Why does Restaurant Customer Discontinuity Continue to Linger?

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson predicts that 2023 will be a record year of chain restaurant discontinuity.  Specifically, with more chain restaurant closing stores and fewer total chain restaurants open entering 2023.

Today many restaurants, c-stores, grocerants, have been "holding on by a thread" according to Johnson, since the COVID-19 pandemic the prepared meal foodservice sector has and has been in austerity mode, trying to hire employees back, keep prices down, and please customers.

Once again today it is the increases to cost of goods, packaging, fuel, insurance, taxes and freight charges, among other expenses. Alongside the price hikes, consumers are migrating to new and different channels looking for new flavors, better prices, and service that fit’s their lifestyle. You can change that if you choose.

Back in the day (2005) the team at Foodservice Solutions® released a White Paper Restaurant Consumer Discontinuity; we noted consumer migration in food format preference from meals eaten in restaurants to fresh prepared meals bought and eaten at home.  The undercurrents of consumer migration from eating-out to eating-In is even strong today according to Johnson.   

The main drive of this change is consumers desire to Mix and Match meal components into a perfect family meal.  How has this been tracked? Good question.  Regular readers of this blog know we regularly documented that consumers like to mix and match meal components. Mix and match meal bundling is a benchmark for success within the grocerant niche.

Recently we documented how grocery stores are now doing a great job at offering ‘better-for-you’ side dishes empowering consumers to buy fresh prepared sides from the ‘service deli’ rather than at a restaurant.  The intended consequence consumers are buying more entrees as well.  Consumers are dynamic not static is your branded food solutions static or dynamic?

Meal time is now becoming a time of convenient meal participation, with differentiation and individualization for the entire family.  The ability of the restaurant to empower consumer choice within a bundled offering creates an additional platform for success.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  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