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

What’s for Dinner in 2026? The Battle for the Meal Occasion

Look around. Talk to your friends. Watch what consumers are doing at 4 p.m. on a Tuesday.

One thing becomes increasingly clear: “What’s for dinner?” has become one of the most valuable questions in the food industry according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®

And in 2026, the answer is increasingly not a recipe. It is an experience, a solution, a combination of meal components, a social occasion, a value proposition—and sometimes simply a decision that requires the least amount of work.

Americans still love food. They still love restaurants. They still enjoy cooking. They still enjoy gathering around a table.

But consumers are increasingly asking a different question:

Why should dinner be difficult?

That is where the Grocerant Opportunity begins.

The consumer does not think in traditional industry silos. They don't wake up thinking, “Tonight I am going to purchase something from the grocery channel.”

They think:

“What am I going to eat?”

That distinction is becoming more important every year.

The Dinner Decision Is the New Battleground

In 2024, Deloitte found that 53% of consumers said figuring out what’s for dinner was a major pain point. That number rose to 66% among Gen Z and 60% among Millennials, while 62% of households with children struggled with the evening meal decision. Even more telling, 44% said they would regularly buy from a grocery store that helped them with meal planning.

Think about what that means.

The consumer may not have decided whether dinner will come from a restaurant, grocery store, convenience store, delivery platform, prepared-food counter, drive-thru, frozen-food aisle or some combination of all of them.

The meal occasion is up for grabs.

And the retailer or restaurant that helps consumers make that decision first has a significant competitive advantage.

Circana reported in 2024 that U.S. consumers sourced 81% of their dinners from home, compared with 78% before the pandemic. At the same time, restaurant checks were rising and consumers were becoming more careful about restaurant spending.

That creates an enormous opportunity for Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food.

It also creates an enormous warning for food marketers:

Being in the consumer's refrigerator does not necessarily mean you own dinner.

Consumers Want Dinner. They Don't Always Want to Cook Dinner.

In 2024, FMI reported that the percentage of shoppers preparing dinner at home at least seven times a week increased from 21% to 23%.

But here is the important part: “home dinner” does not necessarily mean “cooked completely from scratch.”

FMI found that 59% of shoppers wanted the opportunity to purchase a combination of prepared foods—including a main course, side dishes and dessert—for a set discounted price.

In other words:

Consumers want dinner. They increasingly want somebody else to do some of the work.

That is the Grocerant model.

The consumer can purchase the chicken, salad, potatoes and dessert—or perhaps just the chicken and salad—and create the meal at home.

This is not failure to cook.

It is successful meal assembly.

The old foodservice industry asked: Did we prepare the entire meal?

The 2026 consumer asks:

“Did you help me get dinner on the table?”

That is a very different measurement.

2025: Grocery Began Looking More Like Foodservice

By 2025, this behavior had moved well beyond a niche trend.

FMI reported that consumers choosing deli-prepared foods as a substitute for restaurant meals had more than doubled—from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025.

Even more important, 53% of Americans were taking a hybrid approach to meal preparation, combining deli-prepared foods with items prepared in their own kitchens.

That number should make every restaurant executive, supermarket executive and convenience-store operator stop and think.

The competition isn't necessarily:

Restaurant vs. grocery store.

Increasingly, it is:

Restaurant + grocery + convenience + delivery + home preparation = dinner.

The consumer is mixing channels.

There are no silos in the consumer's mind.

There is only the meal occasion.

FMI also found in 2025 that 26% of shoppers prepared dinner at home seven or more times per week, exceeding the 23% record established in 2020. Meanwhile, grocery deli foodservice reached approximately $52.1 billion, with prepared meals and items accounting for $19.6 billion and growing 3.7% in dollar sales.

That is not simply grocery.

That is foodservice hiding inside retail.

2026: Convenience Is Becoming a Food Attribute

Now move forward to 2026.

McKinsey's 2026 grocery research found that the leading reasons consumers purchase prepared foods from grocers include convenience, cited by 74%, and saving time, cited by 68%. McKinsey also reported that prepared-food purchase frequency increased 9% year over year from August 2024 to August 2025.

That is a profound shift.

For years, the food industry treated convenience as a merchandising feature.

In 2026, convenience is becoming part of the food product itself.

A chicken breast isn't simply a chicken breast.

A rotisserie chicken that requires no preparation, is available now and can feed multiple people is a meal solution.

A deli pizza that can go from store shelf to family table is a meal solution.

A refrigerated bowl that requires two minutes of heating is a meal solution.

A handful of prepared foods that consumers combine into a personalized dinner is a meal solution.

The product isn't merely food.

The product is time.

The 30-Minute Dinner Is Becoming a 30-Second Decision

YouGov reported in 2025 that 60% of Americans preferred to spend less than 30 minutes cooking dinner, including 12% who preferred to spend no time cooking at all.

That doesn't mean Americans have stopped caring about food.

It means consumers increasingly want to spend their time eating food rather than managing food.

This is particularly important as households become smaller, work patterns remain fluid and consumers continue to move between work, home, school, entertainment, social occasions and other commitments.

The traditional three-part dinner—entrée, side and beverage—has also become increasingly fluid.

Dinner might be:

A sandwich.

A bowl.

A pizza.

A salad with protein.

Chicken wings and vegetables.

A combination of deli foods.

A restaurant entrée shared at home.

A collection of snacks that collectively becomes dinner.

A Heat-N-Eat entrée supplemented with something fresh.

Or a restaurant meal combined with a grocery-store side.

Dinner has become modular.

That is why I continue to believe that Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling is one of the most important opportunities in food marketing.

The Rise of the “New Dinner”

FMI's 2025 research offers another fascinating clue.

The organization reported that 22% of consumers had purchased what has been called “girl dinner” from grocery deli-prepared foods—but that number jumped to 40% among Gen Z and 39% among Millennials.

What is “girl dinner”?

It can be olives, cheese, crackers, fruit, deli meats and other small foods assembled into an informal meal.

The name may change.

The behavior won't.

Consumers are increasingly comfortable constructing meals from components rather than purchasing a predetermined meal architecture.

That means the food industry should stop asking only:

“What entrée should we sell?”

And start asking:

“What components can we sell that consumers can turn into dinner?”

That is a much larger opportunity.

But Here's the Twist: Consumers Still Want Other People

Here is where my original thinking remains just as relevant in 2026.

Convenience does not mean consumers want isolation.

Digital convenience does not eliminate the human need for connection.

Food remains one of the world's oldest social technologies.

People gather around food.

Families gather around food.

Friends gather around food.

Coworkers gather around food.

Communities gather around food.

And increasingly, consumers are looking for ways to make convenient food feel more personal.

That may mean ordering a restaurant meal and sharing it at home.

It may mean building a dinner from grocery deli components.

It may mean meeting friends at a food hall.

It may mean picking up takeout rather than cooking.

Or it may mean sitting down with family after somebody else did most of the preparation.

Interestingly, the restaurant industry itself is rediscovering the importance of human interaction. In September 2026, the Wall Street Journal reported that major fast-food chains were shifting some attention away from excessive automation and back toward hospitality and human service after consumers expressed dissatisfaction with impersonal experiences. McDonald's, for example, is undertaking a major hospitality initiative and retraining more than two million workers globally.

That is an important lesson:

Technology can make getting dinner easier. Humans make dinner memorable.

The winning food brands will increasingly understand both.

Price Still Matters—But Value Is Bigger Than Price

There is another critical component to the 2026 dinner equation:

Value.

Consumers remain price conscious.

But value is not simply the lowest price.

Value increasingly means:

Price + Quality + Convenience + Variety + Speed + Experience + Portability.

A $7 meal that requires 45 minutes of preparation may not be perceived as a better value than a $10 meal that is ready in five minutes.

Likewise, a $12 restaurant meal may compete successfully against a $9 grocery meal if the restaurant provides an experience consumers cannot easily replicate at home.

The question is no longer simply:

“What does dinner cost?”

It is:

“What is dinner worth to me tonight?”

That is a fundamentally different consumer calculation.

The Battle for Dinner Begins Before 4 p.m.

Food marketers should also rethink when the dinner competition begins.

Dinner isn't won at 6:30 p.m.

It may be won at 10 a.m.

It may be won at noon.

It may be won at 3 p.m.

Or it may be won when a consumer walks into a store at 5:17 p.m. and sees a compelling Ready-2-Eat meal solution.

Deloitte's 2024 research showed that consumers are asking retailers for help with dinner planning, particularly younger consumers.

That means the smartest retailers will not simply merchandise food.

They will merchandise decisions.

“Tonight's Dinner for Four.”

“Dinner for Two Under $20.”

“Five-Minute Family Dinner.”

“Build Your Own Dinner.”

“Protein + Two Sides.”

“Heat, Eat & Share.”

“Dinner for One—No Leftovers Required.”

The opportunity is not just selling food.

The opportunity is removing the friction between hunger and dinner.

What’s for Dinner in 2026?

The answer is increasingly:

Whatever makes sense tonight.

Sometimes that means cooking.

Sometimes it means takeout.

Sometimes it means delivery.

Sometimes it means a restaurant.

Sometimes it means the grocery deli.

Sometimes it means the convenience store.

Sometimes it means a frozen entrée.

Sometimes it means a handful of prepared components.

Sometimes it means all of the above.

That is why I have long argued that there are no silos in the consumer's mind.

The consumer doesn't care which industry association claims the meal.

They care whether the meal is:

Available. Affordable. Good. Fast. Convenient. Shareable. Portable. And worth the money.

That is the definition of the modern Grocerant opportunity.

Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Own the decision, not just the food.

The next generation of food marketing will increasingly compete for the “What’s for dinner?” decision before competing for the transaction.

AI-powered meal planning, personalized recommendations, digital loyalty programs, prepared-food merchandising and real-time inventory can turn retailers and restaurants into dinner decision engines.

The winning question will not be:

“What do you want to buy?”

It will be:

“What kind of dinner do you need tonight?”

That moves food marketing from product-centric merchandising to consumer-centric meal orchestration.

2. Build dinners like consumers build playlists.

Consumers increasingly mix components, cuisines, brands, channels and price points.

Why shouldn't dinner merchandise work the same way?

Give consumers the protein.

Give them the side.

Give them the beverage.

Give them the dessert.

Give them the sauce.

Give them the snack.

Then let the consumer create the experience.

Personalization doesn't always require customization in a kitchen. Sometimes it simply requires giving consumers the right components.

3. Never underestimate the power of gathering around food.

Technology changes.

Channels change.

Menus change.

But humans remain social.

Food remains one of the simplest and most powerful ways to connect people.

Restaurants should continue investing in hospitality.

Grocers should create places and products that encourage sharing.

Convenience stores should recognize that food can be more than fuel.

And every food retailer should remember that a meal is an experience—not merely calories in a container.

4. Make the food good enough that consumers want it again tomorrow.

Convenience may win tonight.

Quality wins tomorrow.

The future of food will not be built by choosing between convenience and quality.

It will be built by combining them.

The consumer wants one now and one later:

One solution for tonight.

One reason to come back tomorrow.

That is where the future value of the Grocerant opportunity becomes particularly powerful.

The food industry has spent decades fighting over restaurants versus grocery stores, foodservice versus retail, fresh versus frozen, prepared versus scratch and dine-in versus takeout.

But the consumer has already moved beyond those arguments.

The consumer simply wants dinner.

And in 2026, the company that makes answering “What's for dinner?” easiest, fastest, most valuable and most enjoyable may be the company that wins the meal occasion.

The future of food isn't about owning a channel.

It's about owning the moment when the consumer decides what to eat.

That is the real Battle for Share of Stomach.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideas look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® 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: us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter