Why the Time Is Now — And Why the Concept Is Consumer Driven

 

Let me give credit where credit is due: Danielle Romano and Convenience Store News provide the foundation for this discussion with their excellent look at the return of Swiss Farms and its plan to evolve America's drive-thru grocer.

But from the perspective of Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru®, at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® the bigger story is not simply that Swiss Farms is coming back.

The bigger story is why the timing makes sense now.

Swiss Farms is showing what happens when a retail food concept starts with a consumer behavior and then builds the business around it.

That distinction matters.

Too many retailers begin with a facility, a menu, a format, a technology platform or an internal operating model and then ask consumers to adapt.

The Grocerant Niche works in the opposite direction.

Start with the consumer. Identify the friction. Solve the food occasion. Then build the format around the solution.

That is exactly what makes Swiss Farms interesting.

The Consumer Is Already Telling Us What Comes Next

For nearly six decades, Swiss Farms has built its identity around a simple proposition: consumers can get food and everyday essentials without leaving the vehicle. The company's current strategy keeps that drive-thru DNA while expanding fresh food, made-to-order food and beverages, grocery essentials, loyalty and eventually fuel.

That is not a random assortment of new ideas.

It reflects a consumer reality that has been accelerating across restaurants, grocery stores and convenience stores:

Consumers increasingly want the food they want, when they want it, in the easiest format available.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 Off-Premises Restaurant Trends found that 47% of adults pick up takeout at least weekly and 42% use the drive-thru weekly. The same research identifies speed, customer service, technology, value and loyalty as basic requirements for repeat off-premises business.

That is important because it changes the competitive set.

Swiss Farms is not simply competing with another grocery store.

It is competing for the consumer's time.

And time may be one of the most valuable commodities in the modern food marketplace.

The Opportunity Is Not "More Food." It Is Less Friction.

Swiss Farms' leadership describes the problem with remarkable clarity.

Traditional grocery shopping can require parking, unloading children, walking through a large store and spending substantial time shopping for only a few products. Swiss Farms' answer is essentially: pull up, provide the list and open the trunk.

That is a Grocerant proposition.

The consumer isn't necessarily saying:

"I want another grocery store."

The consumer is saying:

"I need milk, breakfast, coffee, dinner, snacks and maybe gas — and I don't want to spend an hour accomplishing it."

That is a very different business proposition.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 research reinforces the point. Consumers increasingly judge off-premises experiences on speed, value and ease, while younger adults report using takeout, drive-thru and delivery more often than the previous year.

The winning question is therefore not:

How do we get consumers to spend more time with us?

It is:

How do we give consumers more value for the time they give us?

Why the Time Is Now

The economic environment makes this even more relevant.

The National Restaurant Association reported in June 2026 that 36% of consumers said they were spending less at restaurants than the previous quarter, while more consumers were trading down, ordering fewer add-ons and choosing less expensive options.

At the same time, the Association reported in August 2026 that consumers continue to value convenience while household budgets remain under pressure.

This creates a fascinating intersection.

Consumers still want foodservice.

They still want fresh food.

They still want convenience.

But they are becoming increasingly deliberate about where their dollars go.

That is the environment in which hybrid concepts become especially interesting.

A consumer may not view a Swiss Farms purchase as "grocery" or "restaurant" or "convenience."

They simply see dinner.

They see breakfast.

They see something to eat now.

They see something to take home for later.

The consumer does not live inside industry silos.

Why should the operator?

Retail Foodservice Is Already Breaking Down the Silos

FMI's 2025 research found that consumers are increasingly treating grocery foodservice as an alternative to restaurant dining. The share of consumers choosing deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals more than doubled from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. More than half of Americans now take a hybrid approach to meals, combining prepared foods with items from their own kitchens.

Read that again.

Hybrid is becoming normal.

That is the Grocerant Niche in action.

The meal doesn't have to come from one place.

Consumers can buy a prepared entrée, add a side from home, purchase a beverage at a convenience store and finish the meal with something already in the pantry.

The consumer creates the meal.

The retailer's job is to make that creation easier.

That is why Swiss Farms' plan for a curated grocery assortment is so intriguing. Instead of trying to reproduce a supermarket's thousands of SKUs, the strategy calls for carrying the top products in major grocery categories.

That is not about offering everything.

It is about offering enough of the right things.

The Consumer-Driven Concept Is Mix-and-Match

This is where the Grocerant Niche becomes particularly powerful.

I have long argued that consumers are increasingly comfortable with Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling.

The consumer does not necessarily want a conventional restaurant meal.

The consumer may want:

A breakfast sandwich and coffee now.

A take-home dinner later.

A Stromboli for one family member.

A milkshake for another.

Fresh groceries for tomorrow.

Snacks for the car.

Fuel while already making the trip.

Swiss Farms' evolving model touches each of those occasions. Its planned foodservice program includes breakfast sandwiches, coffee, Stromboli, refreshers, milkshakes and take-home meal options, while its broader strategy adds grocery essentials and fuel at new locations.

That is not simply an expanded convenience store.

It is a consumer-controlled meal ecosystem.

Convenience Is No Longer Enough

There is an important warning here.

Convenience by itself is becoming table stakes.

Consumers also want value, quality, freshness, variety and personalization.

Technomic's 2026 retail foodservice research identifies evolving expectations around value, quality and freshness, while also highlighting interest in made-to-order food, grab-and-go options, customization, breakfast sandwiches and other cross-category foodservice offerings.

That fits Swiss Farms' strategy surprisingly well.

The concept is not saying:

"We are fast, therefore we win."

It is saying:

"We are fast, while becoming more relevant."

That is a much stronger proposition.

Consumer Choice Is Becoming the Format

Swiss Farms plans to preserve its drive-thru while also adding a walk-in option at new locations.

That may be one of the most important details in the entire story.

Why?

Because the company is not forcing every consumer into one behavior.

The consumer who wants speed can use the drive-thru.

The consumer who wants to browse can walk inside.

The consumer who wants digital engagement can use the app and loyalty program.

The consumer who wants nostalgia can engage with the brand through merchandise and familiar visual cues.

That is consumer-driven retail.

The brand is adapting to the consumer rather than demanding that the consumer adapt to the brand.

And that distinction is increasingly important.

Why Restaurants Should Pay Attention

Restaurants should pay attention because Swiss Farms represents something larger than one company's growth strategy.

The competitive battlefield is increasingly moving from restaurant versus restaurant to food occasion versus food occasion.

FMI reported in 2024 that 29% of consumers said they were pulling back from restaurants and turning to grocery stores for convenient meal solutions, with prepared foods becoming increasingly relevant across breakfast, lunch and dinner.

That means a restaurant dinner can lose the occasion before a consumer ever thinks about visiting another restaurant.

The replacement might be:

A grocery deli meal.

A convenience-store dinner.

A drive-thru purchase.

A meal kit.

A prepared entrée.

A combination of several retailers.

Or some combination of all of them.

The consumer doesn't care which industry classification wins.

The consumer cares which solution wins.

And This Is Where "What's for Dinner?" Becomes a Retail Strategy

The fundamental food question remains remarkably simple:

What's for dinner?

The answer is increasingly not determined by a restaurant menu or a grocery shopping list.

It is determined by time, money, convenience, appetite, household needs and what the consumer wants to do next.

FMI's 2026 grocery research reports that shoppers are looking for help making lunch and dinner easier without sacrificing health or value. Better-value lunch options lead their requests, followed by healthier, fresher, more varied and better-tasting prepared foods.

That is exactly the consumer-driven opportunity.

Consumers don't necessarily want somebody to tell them what dinner is.

They want somebody to make their version of dinner easier.

Why Swiss Farms Matters to the Grocerant Niche

Swiss Farms is particularly interesting because it is retaining the thing that consumers already understand while adding the things consumers increasingly want.

Keep the drive-thru.

Add fresh food.

Add grocery essentials.

Add made-to-order.

Add take-home meals.

Add technology.

Add loyalty.

Add new formats.

Add fuel where appropriate.

But keep the consumer at the center.

That is the formula.

Not technology for technology's sake.

Not more SKUs simply to say you have more SKUs.

Not a restaurant bolted onto a convenience store.

Not a grocery store trying to become a restaurant.

Rather:

A consumer-driven food solution that crosses categories because consumers already cross categories.

And that may be the most important lesson of all.

The Grocerant Niche has never been about whether a product is sold by a restaurant, grocery store, convenience store, dollar store, warehouse club or another retailer.

It is about the consumer's decision to buy Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat food where it is easiest, most relevant and most valuable at that moment.

Swiss Farms is betting that the time is right.

The consumer data suggests the market conditions are moving in that direction.

The next question is whether more operators will recognize that the future of food retail is not being designed in conference rooms.

It is being designed one consumer occasion at a time.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. The time is now because consumers are already breaking the silos.
Restaurant, grocery, convenience and foodservice are increasingly interchangeable in the consumer's mind. The industry may still use separate boxes, but consumers increasingly do not. FMI's prepared-food data makes that migration measurable.

2. Consumer-driven concepts solve friction before they add complexity.
Swiss Farms starts with a very simple consumer proposition — get essentials quickly — then adds foodservice, grocery, technology, loyalty and fuel around it.

3. The next generation of Grocerant growth will be built around "one now, one later."
The strongest concepts will increasingly satisfy the immediate need while creating the next meal occasion. Breakfast now. Dinner later. Coffee now. Groceries later. Snack now. Take-home meal later. That is not simply convenience. That is consumer-centric food occasion management — and it is where the next wave of Grocerant growth can emerge.

Tap into the Foodservice Solutions® team for greater understanding of New Electricity or for a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869