Meals in a Minute Milk on the Run QuickEats is a Hit

 

At the intersection of What’s for Dinner, there is nothing in the refrigerator, and I don’t want to go back outside, you can find Aramark’s “Frictionless Micromarket QuickEats’. Time starved, hungry, with no desire to leave home residents at one apartment community have help make Aramark’s QuickEats a hit according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

QuickEats is Aramark’s “first autonomous Close Convenience store”, (a new platform for Aramark). Focused in customers needs set for grocerant niche mix and match bundling, Aramark has elevated it’s delivery platform perfectly within the grocerant niche according to Johnson.

So, the apartment owner, Greenwood & McKenzie, a privately held real estate investment and asset management firm, had initially opened the store the previous March to residents of the apartment complex.

Greenwood & McKenzie General Partner Jim McKenzie, stated, “Our tenants were able to social distance while buying necessities without having to leave the property,” …. “By partnering with Aramark, a global leader in food and facilities management and the creator of QuickEats Close Convenience, and utilizing AWM Frictionless technology, we are able to offer consumers a fast, easy and safe shopping experience.”

AWM — Adroit Worldwide Media — is an artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision company with a comprehensive suite of retail solutions.

This new platform for Aramark, QuickEats features a variety of fresh and specialty items, such as Pressed Juicery juices, coconut water, grab-and-go sandwiches, cheese plates and fruit, as well as assorted beverages. In addition, it offers household items like cleaning products, toilet paper, dog food, and other goods.

AWM CEO Kevin Howard, stated, “We made the decision to open our doors because QuickEats can provide vital food, drink, and personal care items to Nineteen01’s residents in a completely frictionless environment that adheres to the current protocols being requested by (Orange County’s) Health Officer,”.

QuickEats Close Convenience uses computer vision cameras and sensors to create a fully automated, frictionless, self-guided shopping experience much like Amazon Go stores.

So, consumers simply download the QuickEats Close Convenience app, scan the app at the store entrance and conduct their shopping. As customers grab items off the shelves, they are added to the app’s shopping cart. When customers finish shopping, they simply exit the store. Shoppers are charged the total amount to their digital wallet and receive an emailed receipt – no checkout lines, no payment terminals, no hassle.

We can see now that as the U.S. economy slowly emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer attitudes toward options like frictionless checkout have evolved. Those expectations formed during the pandemic are here to stay.

You have to love the fact that Aramark is meeting, or beating those expectations with its partnership with AWM for its AWM Frictionless system, which uses deep learning algorithms and high-definition cameras throughout the store to track traffic and detect when customers interact with products.

The consumer is truly free to shop without constraints while the technology learns from the shopper to ensure the store is adding more of what they want and less of what they don’t quickly. Follow this link for a demo of the QuickEats Close Convenience store is available online at www.quickeats.ai.

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Can’t Beat them Buy into them Aramark’s Smart Growth

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® late last year called 2018 the year of ‘partnerships’ in retail foodservice.  One of the better examples driving growth involves a new partnership developed by Aramark a global leader in food, facilities, and uniforms whereas Aramark believes that this strategic partnership will provide new electricity driving incremental sales.

What is your new electricity that is driving top line sales and bottom line profits?  Are your customer counts growing?  So, just what is your brands new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand held marketing. This program has all of that.

Foodservice retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

So, when Aramark, announced a strategic partnership with Oath Pizza to bring the pizzeria’s Certified Humane brand to new, exclusive locations, from university campuses and sporting arenas to offices, hospital cafés and more. Johnson new it was a valued brand with complexity free messaging.

However, creating a point of greater differentiation Aramark edified its belief in Oath Pizza, by investing in it. Orth Pizza which has gained a cult-following for its signature thin crust pizzas that are grilled and seared in avocado oil and feature ethically sourced ingredients.

Victor Crawford, a Chief Operating Officer for Aramark stated “We innovate continually to enhance consumers’ food experiences with unique and on-trend culinary solutions that are also local and sustainable,” … “Our partnership with Oath will further enable us to provide a high quality, convenient, healthy and personalized menu option, not to mention a great-tasting pizza with a purpose.”

As regular readers of this blog know Aramark is one of the largest food service providers in the country and serves clients in multiple sectors, including education (colleges and universities; K-12 schools and districts), healthcare (hospitals and healthcare facilities), sports and entertainment (stadiums, arenas and amphitheaters; destinations and cultural attractions), and business and government (workplaces and manufacturing facilities; convention centers and conference centers).

The ability for Aramark to extend the halo of ‘better-for-you’ food to new avenues of distribution including schools will provide incremental value to Oath Pizza and Aramark according to Johnson. .  Most of you understand that the foodservice sector is dynamic not static and companies in it must evolve or simply fade away.

“Oath Pizza CEO Patrik Hellstrand. Stated We are thrilled to be partnering with Aramark to scale up and reach new audiences,”  “This partnership will give Oath Pizza access to unique and exclusive dining options to bring our certified humane and ethically-sourced pizzas to a greater number of people who love delicious food and want to feel good about their eating decisions.”

Are you looking for some new electricity? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information