The
football season has always been about more than football. It is about
gathering, grazing, sharing, snacking and—perhaps most importantly—feeding a
crowd without spending the entire game day in the kitchen according to Steven
Johnson, The Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®
That
is why PDQ’s latest promotion caught my
attention.
PDQ,
known for its crispy, hand-breaded chicken tenders and sandwiches, is launching
a football-season offer that is a textbook example of how restaurants can
extend their brands beyond the traditional restaurant occasion.
From
September 9 through September 13, customers can buy a platter of 25 Reheat Tenders and get another 25 tenders
free. Pre-orders begin August 27, with pickup available September 9–13.
Customers order in-store or online using the code BIGGAME, with a limit of two
redemptions per check.
In
other words, PDQ is not simply selling chicken.
PDQ
is selling a solution to a meal occasion.
And
that distinction matters.
Consumers Don't Want to Cook—They Want to Assemble
The
food industry has been talking about convenience for decades. But today's
consumer is redefining what convenience actually means.
Convenience
increasingly means getting a high-quality meal on the table with almost no
preparation.
Circana's
2026 research makes the point dramatically: about half of all meals now take
less than five minutes to prepare. That includes 65% of breakfasts, 56% of
lunches and 35% of dinners. Circana also reports that frozen dinners and
entrées now account for nearly 5% of in-home eating occasions, compared with
less than 1% in the 1980s.
That
is not merely a frozen-food story.
It
is a foodservice opportunity.
PDQ understands something many restaurant
marketers still miss: the restaurant does not have to own the entire eating
occasion to own a meaningful piece of it.
A
consumer can buy restaurant-quality food, take it home, reheat it and create a
social occasion around it.
That's
grocerant thinking.
Fresh Food Has Become a Foodservice Destination
The
grocery industry is discovering the same opportunity from the opposite
direction.
FMI's
Power of Foodservice at Retail 2025 found that the share of consumers
choosing deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals more than doubled—from
12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025.
Even
more revealing, 53% of Americans are taking a hybrid approach, combining
deli-prepared foods with food they prepare themselves. Retail foodservice
dollar sales reached $52.1 billion, up 1.6% over the preceding 12 months.
Read
that again.
Consumers
aren't necessarily choosing between restaurants and grocery stores.
They
are using both.
That
is the foundation of the modern grocerant economy.
Costco's Rotisserie Chicken Is the Poster Child
Look
no further than Costco.
Costco
sold approximately 157.4 million rotisserie chickens globally in fiscal 2025—more
than 431,000 per day.
That
isn't simply a successful grocery product.
It
is a foodservice phenomenon operating inside a retail environment.
The
Costco rotisserie chicken became an iconic value proposition because it
delivers something consumers understand immediately:
Dinner
is ready.
And
the product doesn't necessarily end with the chicken itself. Prepared chicken
can become sandwiches, salads, soups and other meal components.
That
is precisely how the foodservice-at-retail model creates additional occasions.
Fresh Isn't the Only Winner
For
years, food marketers treated frozen as the lesser cousin of fresh.
That
thinking is outdated.
The
Frozen Food Court—my term for the increasingly important space where restaurant
brands, foodservice concepts and recognizable food brands compete for attention
in the grocery freezer—continues to evolve.
Frozen
provides something fresh cannot always match:
inventory
flexibility.
It
gives consumers the ability to purchase a meal today and eat it days or weeks
later.
That
matters when consumers are managing busy schedules, food budgets and
unpredictable meal occasions.
Circana
continues to track frozen food as a major component of the center-store
opportunity, with frozen-food sales and category shifts being closely monitored
as consumer behavior evolves.
And
the restaurant industry should be paying attention.
The
Frozen Food Court gives restaurant brands an opportunity to put their name,
flavor profile and food proposition into the home without requiring the
consumer to visit the restaurant.
That
is an enormous expansion of the brand's addressable eating occasion.
Restaurant Brands Are Learning to Travel
The
winners in foodservice increasingly understand that their brands need to
travel.
A
restaurant's relationship with a consumer shouldn't necessarily end when the
customer leaves the parking lot.
The
brand can travel home through:
·
Reheat meals
·
Family meals
·
Catering
·
Party platters
·
Frozen products
·
Grocery partnerships
·
Take-home sauces
·
Meal kits
·
Prepared foods
·
Delivery
·
Digital ordering
PDQ's
Reheat Tender Platter is particularly interesting because it bridges two
worlds.
It
is fresh restaurant food designed for a future consumption occasion.
That
is different from simply selling a hot meal.
The
consumer doesn't have to eat it immediately.
That
creates a new dimension of convenience.
The Fresh-Frozen Divide Is Disappearing
Here
is where I believe food marketers need to rethink the conversation.
The
future isn't necessarily fresh versus frozen.
It
is fresh plus frozen plus ready-to-eat plus heat-and-eat plus restaurant
foodservice.
Consumers
are becoming channel agnostic.
They
care about the food, the price, the quality, the convenience and whether it
solves today's meal problem.
FMI's
2026 research continues to position fresh food as central to food retail's
ability to attract shoppers and create competitive advantage.
Meanwhile,
frozen provides affordability, availability, convenience and longer shelf life.
Restaurants
provide craveability, culinary credibility and brand recognition.
The
smartest companies are finding ways to combine these advantages rather than
forcing consumers to choose one.
Football Is the Perfect Test Case
PDQ's
promotion works because it starts with the occasion, not the menu.
Football
creates a predictable need:
"I
have a bunch of people coming over. What am I going to feed them?"
Twenty-five
tenders isn't necessarily a restaurant meal.
Fifty
tenders certainly isn't.
It
is a social food solution.
And
that is the difference between menu marketing and occasion marketing.
PDQ
isn't telling consumers:
"Come
to our restaurant and buy chicken."
It
is effectively telling them:
"We'll
help you feed the crowd."
That
is a much bigger proposition.
And
football is just one occasion.
Think
about birthdays, children's sports, office meetings, graduation parties, movie
nights, family gatherings, holidays, tailgating, neighborhood parties and
last-minute entertaining.
Every
one represents a potential foodservice occasion.
The Real Opportunity: Own the Meal, Not Just the Restaurant
Visit
The
restaurant industry has historically measured success by transactions, traffic,
check averages and frequency.
Those
metrics still matter.
But
the bigger question is:
How
many meal occasions does your brand participate in?
That
is the metric I would want food marketers thinking about.
A
restaurant that sells one dinner to a customer owns one meal occasion.
A
restaurant that sells a 50-piece platter for a football party may participate
in an occasion involving 10, 15 or 20 consumers.
A
restaurant that also sells frozen products or take-home meals can potentially
participate in dozens of additional occasions without adding another
dining-room seat.
That's
leverage.
Three Insights From the Grocerant Guru®
1.
Stop marketing food products and start marketing meal solutions.
Consumers
don't wake up thinking about your SKU, menu architecture or merchandising
strategy. They wake up wondering what they are going to eat—and how much work
it will take to get it. The brand that solves that problem wins.
2.
The Frozen Food Court is not competition for restaurants—it can be an extension
of the restaurant brand.
Restaurant
marketers should stop looking at grocery freezers solely as a competitor. The
freezer can become another distribution channel, another billboard and another
way to create brand trial and household penetration.
3.
The next battleground isn't restaurants versus grocery—it is whoever owns the
consumer's next meal occasion.
Fresh,
fresh frozen, restaurant takeout, grocery deli, convenience stores and delivery
are increasingly colliding around the same consumer. The winners won't be the
companies defending yesterday's channel boundaries. They will be the companies
willing to follow the consumer wherever the next meal happens.
Something
to think about:
If
your brand only knows how to sell a meal when the consumer walks through your
front door, you don't own the meal occasion—you only own the dining room.
Success Leaves Clues—Are You Ready to Find Yours?
One
key insight that continues to drive success is this: "The consumer is
dynamic, not static." This principle is the foundation of our work at
Foodservice Solutions®, where Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru®, has been
helping brands stay relevant in an ever-evolving market.
Want
to strengthen your brand’s connection with today’s consumers? Let’s talk. Call
253-759-7869 for more information.
Stay Ahead of the Competition with Fresh Ideas
Is
your food marketing keeping up with tomorrow’s trends—or stuck in yesterday’s
playbook? If you're ready for fresh ideations that set your brand apart, we’re
here to help.
At
Foodservice Solutions®, we specialize in consumer-driven retail food strategies
that enhance convenience, differentiation, and individualization—key factors in
driving growth.
Email
us at Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us
Connect with us on social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
