreens is selling fresh prepared food in NYC, Chicago, and San Francisco.  Coast to coast food retailing is evolving.  The grocerant niche is filled with  new points of distribution, new fresh food offerings, and smaller more convenient locations all driving top line sales and bottom line profits.

[1] Source: Philadelphia Business Journal.

[2] Parent company Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Supervalu Inc. shuttered seven stores in 2011.

[3] Owned by Dutch retail conglomerate Ahold, Giant is projected to overtake Acme in 2012 as the #2 grocery chain.

[4] The Camp Hill, PA company has a pilot program with Save-A-Lot in North Carolina to co-brand 10 stores carrying a full line of groceries and drug products.

[5] Parent company Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. has been closing stores since filing for bankruptcy protection in December, 2010, shuttering seven in the greater Philadelphia market, while opening only one Superfresh.

[6] Parent company Safeway will sell 16 stores to Giant Foods, close three and seek buyers for the remaining eight.

[7] The Rochester, N.Y.-based company will open two new stores, and at 140,000 ft.² are 2x the size of a conventional supermarket.

[8] K-Mart closed four stores in Philadelphia in 2011.

Note: Reprinted with permission of Broad Street Licensing with permission and edits. Here is the link to the original http://www.bslg.com/news/2012/01/philadelphia-story

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits.  Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a grocerant program assessment, brand, product placement or positioning assistance.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant.

Wing War Kroger and KFC battle for wing sales prior too Super Bowl Sunday.

7 Eleven Wings

NPD data found for the year ending November, 2011, the top five restaurant categories to order chicken wings throughout the year (accounting for over 90 percent of all wing orders) are:

1  Casual Dining Restaurants: 33 percent of all chicken wing orders
2.       Pizza places: 26 percent
3.       Chicken places: 16 percent
4.       Mid-priced full service restaurants: 9 percent
5.       Food stores: 8 percent

This year however Kroger is out to change that specifically in the northwest via their Fred Meyer stores.  While KFC is utilizing price as focus point in their advertising campaign with hot wings priced at only $0.50 each.  Kroger aka Fred Meyer is selling boneless wings for $0.25 each. With more than 1.25 billion wing portions being consumed during Super Bowl weekend in 2012, totaling more than 100 million pounds of wings, according to the National Chicken Council's.  Who will win? This year it looks as if Fred Meyer will pick up sales of Wings and share of stomach. 

Product Positioning and Marketing are key to success in any sales battle.  This battle for share of stomach is no different and wing sales specifically.  KFC is utilizing price and price alone as the driver.  While Fred Meyer is focusing on bundling other meal components with the wings, they are also focusing on boneless wings. Marketing programs need both strategy and tactics price alone is a tactic. Successful grocerant niche marketing incorporate Foodservice Solutions® 5 P’s of food marketing: Product, Packaging, Placement, Portability and Price,  When the 5P’s are integrated into a marketing plan they edify the brand, the product and the offering.  

It’s easy to Harkin back the Colonel hocking his product, 11 secret ingredients, unique flavors, value pricing, and convenience of not cooking, then packaged to-go.  Kind ‘a reminds you of the 5P’s of food marketing.  Fred Meyer did not forget. Integrating critical messaging into a promotion is food marketing 101. While price play’s an increasing pivotal roll today, it alone will not garner the results of an integrated plan. Retail food success within the grocerant niche requires mix and match meal component bundling as regular followers of the blog well understand.  

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits.  Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a grocerant program assessment, brand, product placement or positioning assistance.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant.