Customer Focused Food Innovation Drives Trial

 

Food retailers are all competing for a larger share of stomach according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. In order to garner incremental customers food retailers including restaurants, convenience stores, grocery stores, dollar stores, and bodegas must focus specifically on Generation Z and Millennials where food discover and fresh food discovery options are a must. 

The team at Foodservice Solutions® came across some insights published about food innovative products that just might start getting your attention.  We want to share that article: “The 2023 NACS Show came to a close earlier this month, but not before providing 24,084 attendees four days of education, networking and a look at what's up and coming in the global convenience and fuel retailing industry.

Held Oct. 3-6 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, the expo delivered buzz around a number of new products and drove category excitement. Overall, there were 7,334 attendees classified as "buyers," as well as attendees from 67 countries, NACS reported.

Organized around five broad categories — in-store merchandise, technology, facility development and store operations, fuel equipment and services, and food equipment and foodservice programs — the 436,100-net-square-foot expo featured 1,261 exhibitors, including 205 exhibitors in the New Exhibitor Area, which provided retailers with a unique look at the new products and services that are relatively new to the convenience channel.

A marker of the annual expo included the Cool New Products Preview Room, where attendees could scan QR codes through the NACS Show mobile app for any of the 300 products on display. Of the 17,082 product scans, the most-scanned products centered predominantly on new food products.

The top 10 most-scanned products featured in the Cool New Products Preview Room were:

1.       Lunchables Crispy Grilled Cheesies, KraftHeinz

2.       Sow Good Freeze Dried Candy, CB Distributors Inc. dba Fenix

3.       Safe Pinch Tamper-Evident Bowls With Insert, Anchor Packaging

4.       Freeze Dried Crazy Candy, Smithco Distributing DSD Express

5.       New Products from Drink Blocks LLC, Drink Blocks LLC

6.       New Products from Hatcheri Foods, Hatcheri Foods

7.       New Products from Cheers, Cheers

8.       Value Lunchables, KraftHeinz

9.       Café Tango, Frazil

10.   Alcohol Breathalyzer Rapid Test, Big Ideas Marketing

Alexandria, Va.-based NACS is the leading global trade association dedicated to advancing convenience and fuel retailing by advances the role of convenience stores as positive economic, social and philanthropic contributors to the communities they serve. The association is a trusted adviser to retailer and supplier members from more than 50 countries. The U.S. convenience store industry, with more than 150,000 stores nationwide selling fuel, food and merchandise, conducts 160 million transactions daily and had sales of $906.1 billion in 2022.

We recommend that you consider attending the show next year.

The 2024 NACS Show will take place Oct. 7-10 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Foodservice Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits. Are you looking a customer ahead? Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success.