Back in the day say the mid-1980’s Home Meal Replacement
/ Solutions (RMS)
was the talk of the retail food industry. Many research companies and retailers
dismissed RMS as it morphed from a sideshow to the main stage. Foodservice Solutions® team did not. In fact Foodservice Solutions® team and our
own Grocerant Guru® reclassified,
quantified, qualified, and named the Grocerant niche. All while creating a
platform of success with progressive retailers and fresh food
manufactures.
What many legacy grocers failed to
understand was the opportunity for fresh prepared food as a day-part meal
opportunity / solution because most grocery retailers do not believe they are
in the meals business. More important most grocery retailers did not want to be
in the fresh prepared meal business, they wanted to be in ‘fill customers
pantry’ business. The fill the pantry business has long since vanished as have
many legacy grocery chains.
Grocery retailer’s mind-set in the 1980’s
was Home Meal Replacement specifically in store fresh prepared food cost too
much to produce, threw their labor out of line, created scheduling problems,
and had too much wasted food. That same mind-set holds true today for many
legacy grocery retailers today.
Maybe that’s why most legacy grocery
stores continue to struggle driving profitability with grocerant Ready-2-Eat
and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. Just
look how Kroger stumbled with their new concept Main and Vine. Winn Dixie on the
other hand opened a new customer focus fresh food focused new concept store to find incremental
success and increased customer relevance.
Legacy grocery retailers simply did not
want to deal with fresh prepared food back in the day nor do they today. I guess that is why they cut corners, mass
produced product that they call fresh, packaged it like it was a CPG brand, and
let it sit on display or under heat lamps way to long. In short they blew it then and most are
making the same mistake today.
The pantry business is rapidly
diminishing according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®. While category
managers can quickly tell grocery retailers what is selling inside their stores,
how to price it, and where to position it.
Category managers have no idea where the customers went. Nor can they explain how start-up mail-order
meal-kits companies in three years have annual sale of $1 billion a year. That is pantry disruptive growth, and a
concern for legacy retailers.
In an era of consumer transparency
category management tactics have fallen out of favor with consumers. Or as our Grocerant Guru® put’s it “the
consumer is not stupid, they have figured out what retailers are doing and
dislike any company trying to trick / fool customers into buying a product in
the era of transparence legacy retailers utilizing such tactics will face customer
rebellion.” Fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat
and Heat-N-Eat food has the ‘hallo’ of ‘better for you’ from the consumer
perspective and continues gaining momentum.
Consumers are dynamic not static, the
Grocerant niche continues to grow around the world and our Grocerant Guru® has been leading the
drive for top line sales and bottom line profits within the grocerant niche
since 1991.
Food manufactures are searching for
new, fresh food opportunity and that is something Foodservice Solutions®
continues to excel at. Foodservice
Solutions® Grocerant
Guru™
as regular readers of this blog know has
repeatedly stated that “consumers never take step back in food
quality or freshness”. The food retail industry today is no longer at
a crossroad. The consumer has
moved. It’s simply a question within the
legacy grocery retailers if they want to move forward with consumer or
not.
Back in the day it used to be
restaurant chefs were the industry tastemakers and retail eventually playing
copy-cat caught up with the trends. Today many tastemakers come from Grocerant
niche retailers. Yes, the times they are a changing.
Driven by increased demand
and customer migration from cook from scratch to Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat
fresh prepared food everyone from Soccer
Mom’s to Senior Citizens are putting pressure on retailers for fresh prepared
food. All retailers are in a fierce
battle to garner a larger share of stomach and the battle for customers is
taking place within the grocerant nice Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh
prepared food space.
Grocery stores are now
playing catch-up with the fast expanding Convenience store sector that is focusing
on Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. Companies the ilk of Wawa, Sheetz,
and Rutter’s Farm Stores all are finding success with fresh prepared food. Overall convenience stores are doing a better
job within the grocerant niche than legacy grocery stores according to our
Grocerant Guru®.
Seemingly trapped in footprint
malaise traditional grocery retailers are closing stores, capitulating market
share. Success does leave clues and legacy food retailers must adopt a new
view, and new business model, the Grocerant model. Foodservice Solutions® can help any retailer
looking to drive top line sales and bottom line profits within the Grocerant sector.
www.FoodserviceSolutions.us specializes in outsourced business
development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food
retail segment opportunities for your product or your brand. Foodservice
Solutions of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche since
1991 Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us
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