Grocerant Niche Success Clue Sell Them Another Meal

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food continues to drive customer migration in every sector of retail foodservice. Regular readers of this blog know that mix & match meal bundling is a hallmark of the grocerant niche.  Here are some recent grocerant Scorecard results that help you see why:

 

1. Recent Grocerant ScoreCards found 81.1% of consumers don’t know what’s for dinner at Noon, and 61.1 don’t know what’ s for dinner at 4PM %.
2. Roughly 63.7% of consumers purchase prepared food items from a retail location at least three times a month.
3. 79.6% all dinners have at least 1 grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal component and 66.6% have two meal components.
4. When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 91.3 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 83.4% chose meal components.
5. Seventy-three percent of retail prepared food purchases are taken to go
6. Prepared food purchases are frequently a planned purchase among 61.2% of shoppers, while 40.9% of shoppers said they buy prepared foods on impulse. Dinner has the highest amount of prepared food buys with 81.7% of respondents making purchases for that meal, while lunch comes in at 76.9% and breakfast at 61.4%.
7. 57.8% of consumers would like to add Alcohol to a dinner order

 

Sam Oches, clearly understand the important role grocerant niche mix and match bundling is playing in the restaurant sector and recently spoke with; Goodcents The Kansas based chain rolled out Goodcents To Go.

In case you did not know Goodcents, is a 64-unit sandwich franchise based outside Kansas City, adapted its business around off-premises service during the COVID-19 pandemic just like every other restaurant chain. But where many focused on delivery, takeout and drive thru, Goodcents discovered another valuable off-premises tool: grab-and-go. (Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food)

Regular readers of this blog know that, Goodcents To Go, the brand’s grab-and-go cooler stationed inside the restaurants, offers menu options beyond Goodcents’ standard sandwich lineup; along with cold sandwiches, there’s also pasta, salmon and roast beef.

Farrellynn Wolf, Goodcents’ CEO, joined Oches on the latest episode of Take-Away to discuss that grab-and-go platform, how Goodcents is leaning into its customers’ wants and needs as it further adapts the brand, and why the existing guest is far more valuable than the potential one.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why:

·         Grab-and-go can serve as another off-premises frontier

·         New guests are great, but there’s real potential in getting your existing fans to come more often

·         Landlords need a tenant as much you need some real estate — negotiate as such

·         You won’t grow if your franchisees aren’t engaged in your programs

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food can help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits.  Are you ready to drive sell more meals with less labor?

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 

For Some it Makes ‘Goodcents’ to Add More Meat

 

With a wing supply shortage again this year for super-bowl weekend it makes a lot of sense to offer plant-based wings, as a point of differentiation. On the other hand, if you know your customers core desires you just might want to do what Goodcents Subs did.  They added 30% more meat to their subs according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®, that is a great point of visceral and texture differentiation that will complement core consumers price, value, perception.

NRN recently reported that Goodcents franchisees are excited about a menu change that added 30 percent more meat to its popular sub sandwiches – and potentially draw a lot of new customers. Goodcents, known for its freshly baked bread and hand-sliced deli meats and cheeses, is increasing the amount of meat on subs of all sizes and party trays. The consumer is dynamic not static and restaurants need to evolve with relevance.

That change comes in response to guests who have expressed interest in getting more protein into their diets. Goodcents has been testing the new menu at two corporate locations since September to rave reviews.

Jami Bond, vice president of franchise development stated, “Our guests have overwhelmingly loved the sandwiches with 30 percent more meat,” … “And our franchisees love it, too, because they know customers will be excited to taste the new sandwiches.”

One franchise owner, Holly Trice, who took over an existing Goodcents location in Apple Valley, Minnesota, in November, rolled out the 30 percent more meat menu then. “Our customers have just been wowed by the change – especially people who were unaware of the new menu,” she says. “We’ve had guests who ordered online and were so surprised when they got home. The next time they come in, they say, ‘I just got a sandwich here last week, and boy, did it have a lot of meat on it.’ They all love it.”

Bond continued saying “the corporate team is proud of the support provided to franchisees in advance of this menu change. For any new menu rollout, Goodcents provides franchisees with suggested prices based on cost analysis and competitor comparison. The company also gives each franchisee a location-specific projected change in profit based on the location’s current mix of product sales. Franchisees control their prices, because they must be able to adjust for cost differences, such as minimum wage differences in various states, Bond said.

Bond went on to say “that adding 30 percent more meat is a terrific marketing opportunity, but she is more excited about the consistency it brings to the brand. “This will solidify that the sandwich you get at a Goodcents in Phoenix is the same as one you get in Kansas City,” she says. “Without consistency, we cannot grow as a brand.”

The menu change comes at an exciting time for Goodcents. This month, the brand also began launching the Goodcents Certified Clean Program, which equips every restaurant with a no-contact temperature check device and sanitization program for the safety of guests and crew members.

“Between the menu change and Certified Clean, we are really leaning in to support our franchisees,” Bond adds. “Our corporate team is in six to seven restaurants every day to lend our support. 2021 is starting out so strong, and we think the menu change will bolster sales even more."

How are you evolving your brand in 2021?  What is your point of differentiation? Does your messaging have the ‘halo’ of better for you’?

Success does leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the consumer is dynamic not static”.  Regular readers of this blog know that is the common refrain of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Our Grocerant Guru® can help your company edify your brand with relevance.  Call 253-759-7869 for more information.