Millennials Don’t Hate Foodservice—They Hate Friction: Pricing, Authenticity, and Digital Discovery Are the New Table Stakes

 

The foodservice industry is dynamic, not static—and Millennials have proven to be the clearest signal of where the market is headed, not an anomaly to be managed. For legacy brands struggling to “win back” Millennials, the issue is rarely food quality alone. It is friction: unclear pricing, limited digital access, and food that feels engineered rather than authentic.

As Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson has long stated, “Digital availability, pricing transparency, and in-store fresh prepared food that is ethnically authentic are the combination that attracts both Gen Z and Millennial consumers.” The data now overwhelmingly supports that position.

Millennials Are Not Hard to Reach—They Are Easy to Lose

Millennials (born roughly 1981–1996) now represent the largest cohort of U.S. foodservice spenders, accounting for an estimated 30–35% of total restaurant and prepared food dollars. Contrary to outdated assumptions, they eat frequently, cook selectively, and shop across channels—restaurants, grocery, club, and convenience—often within the same week.

What they reject is inefficiency.

Recent industry benchmarks show:

·       Over 70% of Millennials compare prices digitally before choosing where to eat or buy prepared food.

·       More than 60% expect real-time menu availability, nutrition, and ingredient transparency online.

·       Nearly half say they will abandon a brand if pricing feels confusing or promotional rules feel “designed to trick.”

Millennials do not expect perfection; they expect clarity.

Costco: A Case Study in Millennial Gravity

Costco’s continued success with Millennials underscores a critical truth: authenticity and value scale. The company has expanded its organic assortment, increased fresh prepared food innovation, and experimented with digital promotions—including coupon platforms and app-based engagement—to meet younger consumers where they are.

During earnings calls, Costco disclosed that the average age gap between its U.S. members and the general population has narrowed to under two years, down from more than four years previously. That shift did not happen by accident. It happened because Costco leaned into:

·       Transparent pricing

·       Private-label trust

·       Fresh, globally inspired prepared foods

·       Digital discovery without gimmicks

Millennials do not see Costco as “old retail.” They see it as honest retail.

Grocery Is Still Stuck in the 1960s—Millennials Notice

As Acosta Senior VP Colin Stewart noted, “The typical grocery store, especially center store, is the same as it’s been since the 1960s.” Millennials, by contrast, seek experiences layered with utility. They want discovery, but they also want speed.

Key behavioral facts:

·       More than 75% of Millennials grocery shop with someone else, compared to roughly 60% of the total population.

·       Shopping is social: spouses/partners (38%), children (41%), and friends or roommates (nearly 30%).

·       Among Hispanic Millennials, grocery shopping as a social experience is even more pronounced, with nearly 90% shopping with others.

Food discovery, for Millennials, is communal—both physically and digitally.

Digital Is Not a Feature—It Is an Expectation

Acosta’s Why Behind the Buy research made it clear years ago, and the data has only strengthened:

·       64% of Millennials shop grocery online at least monthly, versus roughly 40% of all shoppers.

·       Six in ten Millennials have tried a meal kit, compared to about one in ten Boomers.

·       Nearly 40% of items in Millennial baskets are organic, materially higher than older cohorts.

Meal kits succeeded not because they were trendy, but because they solved multiple Millennial needs simultaneously:

·       Skill-building (45% want to learn new cooking techniques)

·       Health-forward ingredients

·       Portion control

·       Price predictability

·       Digital-first engagement

Pizza, Value, and the Grocerant Effect—Then and Now

The pizza sector’s success—dating back to the mid-2010s and continuing today—remains one of the clearest illustrations of grocerant principles in action. Pizza won because it delivered:

·       Handheld convenience

·       Transparent value pricing

·       Fast fulfillment

·       Cross-channel availability (delivery, pickup, retail, C-store)

Chains like Domino’s and Papa John’s paired aggressive value menus with frictionless digital ordering, setting a standard that grocery, convenience, and foodservice competitors quickly emulated. Meanwhile, C-stores, club stores, and supermarkets expanded Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat pizza, capturing incremental meal occasions once reserved for restaurants.

The lesson was never about pizza—it was about reducing decision friction while increasing perceived control.

 

Three Grocerant Guru® Insights: Why Food Discovery Now Determines Legacy Brand Survival

1. Discovery Has Shifted From Menus to Moments
Millennials discover food through social feeds, apps, in-store visuals, and peer validation—not static menus. Legacy brands must design discovery across touchpoints, not just at the point of sale.

2. Authenticity Scales Faster Than Innovation Theater
Ethnic authenticity, clear sourcing, and simple preparation outperform “limited-time innovation.” Millennials reward brands that show cultural respect and culinary honesty—not over-engineered novelty.

3. Digital Is the New Front Door—Prepared Food Is the Welcome Mat
Brands that treat digital as marketing miss the opportunity. Digital discovery must connect directly to fresh prepared food availability, pricing clarity, and immediate consumption options—the heart of the grocerant niche.

 

The conclusion is straightforward: Millennials are not abandoning foodservice. They are reallocating spend toward brands that respect their time, intelligence, and desire for participation. Pricing transparency, authentic prepared food, and seamless digital discovery are no longer competitive advantages—they are baseline requirements.

The grocerant niche continues to prove that when brands reduce friction and increase trust, Millennials do the rest.

For more on how the Foodservice Solutions® 5P’s of Food Marketing can accelerate discovery, differentiation, and participation, visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or contact Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us.

The Grocerant Advantage Returns: How Olive Garden Relearned the Power of Ready-2-Eat in a Fragmented Food Culture

 

In 2016, Olive Garden offered a clear, if underappreciated, lesson for the restaurant industry: when consumer behavior fragments, the brands that win are those that meet customers where they are—at home, on the go, and on their own schedule. Nearly a decade later, that lesson has only grown more relevant. Once again, the grocerant niche—Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food—has proven to be a stabilizing and growth-driving force for Olive Garden, and a blueprint for casual dining brands struggling with relevance, traffic volatility, and rising costs according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

A Historical Reset: Why the Grocerant Niche Matters

Olive Garden’s outperformance in the mid-2010s was not accidental. It was driven by an early embrace of grocerant principles: bundled value, meal flexibility, and take-home utility. Same-store sales growth outpaced the casual-dining segment by more than five percentage points at a time when many peers were flat or negative. The catalyst was not décor, menu innovation, or price increases alone—it was participation.

Programs like Buy-One-Take-One and the Never Ending Pasta Bowl did more than drive traffic. They expanded use occasions. A dine-in visit became a future meal. A single check became two consumption events. That is grocerant logic: extend the brand beyond the table and into the consumer’s weekly food routine.

Fast forward to today, and the macro environment reinforces why this matters more than ever.

The 2025 Consumer Reality: Fragmented, Value-Driven, and Time-Starved

Current food marketing data underscores three enduring truths:

·       Meal replacement dominates behavior: Over 70% of U.S. consumers now decide what to eat within four hours of consumption, favoring solutions over experiences on weeknights.

·       Off-premise is the profit battleground: To-go, curbside, and delivery account for roughly 40–50% of casual-dining transactions, yet generate disproportionate margin risk without operational discipline.

·       Value is redefined: Value is no longer “cheap.” It is usable. Bundled meals, leftovers, and reheat quality now rank alongside price in perceived worth.

Olive Garden’s historic success with take-home entrees anticipated this shift. Its to-go business grew more than 50% over three years in the prior decade, and the logic remains sound today: consumers want restaurant-quality food with grocery-like flexibility.

Packaging, Platforms, and Participation

What has changed since 2016 is the role of packaging and digital access.

·       Packaging is now brand infrastructure: Heat retention, portion integrity, and reusability directly influence repeat purchase. Packaging that travels and reheats well is no longer optional—it is marketing.

·       App ordering outperforms web: App users order more frequently, customize more, and respond better to bundles and limited-time offers. The app is the modern menu board and loyalty engine.

·       Online convenience beats in-store persuasion: Discovery happens digitally, but loyalty is built when the food performs at home as promised.

Olive Garden’s early willingness to test third-party delivery—even amid pricing tension—reflected a correct strategic instinct: distribution is marketing. If the food is not present when hunger strikes, the brand is irrelevant.

The Grocerant Niche as a Defensive and Offensive Strategy

Casual dining continues to face customer discontinuity. Fewer people eat out the same way, at the same time, every week. The grocerant niche mitigates this risk by allowing brands to sell meals, not moments. It transforms restaurants into flexible food providers rather than fixed-occasion destinations.

Olive Garden’s performance then—and its continued relevance now—demonstrates that leaving the grocerant niche was never the solution. Re-embracing it was.

 

Four Forward-Looking Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1.       Bundles Will Replace Entrées as the Core Unit of Sale
The future menu is not an item list; it is a solution set. Successful brands will sell “Tonight + Tomorrow” meals as the default, not the upsell.

2.       Packaging Will Be a Competitive Differentiator, Not a Cost Line
Brands that invest in sustainable, reheatable, brand-coded packaging will see higher second-day consumption satisfaction—and higher loyalty.

3.       Apps Will Become Personalized Meal Planners
The next evolution of restaurant apps will mirror grocery behavior: saved bundles, scheduled reorders, and predictive meal prompts based on past behavior.

4.       The Grocerant Niche Will Blur Restaurant and Retail Boundaries
Winning brands will no longer ask, “Are we dine-in or off-premise?” They will ask, “How many meals did we enable this week?” That metric favors grocerant-aligned operators every time.

The lesson from 2016 still holds in 2025: when restaurants stop selling plates and start selling meals that fit real life, they win. Once again, the grocerant niche did not just save Olive Garden—it reminded the industry what business it is truly in.

Gain a Competitive Edge with a Grocerant ScoreCard

Unlock new opportunities with a Grocerant ScoreCard, designed to optimize product positioning, placement, and consumer engagement.

Since 1991, Foodservice Solutions® has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche—helping brands identify high-growth strategies that resonate with modern consumers.

📞 Call 253-759-7869 or 📩 Email Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

The Undervalued MVP of the Holiday Table: The True Value of a Restaurant Server By the Grocerant Guru®

 

On Christmas Day, millions of Americans will gather around tables that are not in their own homes. Some will be celebrating after long shifts. Others will be traveling. Many will be choosing restaurants not out of convenience, but out of tradition, comfort, and connection. At the center of those moments stands one of the most undervalued professionals in foodservice: the restaurant server.

From the perspective of the Grocerant Guru®, the restaurant server is not a “cost of doing business.” They are a value creator, a brand ambassador, and a critical member of the consumer’s personal circle of trust—the people who quietly help make everyday meals, and especially holiday meals, happy ones.

Servers Are the Human Interface of Hospitality

Industry data consistently shows that service quality is the single strongest driver of repeat restaurant visits, outweighing menu variety, décor, or promotions. In full-service restaurants, guest satisfaction scores can rise or fall by as much as 20–30% based solely on server interaction, even when food quality remains constant.

Why? Because servers translate operational execution into emotional experience. They:

·       Interpret menus and make confident recommendations

·       Pace the meal to match the occasion

·       Read the table’s mood and adjust tone accordingly

·       Anticipate needs before guests articulate them

A kitchen prepares food. A server delivers meaning.

The Economic Impact of a Great Server

From a business standpoint, servers directly influence revenue in measurable ways:

·       Check averages increase when servers suggest pairings, upgrades, or desserts—often by 10–15% per table.

·       Table turns improve when pacing is managed professionally, increasing revenue per seat without rushing guests.

·       Guest loyalty grows when customers feel recognized and remembered; regulars frequently return for a server as much as for a dish.

During the holiday season, these factors compound. Restaurants see larger parties, higher emotional stakes, and tighter timing. A skilled server manages complexity with grace—keeping kitchens flowing while ensuring guests feel unrushed and cared for.

Emotional Labor You Can’t Automate

Technology can take orders. It cannot offer empathy.

Servers perform what economists call emotional labor—the intentional management of tone, body language, and communication to create comfort and trust. During the holidays, this matters more than ever. Servers routinely encounter:

·       Families navigating grief or absence

·       Guests celebrating milestones

·       Diners who simply do not want to be alone

In those moments, a server becomes more than a job title. They become part of the guest’s holiday memory.

Servers as Part of Your Personal “Circle”

The Grocerant Guru® often speaks about the consumer’s circle—those people and brands that quietly support daily life. Think about it:

·       The barista who remembers your order

·       The grocery clerk who helps you find a last-minute ingredient

·       The server who makes Christmas dinner feel warm, calm, and special

Servers earn their place in that circle through consistency, care, and presence. They are trusted with time, celebration, and sometimes vulnerability. That trust has real value.

The Holiday Multiplier Effect

Christmas amplifies everything:

·       Expectations are higher

·       Stress levels are elevated

·       Memories last longer

A server working on Christmas Day is often sacrificing time with their own family to serve yours. Factually, holiday shifts are among the most demanding in foodservice, requiring peak performance under emotional and operational pressure. When guests leave smiling, it is rarely accidental—it is engineered through professionalism.

Why Servers Matter More Than Ever

As restaurants compete with grocery prepared foods, delivery, and convenience-driven meal solutions, human connection is the differentiator. Servers are not legacy labor; they are future-facing assets in a marketplace where experience equals value.

From the Grocerant Guru® perspective, restaurants that invest in servers—through training, respect, and empowerment—do not just sell meals. They build relationships.

A Christmas Day Reflection

This Christmas, when a server refills your coffee, times dessert just right, or simply wishes you a sincere “Happy Holidays,” remember this: they are helping make your meal a happy one in the most human way possible.

Servers do not just serve food.
They serve moments.
They serve comfort.
They serve connection.

And during the holiday season, that may be the most valuable thing on the menu.

 

Happy Holidays, Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®