Kroger Tries Everything including Virtual Restaurants but Will it Help

The Kroger Co. with 19+ banners and slew of branding lessons learned is once again grasping for something to become a breakout hit according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

After spending $12 million dollars on a test concept store Main & Vine they closed the door. Clearly, after spinning off Lucky’s Market and taking a $238 Million dollar charge, opening a virtual restaurant should not cost them $12 Million and this just might be the key to leaning how to rebrand some of their 19 banners to focus on meals rather than slotting fees and shelf space.

When Kroger announced a partnership with ClusterTruck to open a series of delivery-only “dark kitchen” restaurants capable of delivering fresh meals to shoppers in less than 30 minutes Johnson, said “customer migration from cooking from scratch to grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared meals continues to drive customer adoption and Kroger if they have the ability to vertically integrate a customer focused message just might have a chance within this space.”

The Kroger Delivery Kitchen Powered by ClusterTruck will offer multiple menus from a single scratch kitchen, the Cincinnati-based retailer said. The service officially launched Dec. 2 in Carmel, Ind., with additional availability in Indianapolis; Columbus, Ohio; and in Denver, where the service will be known as King Soopers Delivery Kitchen. If you live in one of those locations please let us know if you tried the service, if you liked the food, and if the food was hot and delivered within 30 minutes.

Kroger executives have long looked at restaurants and prepared food as market-share opportunities, noting shoppers spend about as much on food away from home as they do on food at home. The company in recent years has opened a restaurant; invested in the meal kit company HomeChef; and recently launched a food hall at a new flagship store in downtown Cincinnati. Kroger will potentially bring new marketing power and its own customer data to ClusterTruck. But that’s not all that’s needed. Is your brand looking for grocerant niche success, quit looking and call the experts since 1991, Foodservice Solutions®.

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