Eataly is a Great Grocerant

Recently Bret Thorn of Nation’s Restaurant News wrote about Eataly the only thing that was clear from his article is that the editors and the author don’t have a clue about what Eataly is to consumers.  Simply put it is a Grocerant.  It’s not that hard to say. 

The team at Foodservice Solutions® simply laughed when they read the article.  There is no wonder why our blog gets 25,178 unique views per day.  Regular readers of this blog understand the undercurrents driving customer migration within the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food space and legacy foodservice media outlets are too busy protecting their turf to care about year over year customer counts. So for eight years restaurant customer counts continue to be flat or down. We know where the customers are going and why. 

So Bret, no Eataly is not an “Italian supermarket, food hall and restaurant complex” it is a grocerant.  Eataly is consumer interactive, consumer participatory, filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food that edifies customer choice empowering personalization and customization with more mix and match meal components that are customer relevant.

The first of the two New York City locations has sales that have been reported over $60 Million a year.  Now they have two locations in New York City and single outlets in Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston. Eataly also has 13 locations in Italy, as well as outposts in Brazil, Monaco, Turkey, Dubai, South Korea and Japan. Success does leave clues. Here is what success can help you do.

FICO Eataly World is unlike anything the food arena has ever seen: As part of the sprawling, 20-acre complex in Bologna, Italy, there are 108,000 square feet of orchards, pastures, and gardens; six rides; 40 workshops; and 25 restaurants and food stalls from which to pick your pizza, pasta, and polenta. Adding to the grown-up theme park vibe, there will be 500 adult-sized tricycles with shopping baskets, designed especially for the complex by celebrated Italian bike makers Bianchi.

Like our grocerant guru said before Eataly is consumer interactive and participatory. There will be no boring lessons on Excel or how to know you've ordered enough olive oil. Instead, in this $106 Million dollar ‘theme park version of a grocerant visitors will be able to do everything from walk through the prosciutto process to see wheat, stone-ground, turned into flour, and made into several kinds of pasta.  Soon, the Eataly World experience is slated to even get its own a 200-room hotel in early 2018.

Don’t get us wrong I’m not suggesting everyone open a theme park.  What I am saying is that if you’re running a restaurant and your fresh food offering are not consumer interactive and consumers participatory you’re not keeping up with the undercurrents of consumers.  Consumers are dynamic not static brands must be as well. 

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