Costco: Customer-Focused Solutions for Long Checkout Lines — A Good Problem to Have

 

Let’s be honest — when your biggest problem is too many customers, you’re doing something right. Walk into any Costco on a weekend and you’ll see the signs of success stacked high: full carts, long lines, and packed parking lots. But even success comes with challenges, and long lines at checkout are a friction point that Costco isn’t ignoring — because that’s not the Costco way according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

In the ever-evolving world of retail, the retailers who win are the ones who stay laser-focused on customer experience. And Costco? They've made it an art form.

So, how does a company that's bursting at the seams with loyal customers stay true to its roots while solving for high demand? More importantly, why will Costco continue to be a retail giant for years to come? Let’s take a look.

 

The Long Lines: A Byproduct of Value and Loyalty

Costco's popularity is no accident. Their business model — low margins, limited selection, and high value — has created a fiercely loyal customer base. But that same loyalty can result in customer pain points, especially at checkout.

That said, Costco isn’t ignoring the issue. They’re leaning into customer feedback and deploying smart solutions:

·       Additional self-checkout stations

·       Mobile scanning and digital receipts pilots

·       More staffing during peak times

·       Streamlined packaging to speed up the checkout process

They’re not perfect, but they’re adapting — and that’s key.

 

Why Costco Will Keep Winning: 5 Reasons They’re Built for Long-Term Success

1. Customer-First Culture

From free samples to generous return policies, Costco has built its brand on trust and value. When lines grow long, they don’t shrug it off — they fix it. They know the customer isn’t just always right — the customer is the reason.

2. Disciplined Pricing Strategy

In an era of price creep, Costco stands tall. Their famous $1.50 hot dog and soda combo hasn’t changed in decades. Why? Because it’s a symbol of their commitment to affordability — and customers notice.

3. Efficient, No-Frills Store Design

There’s a reason you don’t see fancy signage or flashy decor in Costco. Every element of their warehouse design is engineered for efficiency, cost savings, and ultimately, lower prices for the consumer.

4. Strategic Technology Investment

Costco isn’t flashy with tech — they’re strategic. Mobile app enhancements, digital membership cards, and future-facing checkout innovations show that they’re evolving with their customer’s expectations, not chasing trends for headlines.

5. Loyalty Built on Value, Not Gimmicks

Unlike many retailers who rely on deep discounting and rotating promotions, Costco’s model is simple: everyday value. That creates a different kind of loyalty — one that lasts. The lines at checkout are a direct result of this loyalty, and it’s the kind of problem most retailers would love to have.

 

Think About This

Yes, long lines at checkout can be frustrating. But when they’re a symptom of delivering unmatched value, they also tell a powerful story. Costco's response to those lines — rather than the lines themselves — is what sets them apart.

They listen. They adjust. And they never forget who they serve.

As the Grocerant Guru®, I’ve seen trends come and go — but customer obsession is always in style. And in that category, Costco remains king.

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Let’s Drink to Sweet Success at the Pie Hole

If success leaves clues and it does, new companies entering the grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food are finding success with a business foodservice business model designed for today according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

There is a battle for share of stomach according to Johnson and companies either opening up with the new model or legacy brands evolving are garnering a larger share of stomach.  One new company doing it is The Pie Hole as regular readers of this blog know we have written about them before. 

A recent article in NRN described The Pie Hole as: “A fast-casual pie and coffee concept with six units in Southern California and two stores in Japan. All pie baking takes place in a commissary, with stores ranging from 200 to 1,200 square feet…

The backstory: The first Pie Hole opened in 2011 with a menu of sweet and savory pies. In addition to adding units, the chain is focused on extending its reach through wholesale, catering, consumer packaged goods and shipping of pies through online marketplace Goldbelly.

The Pie Hole like any young company continue to find the best way to grow and recently added a new menu item published reports stated “stuffed and glazed two-bite circles of pie called Pie Holes. They have become a top seller, with about 1 million units sold in the past year. Through Goldbelly, the company sold an average of about 50 units each day during the holiday season. The chain plans to launch a consumer packaged goods (CPG) line this year. The Pie Hole moved into its existing commissary space about 16 months ago and is at only 20% capacity, so there’s much room for further growth.”

Now growth within the grocerant niche is driven in large part by ‘Hand Held Food for Immediate Consumption’ that can be mix and matched into a perfect family meal according to Johnson. Thus, you can understand why these mini-pie bites have become a hit. 

Remember Millennials are seeking food discovery and these can be delivered, or picked-up at a location fast and they are made fresh daily. Does your business model look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Why? Consumers are dynamic not static?  Is your brand evolving?

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.

Grocerant beats out C-store, Restaurants, and Grocer for High Traffic Location

Success does leave clues and real estate developers have been picking up the clues according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Johnson stated “We have been working with mixed use developers for several years that are looking for customer centric solutions for all day-parts.”  Currently grocerants are the avenue of distribution most sought after in our office.

So, a  grocerant concept known as My Deli Market will make its debut within the upscale Panorama Tower mixed-use building in the Brickell district of downtown Miami, according to the project’s developer, Florida East Coast Realty LLC (FECR).

"Driven by Millennial customers, grocerant encompasses elements from cafés, delis and grocery stores to support the revolution of urban living," FECR noted.

Expected to open to the public in June 2019 as part of the building's 75,000-square-foot retail space, My Deli Market will offer a range of local and regional fresh produce, meats, bakery, supplementary grocery options and homemade fare prepared daily by a dedicated culinary team. It will also provide exclusive room-service deliveries to Panorama’s tenants.

Grocerants operate at the intersection of consumers quest for a simple, fresh, fast meal, and the ability to eat at home without having to cook or do dish’s according to Johnson and My Deli Market fits that bill edging out restaurants, grocery stores, and C-stores for valuable space.

"Consumers are looking for freshly prepared, casual food that is made to order, but they also want to experiment with new food options," said Anselmo Endlich, founder of My Deli Market, a Brazilian entrepreneur who relocated to Miami after establishing the largest online wine retailer in Latin America. "We want our customers to find the unusual, the unexpected and the surprising at My Deli Market. Pioneers like FECR envisioned vertical cities decades ago. The future has arrived, and we are lucky to be a part of it at Panorama Tower."

The concept leverages data analysis to identify the needs of shoppers so as to enhance their experience. A curation service takes into account customers of different nationalities and regions, with an in-depth understanding of Miami’s diversity.

"We’ve seen these grocery, deli and café concepts pop up across major urban cities, and now we’re helping to bring them to Brickell," said Jerome Hollo, EVP of Miami-based FECR. "With the number of young professionals in Brickell, we see the demand for this type of sophisticated grocery store/eatery combination. Our goal with Panorama Tower always has been to deliver tenants everything that they need right outside their doors, as well as to create a greater sense of community within the neighborhood. Partnering with My Deli Market helps bring this full circle."

Rising 868 feet over the Miami skyline, Panorama Tower, which offers 821 luxury rental apartments, is the tallest residential building south of Manhattan. The 85-story development is 50 percent occupied and 60 percent leased.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or www.twitter.com/grocerant/

Restaurant Sector Customer Traffic Continues in the RED Its time to Wake-up

The restaurant sector continues to bleed customers.  Just in-case you don’t understand the consequence of capitulating year over year same store customer counts for six years, well; it’s not a good thing according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

The simple fact is consumers food consumption patterns have evolved and many restaurant menu’s look more like a restaurant of the 1980’s, 1990’s, or 2005.  That my friends is a long way from what a fresh food restaurant will look like five years from now according to Johnson.  Something has to change.

Clearly the restaurant industry leadership of today is comprised of the ‘unwilling to evolve’ as they continue to follow the old CEO adage / first rule of a new CEO ‘do no harm’.  That simply has not worked and will not work moving forward. There is a clear and present danger for many legacy restaurant brands.  That danger is an increasing lack of customer relevance according to Johnson.

Restaurant sector same-store sales rose 1% in November, according to the latest Black Box Intelligence index.  Victor Fernandez, vice president of insights and knowledge for Black Box parent TDn2K, stated “same-store takeout sales are up nearly 9% year to date, according to Black Box, while dine-in same-store sales are negative.”  Just stop and think about that. 

 Back in the day the team at Foodservice Solutions® was first to identify, quantify, and qualify The 65 Inch HDTV Syndrome, and few chain restaurants were willing to evolve.  They hunkered down and practiced brand protectionism.   However, those in the foodservice that did are garnering incremental customers today.

If success leaves clues and it does restaurant brands that embrace change, evolve with consumers will do well moving forward.  If not many will continue to capitulate customer traffic, lose sales, and close stores.  Are you driving top line sales, bottom line profits, and building customer counts?

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or www.twitter.com/grocerant/

Grocerant niche Meal Components Drive Food Retail Success

Alice May Brock said: “Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian, wine and tarragon make it French, sour cream makes it Russian, lemon and cinnamon make it Greek, soy sauce makes it Chinese, garlic makes it good.”

Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® stated “Convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization; are each hallmarks of the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared grocerant niche.  That is the recipe for retail food success in 2018 and the new electricity driving foodservice sales.”

Meal components allow customers to select from Italian, American, French, Russian or Greek and utilize the components at home any way they like.  The new American meal can be a composite of any prepared food components that the individual may want and they can mix and pair them any way as well.  The United States is a melting pot of people from all over the world, with different cultures, traditions and flavor preferences.  The new American meal is a melting pot of flavor and choice.  Meal components that can be mix and matched for home consumption are integral to retail success.

Fresh prepared and portable Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat foods are now available for all comers and can be found at Convenience stores, Drug stores, Grocery stores, Restaurants, Mobile trucks all just waiting for the taking.  When developing new menu items do you consider where the food will be consumed?

Consumers have been exposed to a plethora of flavors and have not the time to master the skill of cooking each.  The rapidly growing grocerant trend is empowering the consumer to establish new customs and traditions in eating better, more flavorful food.  The Grocerant niche is about convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/  or www.twitter.com/grocerant

Cheers to Barnes & Noble Kitchen

Did you ever ask yourself what’s with book retailers and food?  The team at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® never has as they have and continue to nourish the intersection interactive participatory grocerant niche foodservice.

Barnes & Noble wants customers to toast the holidays at one of its full-service restaurant concepts that they continue to expand. Success does leave clues and the restaurant development program has proven to be one of Barns & Noble’s successes. 

Some of the new stores have a smaller-format footprint of about 10,000 sq. ft. with seating for 110 in the full-service restaurant and patio. The new format has a counter bar also offers wine and craft beers on tap. The company said the Kitchen was designed to be “a comfortable environment for customers to browse and buy.”

The menu offers a range of appetizers, salads, entrees, shareable items and desserts. Prices for entrees range from $14 for grilled cheese and tomato soup to $22 for plancha-cooked salmon with tabbouleh salad and basil dressing. Side vegetables are $4 to $5. Specialty coffees and other drinks are also on the menu. 

Retailers the ilk of Ikea, Tiffany’s, Tommy Bahama and Pinkies Liquor stores all have retail foodservice programs that are driving incremental sales and profits.  Is your brand expanding?  Would a grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh food program make sense for you?

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant