Walmart’s Branded Restaurant Meals

 

There is no doubt that Walmart knows what customers want for dinner.  Where Walmart has stumbled was trying to sell consumers for dinner what they bought 25 years ago, the same brands, but in a smaller packaging size for more money according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

At the intersection food customer migration and what’s for dinner Walmart is experimenting with ways to give consumers what they want.  That’s is to say, grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared meals and meal components according to Johnson. 

Ghost Kitchen Brands has planted its flag in the U.S. partnering with Walmart. So, the Canadian provider of off-premise-only kitchen spaces recently opened its first domestic location, inside a Walmart in Rochester, N.Y. Ghost Kitchens has a deal with the retail giant to open at least 30 such outlets here over the next two years. Why a virtual kitchen in a Walmart? Insights from the team at Foodservice Solutions® found:

 

1.       Recent Grocerant ScoreCards found 82.3% of consumers don’t know what’s for dinner at Noon, and 61.1 don’t know what’ s for dinner at 4PM %.

2.       83.1% all dinners have at least 1 grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal component and 68.4% have two meal components.

3.       When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 90.4 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 82.7% chose meal components.

4.       Seventy-three percent of retail prepared food purchases are taken to go

5.       Prepared food purchases are frequently a planned purchase among 59% of shoppers, while 41% of shoppers said they buy prepared foods on impulse. Dinner has the highest amount of prepared food buys with 79% of respondents making purchases for that meal, while lunch comes in at 77% and breakfast at 62%.

6.       55% of consumers would like to try autonomous EV delivery

In A Battle for Share of Stomach

Get this, Walmart’s Rochester location features 25 brands that include restaurants like Quiznos and Saladworks along with packaged products like Red Bull and Kraft Mac & Cheese. Customers can order a combination of items for delivery or pickup while they shop, either via mobile app or on-site kiosks.

Adding relevance for Gen Z and Millennials customers can order from kiosks or via mobile app for pickup or delivery. Here is how it works; Ghost Kitchens operates all of its locations via licensing deals with the brands. Each kitchen staffs about two or three employees who are cross-trained on the various concepts

Ghost Kitchens focus in on templated uncomplicated brands the ilk of Quiznos and Saladworks, and it sister concept, Frutta Bowls, fit that bill. Other options, include the ilk of Nathan's Famous, Wow Bao and Dickey's Barbecue Pit, have also made ghost kitchens and licensing deals part of their growth strategies.

Ghost Kitchens employees are cross-trained on all 25 concepts at the location. So, other brands on the Rochester roster are Cinnabon, Cheesecake Factory's bakery concept and Shaquille O'Neal's Big Chicken, which is making its East Coast debut. 

The selection of brand also includes a handful of international concepts. Canadian chains BeaverTails and Yogen Fuz are in the mix, as is U.K.-based Costa Coffee, owned by Coca-Cola.

Currently, Ghost Kitchens hopes to have 800 locations in the U.S., with Illinois, Texas, Georgia and California next in line. It is targeting nontraditional, high-traffic sites in retailers and malls, as well as stand-alone stores. In some of its Walmart locations, it is taking the place of McDonald's found in many Walmart’s.  How are you giving customers what they want for less?

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

Food Delivery Aggregators Work

 

Grocerant niche growth is growing around the world at an unprecedented rate. In fact a report out last week from Paytronix Systems, found that consumers spent a collective $769 billion ordering food from restaurants last year, with 63% of that — or $486 billion —consumed at home.

Of the $486 billion, 89% was ordered via desktop websites, mobile apps and aggregator apps, the report found. Additionally, 61% of digital food orders in 2020 was spent at restaurants that had only offered dine-in service before the pandemic. The report also found that consumers spent 50% more on average when they placed orders online for takeout.

That said, Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® as many of our regular readers of this blog know sold the first 7 national accounts to restaurant chains in the US back in the day for the fist national aggregator CyberSlice, CyberMeals, evolving into Food.com. Johnson firmly believes is the power of aggregators as a valued consumer touchpoint or as he often reminds us it a favorite rest stop on the information super highway.  If you’re not on the highway you or the side roads or missing all the action.

 Just EatTakeaway.com is prioritizing lower fees and fully employed drivers in its European markets as it focuses on growing share of stomach worldwide.  

Just Eat Takeaway.com (JET) on Wednesday laid out its plan to gain market share by expanding its delivery network, investing in customer acquisition and lowering fees across its 23 global markets—which will soon include the U.S.

The Amsterdam-based delivery company is in the process of acquiring Grubhub in a $7.3 billion transaction set to be completed in the first half of this year. And the strategy detailed on JET’s 2020 earnings call with investors provides a glimpse at how it might approach the new market: namely, growth at all costs.

In the U.K., where JET is the market leader by transactions, that has included adding big brands like McDonald’s to its platform and then offering delivery at a lower price than its competition.

CEO Brent Adriaan Wissink stated, “One of our pillars of our delivery strategy is to be the price leader in our industry,” … “This means offering lower delivery fees across our markets compared to the competition, including free delivery.”

In the U.S., where delivery and service fees vary by market and providers woo customers with frequent deals and promotions, none have emerged as a clear price leader.

So, JET, which like Grubhub began as an online marketplace for restaurants that typically provided their own delivery, has also been working to grow its own driver network. Under that business, called Scoober, drivers are considered full-time employees. They are paid a set hourly wage and receive benefits such as paid sick days, holiday pay and electric bikes for doing deliveries in urban markets.

That is different from the prevailing driver model in the U.S., where third-party delivery drivers are treated as contractors. JET now employs 20,000 Scoober couriers and plans to expand the model to all of its European markets.

Those investments contributed to a loss of 151 million euros ($181 million U.S.) in 2020 on revenues of 2.4 billion euros ($2.9 billion U.S.). But executives emphasized that JET will continue to prioritize market share over profit.

COO Jorg Gerbig, stated, “We believe that market leadership is critical to drive sufficient scale, order density and network effects to enable healthy delivery margins in the long run, and we are best placed to achieve that and, therefore, further investing in driving our market share,”

While executives declined to comment specifically on how that strategy might apply to Grubhub, JET CEO Jitse Groen said, “We essentially do the same thing everywhere, right? We don't have a different strategy in the U.K. than we have in Germany.”

A Grubhub spokesperson also declined to comment, citing the yet to be completed transaction. Leaders at the company have previously signaled a business-as-usual approach once the deal is official.

Once the market leader in the U.S., Chicago-based Grubhub has seen its share slip in recent years as competitors like Uber Eats and DoorDash have grown. In January, it accounted for 17% of meal delivery sales in the U.S., well behind leader DoorDash at 56%, according to SecondMeasure. Consumers are dynamic not static your company must be as well.  Food Delivery Aggregators Work they are a valued touchpoint in the hand of the consumer.

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

Is Walmart’s Ghost Kitchen a Real Effort at Grocerant Fresh

 

If one thing is clear it is that any brand can enter the grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. Some entrants the ilk of IKEA, COSTCO have done outstanding jobs selling both Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food in excess of $2 Billion US a year in sales according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Even the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, recently announced a delivery-only concept called Pistons Dish in partnership with ghost kitchen provider Reef Technology that regular readers of this blog know well.. The menu features basketball-inspired items with names like Hooper’s Honey Walnut Shrimp and Fast Break Falafel, but also promises “select Pistons merchandise.” All of it is available via DoorDash, Grubhub, Seamless and Uber Eats.

Regular readers of this blog are well aware that Edible Arrangements now just Edible and Walmart, which is working with a company called Ghost Kitchen Brands to offer both restaurant food and packaged goods for delivery and pickup from Walmart stores in Canada. A customer could feasibly order a Quiznos sub along with a Red Bull and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s from one of those locations. Walmart said the idea is to make its products more accessible.

Sam Hamam, senior director of licensees at Walmart Canada, stated “We’re very excited to be the first retailer to team up with Ghost Kitchens,” … “We’re always looking at ways to improve our customer shopping experience with greater access to affordable products, services and brands.”

One of the key success platforms of grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food is the ability to mix and match items. According to Johnson, the ability to mix and match meals and meal period components is an element that consumers truly want.

Last summer, DoorDash launched its own chain of delivery-only hubs called DashMarts in eight cities, offering convenience and grocery goods along with restaurant retail items such as sauces from chef Stephanie Izard. It is interesting to note that DoorDash refers to its DashMarts with what feels like a fitting term for this new breed of ghost kitchens: micro-fulfillment centers much akin to what Amazon has become.

Now here is the problem for Walmart, they have tried over and over again to make grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food a CPG product. That is exactly why they continue to salter in the grocerant area.  They are not alone just look how bad Kroger has done with fresh prepared food sales and profitability?  Albertsons and Safeway getting better but there remains no doubt that all legacy grocery stores will do all they can to make fresh food a CPG product. That will continue to cost them dearly and they will capitulate incremental sales to the restaurant sector and dollar store sector because of that.

There is a difference between the comfortable, familiar, and doing the same thing over and over again. That difference within the food space is where the customer has been migrating for the past 15 years. It’s time for more companies to start looking and acting like IKEA, COSTCO, and the Detroit Pistons.   

Looking for success clues of your own? 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 us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Chefs, Restaurateurs, and Entrepreneurs Now is the time to open a Virtual Restaurant

At the intersection of the consumer and the never ending question What’s for Dinner is a technology platform that will enable you to create a virtual restaurant / ghost kitchen in less than 30 days, driving top-line sales and bottom-line profits according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Why now? Let’s look at some facts:

1.       2020 Grocerant ScoreCards found 83.1% of consumers don’t know what’s for dinner at Noon, and 61.7%,

2.       Prepared food (Meals) purchases are frequently a planned purchase among 59% of shoppers,

3.       41% of shoppers said they buy prepared foods on impulse,

4.       Dinner has the highest amount of prepared food buys with 79% of respondents making purchases for that meal,

5.       Lunch comes in at 77% and breakfast at 62%.

Tired of cooking for some one else? Now you can start your own branded restaurant without having to sign a high price lease for space in a strip-center or a mall-pad. Do you have one restaurant but want to grow?  You can now expand within you current four-walls via a virtual restaurant with very little cost all driving incremental income while reducing your current overhead. 

Changes in the restaurant industry are structural not cyclical according to Johnson. McDonald’s, Burger King, are now delivering meals and meal components, joining the likes of Starbucks, Olive Garden, Denny’s, and many more.  You can now do it as well. Don’t get stuck in a long-term lease that cost to much and you can’t get out of.  Now it the time to open a virtual restaurant.  

Here is how: by using the Virtual Restaurant Accelerator, which offers a license for a TWO HENS delivery-only location. TWO HENS is a specialty delivery-only brand offering all-day breakfast prepared in scratch kitchens serving farm-fresh eggs, fresh produce, breads, meats, and sustainable fair-trade coffee. 

It fast as the TWO HENS license includes a complete package of 'done-for-you' services including:

1.       Creation of a custom website and social media pages,

2.       Set up and launch of each TWO HENS on third-party delivery platforms,

3.       Six months of professional social media marketing and promotions management,

4.       A comprehensive training program.

Yes, there is a charge but the cost is in my minds-eye very competitive, close to good. The TWO HENS monthly license fee is $249. Each licensee makes a one-time marketing contribution of $199 towards the restaurant launch and gives VRC a temporary 18 percent split of sales during the six months of professional services. The Accelerator™ has no minimum capital requirements, upfront investments, monthly marketing fees, or other charges. 

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/

Is Eating-Out while Eating-IN the New Restaurant Business Model

Success does leave clues and one clue the was first identified, quantified, and qualified by Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® is Eating-Out while Eating-In.  Regular readers of this blog know that one key element discovered in Foodservice Solutions® study “The 65 Inch HDTV Syndrome” was Eating-Out while Eating-In.

Now the former chief financial officer of Smashburger Bradford Reynolds has been named chief operating officer of the recently launched C3 (Creating Culinary Communities), a subsidiary of SBE Entertainment Group that plans to build a nationwide network of ghost kitchens and limited-service delivery brands.

So, get this, C3 is a partnership between hotel and restaurant operator SBE, shopping mall-owner Simon and hotel partner Accor. The partners plan to leverage Simon’s real estate footprint and SBE and Accor’s hotels to open 200 ghost kitchens by the end of 2021, along with a portfolio of restaurant brands available for delivery. That is a template for growth with location, demographic specialist combined with restaurant success experience.

 

C3 is the company that is planning to opened a food hall called Citizens planned for the Manhattan West development in the Hudson Yards area of New York. While it may work in NYC a food hall is no more than a food court in a non-traditional location. Johnson, does not believe that food halls are scalable.

Reynolds in a statement said C3 has “the chance to modernize the culinary experience, providing innovative solutions to address the new ways consumers want their food. In rethinking every step of the dining process, from the longevity of delivered food to efficient and sustainable packaging and distribution, C3 is bringing to market an incredible offering that the hospitality industry has never seen before.”

Johnson, does believe that C3 and Reynolds do have a chance to drive growth within the grocerant niche with multi-branded fresh food via a virtual kitchen.  Success does leave clues and the team at Foodservice Solutions® believes C3 had the ability to drive change within the restaurant “price, value, service equilibrium”.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your retail food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail business model 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.

What’s for Dinner More and More Ready-2-Eat & Heat-N-Eat Fresh Prepared Meals

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food is deemed ‘better-for-you’ by consumers in large part because it saves consumers time according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

David Portalatin, NPD Food Industry advisor and author of Eating Patterns in America that consumers today are more and more making food choice focused on both health and social consciousness. Here is some of what Portalatin found:

1.        There were over 460 billion in- and away-from-home eating and drinking occasions in the U.S. last year.

2.       16% of consumers regularly use plant-based alternatives such as almond milk, tofu, and veggie burgers; 89% of these consumers do not consider themselves vegan or vegetarian.

3.       14% of in-home eating occasions included at least one item that required no preparation compared to only 11% of occasions in 2013.
Visits to quick service restaurants have increased 630 million visits since 2014, while total visits to restaurants have declined more than 700 million visits.

4.       19% of grocery shoppers now order their edible groceries online; from 2017 to 2020 the average annual growth rate for digital restaurant orders is forecast at 22%.

5.       One in five adults try to manage a health condition with their food and beverage choices.

Regular readers of the blog consumers are fist to ‘jump the curb’ explore new food options and restaurants, c-stores, and grocery stores are always trying to keep up with consumers.  According to Johnson, “the halo of better for your foods, prepared fresh, fast and full of flavor are driving top line sales and bottom line profits in every sector of retail foodservice today.  Is your brand keeping up? Are you looking a customer ahead?

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.