Meals vs Meal Kits

The battle lines are beginning to clear and a picture of customer migration from cook from scratch at home to meals to food away from home and food for home prepared away yes grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food including meals and meal components according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson.

According to the USDA food sales for home and sales for food away from home through March 2017 Sales for food at home were $194.4 Billion and sales for food away from home were$197.7.  The fast is consumers like to buy meals, meal kits, and meal components away from home and simply assemble meals rather than cook them from scratch according to Johnson.

Meal kits have broken out providing Millennials a platform to learn how to cook or as our Grocerant Guru® says ‘Meal Kits are training wheels for Millennials. In fact 19 million shoppers in the U.S. will have taken digitally ordered meal kits for a test drive by 2021, according to recent findings by Morningstar.

The Morning star study estimates that 11 million customers will make ordering prepped meals online a habit via household names such as Blue Apron, Hello Fresh and Plated.

Restaurants have a bit of a conundrum on their hand as consumers have traditionally been migrating from grocery stores to restaurants now Millennials is search of discovery are abandoning both traditional avenue of fresh food distribution grocery stores and restaurants for new platforms that sell grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.

In May, select Whole Foods stores on the West Coast teamed with Salted, a meal kit provider, to bring the brand’s $12 meal kit options to their customers undercutting both meal kit companies and the price for a restaurant meal for two persons.

The retail foodservice price, value, service equilibrium continues evolve.  The trend in all avenues of fresh food distribution is lower prices, new or different service, and elevated product flavor offerings. Which all contribute to business model disruption.

Convenience is the one undercurrent of change that has universal appeal to all food customers. Success does leave clues and if you want to drive top line growth and bottom line profits within the foodservice sector today to you need to expand your branded offerings of meals, meal components in new non-traditional locations.

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

Dollar General Fresh Food Fast for Less

There was a time that legacy grocery store executives brushed off the Dollar store sector as non-relevant, no-competition, and as passing fad.  That day has come and gone.  While Aldi, Lidl, and WinCo continue to gobble up market share from legacy grocery stores the Dollar store sector has not been standing still and according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Dollar General continues to gobble market share from legacy grocery stores by expanding fresh food offerings. 

Dollar General Corp. has been carrying fresh produce as part of the retailer’s wider strategy of expanding its perishable offering, and according to the team at Foodservice Solutions® expanding consternation for legacy grocery stores.

Todd Vasos, CEO Dollar General  stated “The remodeling of about 300 traditional stores based on lessons learned from the conversion of acquired sites last year is on track,” noted “The remodels include increasing the cooler set to 34 doors, an increase of about a 160 percent on average from the existing cooler footprint for these locations. This allows for a greater perishable assortment, which helps drive trips and basket size. Additionally, across about a third of these locations, we are testing an assortment of fresh produce. While it’s still very early, initial remodels are yielding strong same-store sales improvements.”

Why is this so important?  Dollar General operates 13,601 stores in 44 states and that alone make them a competitive force much larger than Aldi, Lidl, and WinCo combined.  Dollar General reported for the company’s first quarter of fiscal 2017 ended May 5, it reported a net sales increase of 6.5 percent to $5.61 billion, compared with $5.27 billion in year-ago period.

If Dollar General elects too they could become the low cost grocery leader in the US.  If success does leave clues and it does Dollar General is the fresh food retailer that everyone should be keeping an eye on. 

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

Circle K Fresh Food Fast Breakfast Lunch and Dinner

With over 3,300 locations in the United States alone Circle K is a player in the convenience store sector and it was more than notable when they opened a new stores in Chicago that was the first c-store to offer prepared food such as fresh-made pizza, breakfast sandwiches.

Circle K as regular readers of this blog let me know last week was making statement with this new store that centered around grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  Even more impressive I was reminded that Circle K was focusing fresh food for all day-part breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacking.

Why is this such big news, simple Circle K is a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. and they have over 12,000 convenience stores around the world.  Success does leave clues and our clue of the week Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food sells and will drive top line sales and bottom line profits.

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

What’s For Dinner Tonight Take-Out or Delivery

At the intersection of restaurants, grocery service deli’s, C-stores Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson stated “retailers are driving top line sales and bottom line profits as customer momentum for grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food accelerates.

Regular readers of this blog were not surprised to learn that it is Fast Food Restaurants that now account for 79% of all restaurant visits according to the NPD Group and they are the most popular for but take-out and delivery as well.

Technomic found that “takeout and delivery from fast casual, family restaurants, traditional casual dining as well as in the retail sector all showed significant gains over the least three years. Johnson explained that consumer momentum for Take-Out and Delivery has been driven in large part by new technology, in mobile ordering and adoption of the technology by Millennials.

The Technomic report found that “Consumers aged 18-34 are the biggest users of takeout and delivery, with half saying they order food to go more often than they did three years ago, the report found. Among all age groups, the availability of nearby takeout and delivery options and simply getting into the habit of ordering in or picking up food are the factors driving most of the growth.”

Chain Restaurants, Grocery Store Deli’s, and Convenience stores all have entered the catering space focusing on offices, events, and homes according to our Grocerant Guru® who stated “Corner Bakery Café, Publix Grocery stores, and Casey’s General Store are three great examples”. 

All three of those companies focus on the customers to ensure order accuracy, food freshness, quality, and on-time delivery.  Third party delivery companies have entered the fray advertising and garnering incremental business for the retailer.  Companies the ilk of Postmates, Caviar, Amazon Prime (Restaurant), Grubhub, DoorDash and UberEats who is working with McDonald’s for delivery. 

What is important is that the retail foodservice customer is evolving faster and faster.  Is your company evolving faster and faster or are you watching to see where the customer goes.  Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food is the fastest growing sector of every sector of retail foodservice today.  Where are you selling food? Who are you selling fresh food?  Are your customers migrating?

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  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.

7-Eleven: Food Regionalization Creates Differentiation

With the Fourth of July holiday fast approaching 7-Eleven’s Slurpee loving fans are looking forward to cooling off with their summertime favorite flavor on hot days.  This year in a orchestrated move 7-Eleven will expand its collaboration in the Pacific Northwest to test another new flavor according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson.

Building upon the success of the latest test product from Jones Soda Co. the Green Apple Big Gulp program and the 2016 Orange & Cream Slurpee drink, 7-Eleven is launching a FuFu Berry Cane Sugar Slurpee across 400 Pacific Northwest locations.

Rusty Smith, 7-Eleven director of proprietary beverages stated “With the success of our 7-Select premium bottled drinks and newest Slurpee flavors by Jones Soda, we are delighted to provide another exclusive flavor to 7-Eleven customers in the Pacific Northwest,” … “We know FuFu Berry will be a hit among Slurpee fans.”

The FuFu Berry Slurpee drink is available now throughout the summer and will be fully supported by a billboard campaign around Seattle — where Jones Soda Co. is headquartered — featuring the tagline, “What the FuFu?!”.  So our Grocerant Guru® asks who are you collaborating with?  How are you expanding your brand relevance?

Jennifer Cue, chief executive officer of Jones Soda Co. stated “We continue to be excited by our fans’ response to our programs with 7-Eleven,” said “And we look forward to a successful summer campaign together.”  Remember trial accelerates the path to purchase.  How are you driving differentiation?

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 the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Consumer Foodservice Migration Expanding

When you ask a Millennial, What’s for Dinner, they are not sure but the one thing that they are sure of is that like to try food from new points of differentiation everything from food trucks, meal kits, Munchery chef meals delivered, kiosk, carts, farm stands as discovery and authenticity guide the day according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson.

While our own Grocerant Guru® coined the term Complexity Free Food as regular reader of this blog know. The NPD Group reports that for U.S. restaurants and foodservice outlets, Millennials as a group currently represent about 14.5 billion visits and $96 billion in spending, which is 23% of total restaurant spend.

Restaurants are befuddled by according to NPD as “Older Millennials, ages 25-34, who are more likely to have families, have cut back the most on restaurant visits, making 50 fewer visits per person over the past several years, according to the report. Younger Millennials, those who are 18-24 years old, made 33 fewer visits per person. Annual per capita restaurant spend for younger Millennials is $1,240, which is down $146 per person compared to their spending in 2007, and older Millennials’ annual per capita spend is $1,369, down $213 per person.”

Millennials feel better about cooking at home because they consider it healthier and it tastes better than what they can get away-from-home however one problem they do not cook from scratch.  In fact as regular readers of this blog know 83% of meals prepared at home by Millennials include at least one grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat meal component. My friends Millennials have discovered the grocerant niche and like it!  What are you selling and where?  

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 Grocerant Program Assessment, or new Grocerant niche product Ideation?  Want one?  Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Papa Murphy’s Moving Forward Slowly

Why do consumers continue to vote Papa Murphy’s their favorite pizza chain when they don’t even have ovens in their stores?  According to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson that answer is simple they operate at the intersection of fresh, fast, flavorful and they are authentic. That will give Papa Murphy’s new CEO Weldon Spangler a great platform to work from.

 It is important to note that Papa Murphy’s excels with discovery specifically with its Limited Time Offers (LTO’s).  It’s with the consumer in mind and expanding that halo of better for you discovery that Papa Murphy’s launched a national food delivery service partnership with Grubhub.

Papa Murphy’s Holdings, Inc. last week announced a new national delivery service through Grubhub, the nation’s leading takeout marketplace stating that “Nine company-owned stores in the Colorado and Denver area launched with the delivery service in late May, and an additional 17 franchisee-owned stores will be added over the next two weeks.”

Jean Birch, Chairman of  Papa Murphy's stated “Our product is uniquely positioned for success with delivery because pizza tastes best when it’s served right out of the oven,” says “Our pizza is made fresh in stores and ready to bake at home—making it a quick and easy solution for a home-baked dinner. We’re thrilled to partner with Grubhub to make dinner even more convenient for our customers.”

By partnering with Grubhub makes it easy for Papa Murphy’s customers order delivery—by reordering their favorite meals, ordering up to four days in advance and welcoming a new variety of payment methods, including Apple Pay, Android Pay, PayPal, eGift cards, credit cards and cash. Once a Grubhub order is placed, customers can track their order and stay in the know about their delivery through push notifications and text messages.

Consumers are dynamic not static all brands must evolve and Papa Murphy’s will continue to evolve and continue to win the hearts and minds of consumers. It's time that Papa Murphy's add more Grocerant Niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh Food menu offereings to drive top line sales and bottom line profits. 

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  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. 

Foodservice Partnerships Matter Moe’s teams with Kellogg

Success does leave clues and Moe’s Southwest Grill, is expanding its brand from the restaurant to the Grocery Stores with Frozen Breakfast Bowls with the help of Kellogg’s the leading breakfast staple for America’s families according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®.

Moe’s Southwest Grill, first-ever grocery line of breakfast products, Moe’s Breakfast Bowls, were developed with consumer products leader, Kellogg Company, to bring bold, authentic Southwest flavors to consumers who want to start their day with a protein-packed meal that is tasty and filling. Moe’s Breakfast Bowls each contain a minimum of 12 grams of protein and feature food you can feel good about, including meats raised without hormones and no artificial flavors or colors.

Look for Moe’s frozen breakfast bowles at the Frozen Food Court at your local grocery including compines the ilk of Walmart, Giant Eagle and Wegmans, and distributing soon to other retailers like Kroger and HEB by July, the new line includes five must-try varieties:

1.       Chorizo & Eggs—Spicy and zesty, this bowl provides a winning blend of fluffy eggs, cilantro lime rice, hormone-free pork chorizo, and black beans; pico de gallo and queso sauce topping take it to another level. MSRP $4.49.

2.       Chorizo Benedict – Mild in spice, intense in flavor, this bowl features fluffy eggs, Yukon gold potatoes, hormone-free pork chorizo, pico de gallo, jalapeno lime hollandaise, and avocado. MSRP $4.49.

3.       Southwest Vegetarian—Enjoyable by all, this meat-free bowl still boasts 12g of protein and features fluffy eggs, pinto and black beans, cilantro lime rice, salsa verde, roasted tomatillo salsa fresco, queso fresco, and avocado. MSRP $4.49.

4.       Chicken Chilaquiles—Medium kick with a whopping 17g of protein, this bowl features fluffy eggs with hormone-free pulled chicken atop a bed of tortilla chips and pinto beans, with salsa, queso and cilantro to seal the deal. MSRP $4.49.

5.       Huevos Rancheros—Featuring a fried egg, corn tortilla and black beans, this bowl provides 14g of protein and mild spice with salsa rojo, pico de gallo, queso fresco on top. MSRP $4.49.

Kat Cole, chief operating officer and president, FOCUS Brands, stated “We are thrilled to increase access to the delicious experience of Moe’s through the debut of Moe’s Breakfast Bowls at supermarkets nationwide,”  “The Southwest flavor profile is growing in appeal, but until now, not widely available in the breakfast category. Moe’s Breakfast Bowls are meeting the demand for better-for-you, flavorful options for a high protein breakfast or breakfast-as-snack option.”

Moe’s has partnered with Kellogg Company, the world’s leading cereal company and leading North American frozen foods company, on the development and manufacturing of the new product line.  We believe that Tony the Tiger thinks they are GREAT!

Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing 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.

Grocerant Niche Fresh Food Top Priorities for Summer

Restaurants must evolve or else they will continue to capitulate customer counts to non-traditional fresh food retailers according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson. Pilot Flying J understands that and with  66 percent of Americans plan to travel this summer, and 57 percent of traveling parents will hit the road feeling "stressed" about where they are going to stop along the way, fresh food will make the difference.

In a new study commissioned by Pilot Flying J found “of more than 1,000 U.S. parents who take family road trips and have children under the age of 18. The study found that when driving on a family road trip, finding a stop with clean bathrooms as well as fresh food is crucial to parents. Here is what they found:

1.       Nine in 10 parents (88 percent) say they would be "more likely" to stop at a particular travel center, if it were to offer fresh food options.

2.       Millennial parents are most interested in finding travel centers with fresh food options that will make everyone in the family happy, as 65 percent care about this, compared to 51 percent of Generation X parents and 42 percent of Baby Boomer parents.

Additionally, "where to stop to eat" is the top source of stress and family arguments when on a road trip, the survey found.

When thinking of the total experience, 85 percent of parents (and 91 percent of millennial parents) say they would be surprised to come across a travel center that has both great, fresh food options, and clean bathrooms and facilities.

Whitney Haslam Johnson, chief experience officer for Pilot Flying J.stated "Listening to our guests, and understanding their needs is a priority for us at Pilot Flying J,"… "If we can provide what families want to take some of the stress away, then hopefully it makes their experience with us enjoyable. As a mom of three boys myself, I understand how important that can be."

Pilot Flying J is offering a special road trip snack pack from now through Aug. 31. When customers purchase a 2.25-ounce bag of Smartfood Popcorn with an online coupon available at RoadTrips.PilotFlyingJ.com, they will receive a free 20-ounce bottle of Aquafina water.

Knoxville-based Pilot Flying J operates more than 650 retail locations in North America.

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 the clue you need to propel your continued success. 

Starbucks a Trending Company on Trend

So we all know that in America that consumers on a diet do not want to eat less they simply want to eat their way thin eating something else.  So how is that working for you?  The top three diets Pescetarianism, Low-carbohydrate diet, and Gluten-free diet are kinda like the ‘official Paleo’ diet.  In short eat more protein less everything else. 

Starbucks gets it and once again is spot on trend.  Starbucks has added more protein, fruits and vegetables to the company’s grab-and-go lunch menu. The top customer requests asked for protein-packed options, chicken and turkey raised without antibiotics, and more fruits and vegetables all fall under the umbrella of ‘better-for-you’.

Currently Starbucks offers six Protein Boxes for customers to choose. The new Starbucks Protein Boxes are an excellent source of protein with at least 20 grams of protein per box and feature chicken and turkey raised without antibiotics and include at least one cup of fruits and vegetables combined according to the company. Here are some of the boxes:

1. BBQ Chicken and Power Slaw Protein Box—Includes a flatbread sandwich made with chicken raised without antibiotics mixed with smoky BBQ sauce, topped with Pepper Jack cheese, chili-peach jam and a side of apples and carrots. (22 grams of protein)

2. Smoked Turkey and Swiss Protein Box—Includes a flatbread sandwich with turkey raised without antibiotics, pickled peppers, tangy cream cheese spread, lettuce and a side of apples and carrots. (24 grams of protein)

3. The Eggs and Cheese with Apples and Grapes Protein Box (formerly known as the Protein Bistro Box) now includes two cage-free eggs instead of one for the ultimate protein boost. (23 grams of protein)

4. The Chicken Wrap with Peanut-Coconut Sauce Protein Box (formally known as Thai-Style Peanut Chicken Wrap) has more chicken, now raised without antibiotics, and is offered as one wrap instead of three pinwheels. (20 grams of protein)

5. The PB&J with Fruits and Veggies Protein Box (formally known as PB&J on Wheat Bistro Box) has 50 percent more peanut butter and jam. (20 grams of protein)

Success does leave clues and selling consumers what they want when they want it is our clue for today.  More important that is what Starbucks is doing this summer selling protein boxes so we can all eat our way thin!

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

Foodservice Solutions: Looking A Customer Ahead

What’s for Dinner?  Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson stated “At 4 PM: your customers are just beginning to think about what's for dinner. Fully 83.2 % of all American consumers are unsure about what's for dinner at 11:30 AM and 63.1% don’t know what’s for dinner at 4PM in the United States according to our recent Grocerant ScoreCards.”

What are you selling to your customers?  What avenues of distribution is your brand doing the best? In a survey of U.S. diners conducted by Technomic showed that over a three-month period, “85 percent enjoyed a meal at a restaurant and 95 percent had a restaurant meal at home. Not surprising, but that same survey showed that nearly as many diners had a meal of grocery prepared foods (57 percent) as drive-thru restaurants (63 percent) and carryout restaurants (53 percent).”

New avenues of fresh food distribution continue to open.  New companies the ilk of Everytable, Hello Fresh, Snap Kitchen, Green Zebra Grocery, and Starbucks offer meals, meal components all that can be mixed and matched into a cohesive family meal according to Johnson.  

Consumer’s today rate grocery store service deli food as restaurant quality according to data compiled from Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant ScoreCards they are increasing saying the same thing about fresh food offered at convenience stores. 

Retailers and consumers are beginning to use the work, invoke, and request “grocerants” when referring to or requesting fresh food fast according to the team at Foodservice Solutions®.  The NPD Group reported that ‘Grocerants, “received higher ratings for variety, healthy options, freshness and quality than traditional quick-service restaurants.”

In addition to increasing convenience and variety, a key area of opportunity lies in offering more healthy options. The majority of consumers purchase foods with “health halo” claims more often at grocery stores than at restaurants, and as more consumers look for more healthful prepared foods, retailers should consider offering more fruit and vegetable dishes as well as utilizing more healthful preparations. Emphasizing healthfulness could help retailers position their offerings as a nutritious replacement for home-cooked meals.

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