Fast Food with Very Few Employees Speedy Eats

 

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food continues to define the growth within every sector of food retail today.  At the intersection of the consumer, technology, and fresh food with flavor are two companies that together have developed a business model that looks more like tomorrow than yesterday.

According to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® “Speedy Eats is positioned to redefine fresh fast food while elevating a business model that will prove to be disruptive.”

In case you had not hear Picnic Works,  another new Seattle based innovator of food automation technology, announced last week that it's closed a deal with Speedy Eats for the first wave of Picnic Pizza Station orders. The initial Picnic stations will be placed in the inaugural Speedy Eats automated kitchens with a projected volume of 5,000 U.S. locations in the next five years. Think about that pace of growth for just a minute.  How many employees would you have to hire to open 5, 000 unit and just how much whould that cost you?

Clayton Wood, CEO of Picnic, stated, "Speedy Eats is rethinking food production and delivery and we're thrilled that they chose Picnic to provide the automated pizza equipment that will help them scale, delight customers, and increase profitability," ... "We will begin production of their stations in the next few months and look forward to being in all 5,000 Speedy Eats locations in the coming years."

Think about your company today, then consider this, Speedy Eats is a new dining and pickup concept that places fully contained drive-thru operations in locations where customers can purchase hot and cold food items at any time of day or night.

The company is eyeing over 40,000 potential parking lot locations in the U.S. and plans to incorporate a patent-pending design that allows takeout customers and third-party delivery platforms to roll up and access orders from the convenience of their vehicle. Speedy Eats also plans to open regional kitchen production centers that craft the food to supply the stations.

F. Speed Bancroft, CEO and President of BARS Inc, stated, "Our goal is to bring fresh food to people whenever and wherever they want it and we're ambitious in our plans to open 5,000 locations in the next five years. The Picnic Pizza Station is the must-have piece of equipment to produce the consistent quality pizza that our customers desire," ... "We're partnering with Picnic for their expertise in automation and proven market success."

So, this agreement allows Speedy Eats to integrate the award-winning Picnic Pizza Station technology into its standalone and commissary locations to enhance production, improve customer experience, and offer fresh-made custom pizzas. With projected volumes of 5,000 locations in the next five years, the value of the deal is over $800M to Picnic. Picnic will begin manufacturing for Speedy Eats in line with location openings starting in 2022, with increased roll out over the next several years.

Yes, The Picnic Pizza Station is autonomous and completely customizable for each order – after loading the dough, the Picnic station takes care of applying the sauce, cheese, fresh-cut pepperoni, and additional toppings. The finished pizzas are then loaded into the kitchen's ovens for cooking. Each hour, the Picnic station can assemble up to 100 pizzas. For information on Picnic Pizza Stations, see hellopicnic.com and for Speedy Eats automated kitchens, visit speedy-eats.net.

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Publix Disengages Continuity Seeks Disruption

 

Informed, engaged, focused on consumers, Publix announced that the food retail ‘Status Quo’ is no more according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Publix has for years known that 89% of consumers only buy 100 different items a year from their stores.  That’s right the customers may shop one store but they buy the same items over and over again.

When you have stores that are 35,000+ square feet with 60,000+ SKU’s you can make a lot of consumers happy a lot of the time. One thing regular readers of this blog know consumers want fresh food fast and while the pandemic is ending and going back to work in an office is on the up-tick Publix just might have found a way to create retail food disruption, while building new electricity for the brand and relevance for consumers within the retail food sector according to Johnson.

Now Publix is partnering with Instacart to launch the grocer's virtual convenience offering, Publix Quick Picks offering fresh food fast.  This incremental new virtual store format allows customers to shop from Publix's wide assortment of fresh groceries, pantry and household essentials, meals, snacks and more, for delivery in as fast as 30 minutes with Instacart Priority Delivery. The solution is available across Publix's seven-state footprint.

In case you did not know, Publix Quick Picks that launched in September in Tampa as a pilot program, the service expanded across Publix's operating footprint ahead of the holiday season, enabling millions of households across the Southeast to receive rapid delivery from Publix for the first time ever, according to the companies.

Disruption

Share of Stomach

So, Publix Quick Picks is available to customers on Instacart's Convenience Hub, an Instacart marketplace product feature that streamlines the convenience shopping experience, as well as on delivery.publix.com.

Publix Vice President Omnichannel & Application Development Erik Katenkamp, stated, "Since launching Publix Quick Picks on Instacart, we've seen rapid customer adoption. Our store locations and wide assortment, combined with Instacart Priority Delivery in as fast as 30 minutes, creates a winning solution for our customers," … "Our strong relationship with Instacart continues to unlock capabilities to meet the changing needs of our customers, and we look forward to continuing to grow our portfolio of time-saving services — like Publix Quick Picks — to give customers more ways to get what they need from Publix."

Most of you did know that, Publix and Instacart first partnered in 2016 to launch same-day delivery in as fast as one hour. The companies also offer curbside pickup from nearly all stores, as well as alcohol delivery and pickup in select states including Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Elevating the the partnership this new virtual platform will support EBT SNAP payment integration across all Publix e-commerce properties powered by Instacart add a new level of inclusion for fresh fast food.

What can you get fresh and fast? Well, customers to date have ordered a variety of items from across the virtual aisles, from premade meals including fried chicken tenders, Italian pinwheels and sushi, to convenience essentials like soda, chips, ice cream, candy, beer, wine and hard seltzers, and everything in between.

Chris Rogers, vice president of Retail at Instacart, stated, "Customer demand for convenience and rapid delivery continues to grow, and both speed and selection have become fundamental to grocery ecommerce. We're proud to expand our partnership with Publix to bring the in-store express lane online with Publix Quick Picks, offering customers incredible choice paired with fast delivery to meet all of their last-minute needs through this busy holiday season and beyond," ... "Whether trying to satisfy a craving, needing a forgotten ingredient for a family dinner or looking for a quick lunch option, Publix Quick Picks gives customers access to nearly the entire store so they can get exactly what they want, when they need it."

Are you maintaining the ‘Status Quo’?  Where are your customer buying what? Are you ready to drive new electricity for a company, a brand, or chain food retail?

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.”  That said, what are you waiting for?

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, virtual stores, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing, and new avenues of distribution.

All 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. 

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Zippin Expands Non-traditional Locations to Expand the Brand

Regular readers of this blog know that Zippin is a check-out free retailer. Well in order to drive adoption Zippin has now has partnered with Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif., to open the first in the world in-arena checkout-free convenience store and according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® that’s the incremental visibility that the brand need.

The new Zippin store will be located at the Southwest entrance of Golden 1 Center and will be open during Sacramento Kings home games and concerts at the arena. Sacramento Kings Chairman and Governor Vivek Ranadivé stated “We are committed to leveraging technology to identify and deliver cutting-edge, innovative solutions that enhance the fan experience,”  “Using AI-driven checkout-free technology we are excited to deliver a first-of-its-kind frictionless shopping experience ensuring our guests are able to get back to the action as quickly as possible.”

Starting this month (October 2019), Golden 1 Center fans and guests will have the opportunity to purchase food and beverage items such as popcorn, draft beer and a variety of snacks and drinks without the hassle of checkout lines and self-scanners.

For those of you who are not regular readers of this blog; San Francisco-based Zippin uses AI technology with cameras and sensors to accurately identify who bought what as shoppers walk around the store shopping naturally. So, here is how it will work:

Using the award-winning dual mode Sacramento Kings + Golden 1 Center app and/or the Zippin app, fans and guests can visit the store, grab items off the shelves, and exit without waiting anywhere or scanning any items. The receipt will appear in the app.

Shoppers who do not have the app will be able to enter the store by presenting a valid credit or debit card at the entrance.

Zippin’s technology also provides real-time inventory tracking allowing concessionaires to re-stock at just the right intervals and maximize sales conversion. As Zippin keeps accurate count of all the products on every shelf in the store, shoppers will be able to use the Kings or Zippin app to browse what is available in the store from anywhere.

Zippin CEO and Co-founder Krishna Motukuri stated “Banish the checkout line. That’s Zippin’s motto,”“I can’t think of a better place than a sports venue to eliminate the checkout line. When Zippin launches in Golden 1 Center this Fall, Sacramento Kings fans will be able to walk in, grab a beer, and walk out in under 30 seconds.”

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

Popeyes has Food Marketing Magic

Success comes and goes and when a brand is ‘hot’ it can stay ‘hot’ for quite a while if the marketing team is tuned-in, plugged-in, and focused on consumer relevance according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Popeyes, ‘Bring your own bun’ messaging is on target, on time, and filled with consumer relevance as the undercurrent of ‘buzz’ around its sold-out chicken sandwich is still top of mind for trendy foodies according to Johnson.

The most relevant foodservice trend the past 10 years has been consumers increased demand for Hand Held Food for Immediate Consumption according to Johnson. With 82.3% of all restaurant meals purchased in the US coming from fast food restaurants as regular readers of this blog know.

Popeyes understands hand held food, yet avoided the chicken sandwich for years.  Let’s face it they were slow to evolve. While consumers like their chicken they love sandwiches.  Even more, Popeyes did a great job with flavor, texture, and taste prior to rolling the sandwich out.  Consumers voted with their pocket books and even while it’s sold out, it remains a buzz worthy for foodies.  

Popeyes new marketing campaign designed to buy time until the new sandwich returns are directing guests to (BYOB) bring in their own bun and make a sandwich. Guests are invited to order a three-piece tender and make the infamous sandwich on their own, without the original fixins. Now as regular readers understand this new ad is consumer focused, interactive, and participatory. That’s why it will keep the buzz alive according to Johnson.

Note: Popeyes traffic was up 218% over their previous July numbers according to Pacer.ai’s data analysis. Traffic continued to rise after the sandwich was sold out on August 27^th with the last few days of the month continuing an upward trajectory. Given that our Grocerant Guru® wants to give a shout out to the team at Popeyes for doing a fantastic job.

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 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us 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.

At Whole Food Old Folks Welcome but Millennials we Love You!

Foodservice Solutions® team continues to believe that Whole Foods is dynamic not static as our Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson explained yesterday when Whole Foods announced that Snap Kitchen sell grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat fresh prepared meals at some of its stores. 

The simple fact is Amazon owned companies are better at ‘looking a customer ahead’ according to Johnson than just about any food retailer.  Sure, Baby Boomers continue to eat, they just don’t eat as much a millennials and Whole Foods knows that. 

In new research from Whole Foods edified what most food retailers knew but do not talk about that “Millennials will pay more for higher-quality food and show a predilection for products promoting health and wellness, transparent sourcing and environmental responsibility”.  Let’s see just what else they found:

1.       68% said they would pay extra for high-quality food,

2.       53% would do so for high-quality nonfood items like personal care and cleaning products, Whole Foods reported. However, those figures fall to 27% and 20%, respective, for those who “strongly agree” they would be willing to shell out more dollars for high-quality food and nonfood items.

3.       Overall, 80% of respondents “strongly agree” (42%) or “somewhat agree” (38%) that quality is important when it comes to buying food, according to the online survey, conducted by YouGov for Whole Foods.

4.       Fifty-two percent of Millennials said they would pay extra for high-quality, healthy ready-made meals, with 19% strongly agreeing that they would do so.

5.       67% of respondents try to eat healthy on a daily basis, while 59% said they buy food and beverages to help them achieve physical and emotional well-being. About half avoid eating or purchasing foods with specific ingredients.

6.       Many Millennial consumers, however, encounter difficulties in trying to follow a certain nutritional regimen, the Whole Foods study revealed. Forty-five percent said that in the past year they tried a special diet or alternative eating approach, yet 63% found that it’s challenging to do so conveniently. Likewise, 52% agreed that it’s challenging to find the right products in grocery stores to maintain a special diet or alternative eating approach.

7.       Among various dietary regimens, 63% of those polled reported that they’re trying to include more plants and unprocessed foods in their diet.

8.       Sixty-four percent of survey participants said how and where their food is sourced influences their purchasing decisions. Similarly,

9.       65% agreed that transparency in food sourcing is important, with the same percentage indicating that transparency is key specifically when buying meat and seafood.

10.   Fifty-five percent of Millennials reported that they’re willing to pay extra for products adopting animal welfare standards, and 65% prefer to buy responsibly sourced brands and products.

11.   Along the same lines, half of Millennial shoppers look for food and beverages produced with less packaging and plastic,

12.   while 60% said they’re aware of the impact that their food choices have on the environment. Fifty-four percent indicated that they want to support mission-based brands that reflect their own values.

Whole Foods is ‘looking a customer ahead’ and understands that “The stories of how food is produced and grown matter to them — and to us. That is why we ban more than a hundred ingredients in the food we sell,”

Are you looking a customer ahead? Is your brand dynamic or static?  Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  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

To-Go Stores that are Cashier-less Rattle Retail

Not all legacy retailers are looking in the rear view window trying to do what they have always done some global leaders are Looking A Customer Ahead the same way Amazon is with its Amazon Go concept according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Technology is consumer relevant to Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X is ways most legacy food CEO’s in the US have yet to understand according to Johnson.  So, Get this in yet another iteration of the fast-evolving field of checkout-free stores, Ahold Delhaize’s Albert Heijn division is testing a tiny, portable store that uses computer vision and weight sensors to provide checkout-free shopping.

In short, they are using trailer-sized store in the Netherlands offers checkout-free shopping to drive growth, customer relevance and test how they might use a cashier-less platform to drive sales moving forward.

Ahold Delhaize in partnership with the U.S.-based startup AiFi and the Dutch bank ING, is located in front of Albert Heijn’s support office and Ahold Delhaize’s headquarters in Zaandam in the Netherlands and will be tested by the company’s employees over the next two months. That as regular readers of this blog know is the exact way that Amazon introduced Amazon Go.

 Ahold Delhaize expects the store, branded under the company’s small-store Albert Heijn To Go concept, could be relocated to another location in the Netherlands later this year. Looking a customer ahead the new test unit is only 14 square meters, or about 150 square feet—about the size of a single-wide trailer home—the tiny store is packed with innovations “that make it possible to buy something as if you were taking it out of your refrigerator,” There is no checkout, and consumers do not need to scan products according to the company.

Restaurant chains trying to sell more food, drive year over year customer counts will have incremental problems selling meals if cashier-less small foot print stores move closer to the consumer than their restaurants can and sell for less since they don’t even use cashiers.

Ahold said that “The new unit, which is something like a walk-in vending machine, will be stocked with convenience items such as drinks and sandwiches and is among a wide variety of such stores in development, including several iterations by Ahold Delhaize. 

A separate Albert Heijn store inside the headquarter lobby in Zaandam utilizes a “Tap to Go” technology, which allows shoppers to pay for each item they take by tapping an electronic shelf tag with a shopping card or mobile app. Ahold Delhaize, which launched the concept two years ago, is still testing the technology at several locations in the Netherlands, officials said. The retailer said it would also be testing a driverless mobile store in the U.S. 

Food operators are moving forward companies the ilk of Amazon with Amazon Go units and partnerships between retailers and tech startups, such as deals between Grabango and Giant Eagle; Zippin and Lojas Americanas; and Trigo Vision and Tesco. 

Marit van Egmond, president of Albert Heijn stated “Convenience for our customers comes first. This latest concept not only makes shopping very easy—due to its autonomous nature, this ‘plug and play’ store can be placed at locations where there is a temporary need for a small store, from offices or university campuses to residential areas under construction that do not yet have shopping facilities,”… “A second advantage is that the store can always be open, which is useful for people who are on the road very early or very late.”

The store, will open its doors to shoppers with a swipe of their credit or debit card. Inside the store, shoppers can take items from the shelves in the manner of an Amazon Go store. A screen near the exit door will show customers their bill total, and their payment is processed automatically.

AiFi, based in Santa Clara, Calif., calls the unit a NanoStore. Steve Gu, CEO and co-founder, explained how it works: “We develop cutting-edge computer vision and sensing technologies to enable automated checkout. Cameras see where you are in the store and associate product items to your virtual basket. In addition, in-store sensors keep track of products that are taken off or put back on the shelves.”

“Multiple sensing modalities work like a symphony to accurately decipher who is grabbing what, instantaneously,” he continued. “As a result, customers can enjoy ultra-convenient and delightful shopping with lightning speed. The cameras determine the position of customers in the store without face recognition. They only register shapes and [arm] movements.”

Foodservice Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits. Are you looking a customer ahead? Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Time Starved Consumers Continue Migrating to the Grocerant Niche

Battle for Share of Stomach

 Retailers of every ilk are adding new or more grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared grocerant niche food according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

Today the opportunity within the grocery sector alone has reached $13 Billion in sales and according to the Food Marketing Institute. The report goes on to say that sector is growing at an annually rate of 8.2%.  So, if you are wondering where restaurant customers go when they raise prices.  They are going where they can save money and time to the grocery store deli according to Johnson.

In FMI’s 2019 Power of Foodservice at Retail study found “that 63 percent of consumers continue to incorporate time-saving solutions in the form of semi- and fully-prepared items for dinner, but opportunities exist for grocers to garner greater visibility as the primary dinner solution.

The 2019 survey participants offered feedback for their stores to focus on faster service, more cuisine variety, healthier dishes as well as healthier alternatives to current options, competitive prices, more information, freshness, knowledgeable and available staff, and various operational improvements such as cleanliness and in-stock performance.

 Let’s see what else they found:

1.        “The study notes that grocers with a positive reputation in retail foodservice can serve as strong motivation for 64 percent of shoppers who say they will actually go out of their way to find these stores,”  

2.       Eighty-eight percent of shoppers want to see more new items and flavors in retail foodservice. In fact, the most frequently mentioned word in the open-ended suggestions of the survey was “more,” in combination with words such as variety, food, options and items. 

3.       31 percent, want to see flavor and item rotation on a monthly basis, but 28 percent want even greater levels of innovation and recommend a weekly or even daily rotation. 

4.       The importance of speed is once more underscored by the grab-and-go, ready-to-eat format being the most popular method, which is of interest to 68 percent of shoppers. 

5.       Grab-and-go, heat-and-eat is the second most popular style, at 63 percent. 

6.       While 57 percent of shoppers have grocery store apps downloaded, 42 percent actively use one or more. 

7.       App usage is highly related to checking weekly specials (78 percent),

8.       online ordering of groceries (53 percent),

9.       getting recipes and meal ideas and researching the deli-prepared foods menu, but foodservice orders lag (38 percent).

The price, service, value equilibrium continues to reset according to Johnson.  Restaurants continue to raise prices on a year over year as of July 2019 they are up 3% with wholesale prices up only 0.7% according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. All the while grocery stores are adding new grocerant niche meal options with price points that are compelling and quality equal to that of restaurants according to Johnson.

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete 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