Forced to Stay Home: Eating-Out While Eating-In Can Drive Retail Food Sales Success

Success does leave clues while the undercurrents of consumers eating (Restaurant, Grocery, Catering, C-store, and Meal Kits) fresh prepared meals at home has been driving the success of Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food.

The Coronavirus combined with forced restaurant closings has elevate the importance of evolving your business plan to include all of the important attributes of successful Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food sales according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Remember there are just too many options from which consumers can chose meal and meal delivery.  For success brands must renew their brands offerings to accommodate the new attributes driving long-term customer adoption within the grocerant niche. 

To start consumer’s want fresh food, fast, with flavor.  They want Hot food Hot, and Cold food cold. They do not want to figure out how to cook, and do dishes according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

There is a new incremental opportunity for non-traditional fresh food retailers too sell grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat sell meals and meal components to go for the long-term driving up average chack, driving up top-line revenue, while driving incremental bottom-line profit according to Johnson. That opportunity has created a battle for share of stomach.

Are You Winning in the 

Battle for Share of Stomach

Who should or who will be extending their reach with grocerant niche fresh food for 2020, 2025? That list will include Restaurants, Furniture Stores, Drug Stores, Grocery Stores, Convenience Stores, Clothing Stores, and Dollar Stores to name but a few.  

Here are 6 reasons Eating-Out while Eating-In will continue to gain momentum around the world in 2025:

1.       Technology:  5G is coming around the world in 2020 with new phones, tables, and computers offering 10 times the speed of service, elevating the non-store shopping experience.  Will your brand be watching, waiting, or a leading player in 2020?

2.       During the 2019 Holiday shopping season: 9 out of 10 Belgians reach for their smartphones for holiday shopping.

3.       Food from everywhere: In 2019 Consumers Used All Food Distribution Channels More Than a Year Ago With 39%+ at Drive-thru’s, 34%+ Food Delivery, 29%+ Takeout 44%. Note: 58% of restaurant occasions are now off -premise.

4.       80% of household shoppers: in an IRI survey said they purchased deli prepared foods regularly.

5.       90 percent of guests: research a restaurant online before dining — more than any other business type.

6.       Restaurant year over year customer counts declined 5.7% in December 2019. Consumers are not eating less they are eating somewhere else and buying from new non-traditional fresh food retailers.

Are waiting, watching, as others move forward reaching your customers with new products, packaged with the ‘halo’ of better for you, on a new avenue of distribution. Do your stores look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Are your year over year customer counts growing? If they are not, your brand is dying.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify, and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, a new menu product segment, or product / 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