Time Starved Consumers Continue Migrating to the Grocerant Niche

Battle for Share of Stomach

 Retailers of every ilk are adding new or more grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared grocerant niche food according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

Today the opportunity within the grocery sector alone has reached $13 Billion in sales and according to the Food Marketing Institute. The report goes on to say that sector is growing at an annually rate of 8.2%.  So, if you are wondering where restaurant customers go when they raise prices.  They are going where they can save money and time to the grocery store deli according to Johnson.

In FMI’s 2019 Power of Foodservice at Retail study found “that 63 percent of consumers continue to incorporate time-saving solutions in the form of semi- and fully-prepared items for dinner, but opportunities exist for grocers to garner greater visibility as the primary dinner solution.

The 2019 survey participants offered feedback for their stores to focus on faster service, more cuisine variety, healthier dishes as well as healthier alternatives to current options, competitive prices, more information, freshness, knowledgeable and available staff, and various operational improvements such as cleanliness and in-stock performance.

 Let’s see what else they found:

1.        “The study notes that grocers with a positive reputation in retail foodservice can serve as strong motivation for 64 percent of shoppers who say they will actually go out of their way to find these stores,”  

2.       Eighty-eight percent of shoppers want to see more new items and flavors in retail foodservice. In fact, the most frequently mentioned word in the open-ended suggestions of the survey was “more,” in combination with words such as variety, food, options and items. 

3.       31 percent, want to see flavor and item rotation on a monthly basis, but 28 percent want even greater levels of innovation and recommend a weekly or even daily rotation. 

4.       The importance of speed is once more underscored by the grab-and-go, ready-to-eat format being the most popular method, which is of interest to 68 percent of shoppers. 

5.       Grab-and-go, heat-and-eat is the second most popular style, at 63 percent. 

6.       While 57 percent of shoppers have grocery store apps downloaded, 42 percent actively use one or more. 

7.       App usage is highly related to checking weekly specials (78 percent),

8.       online ordering of groceries (53 percent),

9.       getting recipes and meal ideas and researching the deli-prepared foods menu, but foodservice orders lag (38 percent).

The price, service, value equilibrium continues to reset according to Johnson.  Restaurants continue to raise prices on a year over year as of July 2019 they are up 3% with wholesale prices up only 0.7% according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. All the while grocery stores are adding new grocerant niche meal options with price points that are compelling and quality equal to that of restaurants according to Johnson.

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