The Global Grocerant Opportunity: Fresh, Fast, Flavorful Food Is Redefining How Consumers Eat

 

Consumers do not need more complexity in their lives. They need better ways to solve everyday food decisions. That simple truth continues to reshape retail foodservice, restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, and the broader food industry according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Since Foodservice Solutions® identified the Grocerant Niche in 1996, the central premise has remained consistent: consumers want fresh-prepared, Ready-2-Eat (RTE) and Heat-N-Eat (HnE) foods that combine flavor, convenience, portability, and value. What has changed is the number of businesses competing to satisfy those needs.

Today, a consumer can purchase a prepared meal from a restaurant, grocery deli, convenience store, warehouse club, or another retailer expanding its foodservice offerings. Consumers do not necessarily organize these choices into industry categories. They decide what sounds good, what fits their schedule, what they can afford, and how much effort they want to invest in getting a meal on the table.

That is the opportunity at the heart of the Grocerant Niche.

The Data Are Clear: Prepared Food Is Becoming Part of the Everyday Meal Solution

Consider what recent industry research tells us about the changing food landscape.

According to FMI—The Food Industry Association’s 2024 Power of Foodservice at Retail research, approximately 70.7% of households regularly purchased foodservice products from retail stores. The research also found that 59% of shoppers wanted the opportunity to purchase combinations of prepared foods, including main courses, side dishes, and desserts, at a discounted set price. These findings demonstrate the importance of making meals easier to assemble and purchase. (FMI, 2024.)

The message for retailers is straightforward: convenience is not limited to selling a sandwich or a single prepared entrée. It includes helping consumers complete a meal.

In 2025, FMI reported that the share of consumers choosing grocery deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals had more than doubled, rising from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. More than half of Americans, 53%, were also combining deli-prepared foods with items from their own kitchens to create meals. (FMI, 2025.)

By October 2026, FMI's Power of Foodservice at Retail research found that 56% of households combined home preparation with foods prepared outside the home for dinner at least once a week. The report also identified an opportunity for retailers to offer meal bundles, heat-and-eat side dishes, family-size options, and combinations of prepared and grocery items. (FMI, 2026.)

These are not merely statistics about deli sales. They illustrate a larger shift in how consumers participate in meal preparation.

Consumers can prepare an entire dinner, buy a fully prepared meal, or combine the two. They can purchase a protein and prepare the sides, pick up a complete family meal, or select several individual items that reflect different tastes and dietary preferences.

The winning proposition is not necessarily a fully prepared meal. It is the right amount of preparation for the consumer's needs at that moment.

Convenience Has Become a Food Marketing Imperative

Convenience is often discussed as though it simply means faster checkout, drive-thru service, or delivery. The Grocerant Guru® sees a broader opportunity.

Convenience means reducing the effort required to decide what to eat, find the desired food, purchase it, transport it, and serve or consume it.

The National Restaurant Association's 2024 State of the Restaurant Industry report found that 52% of consumers considered restaurant takeout an essential part of their lifestyle. By April 2025, the Association reported that nearly 75% of restaurant traffic occurred through off-premises channels, including takeout, drive-thru, and delivery. Its 2025 research also found that speed, good service, easy-to-use ordering technology, value offers, and loyalty programs were important elements of repeat business. (National Restaurant Association, 2024 and 2025.)

The implications extend well beyond restaurants.

A grocery store with an attractive deli but no coherent meal solution may lose a consumer to a restaurant offering an easy family bundle. A convenience store with excellent coffee but limited fresh-food choices may miss lunch and dinner occasions. A restaurant that excels at flavor but makes ordering, pickup, or reheating unnecessarily complicated may surrender repeat business to a competitor.

The opportunity is to make the complete food experience easier without compromising quality.

That means investing in food packaging that travels well, clear product information, reliable availability, sensible portion choices, convenient ordering, and menus designed for real-life eating occasions.

Portable food is not just food that fits in a container. It is food designed around the consumer's destination, schedule, appetite, and circumstances.

Differentiation Means Familiar Food With a Twist

One of the enduring principles of effective food marketing is that differentiation does not always require inventing an entirely new food.

Often, it means taking something familiar and making it more relevant.

Consumers recognize sandwiches, salads, bowls, pizza, chicken, breakfast items, snacks, and comfort foods. Retailers can differentiate those familiar choices through seasoning, ingredients, preparation, portion size, packaging, accompaniments, or a distinctive flavor profile.

A familiar meal can become more compelling with a globally inspired sauce, a different protein, a regional flavor, a plant-forward ingredient, or a convenient format that makes it easier to eat on the move.

Individualization matters, too. Some consumers want a complete meal, while others want to select their own sides or add a preferred snack. Some prioritize protein; others seek vegetarian options, lighter meals, or familiar comfort food.

The lesson is not that every retailer needs an enormous menu. It is that every retailer needs a clear food proposition with enough flexibility to serve different needs.

Food marketing must begin with the consumer and the occasion—not simply with the products a company already knows how to sell.

Price Matters. Value Is the Bigger Equation.

In a competitive food market, convenience alone will not guarantee success. Consumers still compare prices, portions, perceived quality, and the total effort required to obtain a meal.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 off-premises research identified value offers as an important purchase motivator. Its findings reinforce the need to make the benefit of an offer clear rather than assuming consumers will pay more simply because a product is convenient.

For Grocerant Niche operators, value can take several forms:

• Price value: A competitive price, meaningful promotion, or well-designed meal bundle.
• Quality value: Freshness, flavor, ingredient quality, and dependable execution.
• Time value: Less shopping, preparation, cooking, and cleanup.
• Choice value: Options that fit different appetites, budgets, and preferences.
• Social value: Food that makes it easier to share a meal with family, friends, or coworkers.
• Portability value: Food that fits the consumer's schedule and destination.

The lowest-priced item does not automatically offer the greatest value. A reasonably priced meal that tastes good, travels well, and requires little additional work can be a stronger proposition than a cheaper item that leaves the consumer to purchase several more ingredients.

Retailers should measure value through the entire meal occasion, not just the shelf price of an individual product.

Retail Foodservice Is Becoming a Destination

The latest data point to another opportunity: retailers can build a reputation around a signature food offering.

FMI's 2026 research found that only about one-third of shoppers considered their primary grocery store known for a particular deli-prepared food item. Rotisserie chicken, roasted chicken, sandwiches, sushi, and pizza were among the products shoppers associated with grocery foodservice departments. The report also found that half of same-day dinner decisions occurred between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. (FMI, 2026.)

That creates two significant marketing opportunities.

First, retailers can establish a signature item that gives consumers a reason to visit. A recognizable product can become a food destination, encourage repeat purchases, and provide a platform for complementary products.

Second, retailers can align their merchandising with the moments when consumers are making food decisions. Dinner solutions displayed and promoted when shoppers are deciding what to eat may be more relevant than products presented without regard to the occasion.

A retailer does not need to be everything to everyone. It needs to be particularly good at solving selected food needs while offering enough variety to encourage additional purchases.

This is where a disciplined foodservice strategy can turn the deli, prepared-food counter, or grab-and-go department into a destination rather than simply another department in the store.

The Consumer Does Not See Industry Silos

Consumers are not required to remain loyal to a single food channel.

The same person might buy breakfast at a convenience store, lunch from a restaurant, a snack at a grocery store, and dinner from a warehouse club or another retailer. The next day, those choices may change.

The consumer's decision is shaped by the occasion, appetite, budget, schedule, location, and perceived value. Brand preference matters, but it competes with all those other considerations.

This is why the Grocerant Niche is best understood as a consumer-driven food marketplace rather than a single retail category.

Restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores, warehouse clubs, and other retailers increasingly compete for overlapping meal occasions. Each has different operational strengths, but the competitive question is similar: Can the business offer the food the consumer wants, when it is needed, at a price that feels worthwhile?

For operators and suppliers, this creates opportunities for collaboration, product development, co-branding, new distribution arrangements, and foodservice partnerships. It also demands a willingness to reconsider established assumptions about who owns a customer or a meal occasion.

Consumers migrate. Businesses must adapt.

Is Your Food Marketing Looking Ahead—or Looking Back?

The growth of prepared-food choices does not mean every retailer or every prepared-food product will succeed. Execution matters. Food safety, freshness, consistent quality, labor, waste, packaging, and profitability remain essential.

Nor should every retailer attempt to copy the same menu or the same service model. A convenience store, supermarket, restaurant, and warehouse club have different operating environments and customer expectations.

The strategic opportunity is to identify unmet consumer needs and create food solutions that fit the business's strengths.

Ask yourself:

• Does your food proposition solve a specific consumer problem?
• Are your RTE and HnE products designed for convenience, flavor, portability, and quality?
• Can customers easily combine prepared foods and grocery items to complete a meal?
• Do your price points communicate meaningful value?
• Do you have signature foods that can build consumer awareness and repeat visits?
• Are you competing for the consumer's next meal occasion—or relying on yesterday's channel boundaries?

At Foodservice Solutions®, we believe the next phase of food marketing belongs to companies that understand the evolving consumer and develop products, partnerships, and experiences around the way people actually eat.

The opportunity is not simply to sell more prepared food. It is to make convenient meal participation easier, more appealing, and more relevant.

The Grocerant Niche continues to offer a useful framework for understanding that opportunity. The businesses that put the consumer first, deliver consistently, and make the value proposition clear will be better positioned to earn the next purchase.

Are you looking a customer ahead?

For food marketing strategy, retail foodservice ideation, partnership development, and ways to strengthen your brand's position in the Grocerant Niche, visit FoodserviceSolutions.us.

Steven Johnson is the Grocerant Guru® at Foodservice Solutions®, Tacoma, Washington.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Consumers migrate to solutions, not silos.
The next meal occasion belongs to the business that best combines flavor, convenience, quality, and price—not necessarily the business that has traditionally owned the channel.

2. Fresh-prepared food is a platform for differentiation, not just another product category.
Signature items, meal bundles, portable formats, and customizable combinations give retailers and restaurant operators practical ways to build relevance, encourage repeat purchases, and earn a larger share of the consumer's food spending.

3. Make the meal easier, and make the value obvious.
Consumers want more than speed. They want food that fits their schedule, budget, appetite, and lifestyle. The brands that remove friction while delivering dependable flavor and quality will be better positioned to win the next purchase.