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

Amazon Food Finally Finds Its “Day 1”: The Grocery Giant Learns That Saving Money May Be Its Most Powerful Food Message

 

For years, Amazon has talked about food through the language of selection, convenience, technology and speed.

Now something important is changing, according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Amazon appears to be discovering that its most powerful food message may be much simpler:

Save money on Amazon.

That is a potentially important strategic shift because food is different from virtually every other category Amazon sells. Consumers buy groceries frequently, compare prices constantly and have a strong memory for what milk, bananas, chicken, eggs, snacks and other everyday staples cost.

And Amazon now has something it did not have when it purchased Whole Foods Market nine years ago: a much clearer food value proposition connected to the enormous Amazon ecosystem.

In my view, it looks as if “Day 1” for Amazon food took four or five years to actually arrive.

Actually, the timeline is even more revealing.

Amazon announced its acquisition of Whole Foods Market on June 16, 2017, for approximately $13.7 billion, and completed the acquisition on August 28, 2017.

That means Amazon has now owned Whole Foods for roughly nine years.

So the question isn't whether Amazon has had enough time to figure out grocery.

The question is whether Amazon has finally figured out what it wants grocery to mean to the consumer.

And that answer increasingly appears to be:

Food + Value + Convenience + Delivery + Amazon.

The Amazon food message is getting much clearer

The material Amazon is publishing in 2026 is noticeably different from the old Amazon grocery story.

Amazon is increasingly talking about:

·       everyday low prices

·       competitive prices

·       meeting or beating major retailers

·       Prime savings

·       grocery deals

·       free Same-Day Delivery on qualifying orders

·       putting groceries into the same cart as everything else

·       saving money through Prime

·       and making grocery shopping more affordable.

Amazon now says that when customers shop groceries, they will find everyday low prices with prices that “meet or beat” other major retailers.

That is not just a grocery message.

It is an Amazon message.

Amazon is effectively saying:

You already come to Amazon to save money and get convenience. Why shouldn't you buy your food here, too?

That is much more powerful than simply saying, “We deliver groceries.”

Whole Foods may finally become part of the price story

This is where the 2017 acquisition becomes fascinating.

When Amazon bought Whole Foods, the companies immediately announced that they wanted to make high-quality natural and organic food more affordable. Amazon and Whole Foods also began lowering prices on selected grocery staples after the acquisition closed.

But almost a decade later, Amazon is now making competitive pricing a much more visible part of its overall grocery strategy.

Whole Foods itself now prominently markets:

·       Prime member deals

·       30+ exclusive deals each week

·       an additional 10% off sale items for Prime members

·       “Low Price” signs on popular items

·       365 by Whole Foods Market value products

·       Tuesday and Friday food savings

·       and $0 grocery delivery fees for qualifying Prime members using its grocery-delivery subscription.

So I have a question for Amazon:

Is Whole Foods finally going to become Amazon's competitive-price grocery weapon?

Not inexpensive food.

Not cheap food.

Competitive food.

There is a significant difference.

Whole Foods doesn't need to become Aldi.

It doesn't need to become Walmart.

It doesn't even need to abandon its natural-and-organic positioning.

But Amazon can use its enormous purchasing power, data, Prime ecosystem, private brands, digital pricing capabilities and logistics network to make Whole Foods increasingly credible when the consumer asks:

“Where can I get the food I want without overpaying?”

That would be a very different Whole Foods value proposition than the one consumers carried around for decades.

Amazon has discovered that food can drive the delivery business

This may be the biggest insight in Amazon's new grocery strategy.

Amazon isn't merely using delivery to sell groceries.

Groceries may be helping Amazon make its delivery network more valuable.

Consider the numbers.

Amazon says its grocery business generated more than $150 billion in gross sales in 2025, making it the second-largest grocer in the United States.

Amazon also says that in 2025 it delivered more than 13 billion items worldwide the same or next day. In the United States, Prime members received more than 8 billion such items, with groceries and everyday essentials representing half of the total.

Think about what that means.

Food isn't necessarily just another category Amazon delivers.

Food can help create the frequency that makes the entire delivery network more productive.

Consumers don't buy a television every week.

They don't buy a laptop every week.

They don't buy a vacuum cleaner every week.

But they buy food constantly.

That makes grocery one of the most powerful potential frequency generators in retail.

Then Amazon put perishables into the same cart

This may be the breakthrough Amazon was looking for.

In 2025, Amazon began putting thousands of fresh grocery products—including produce, meat, seafood, dairy, baked goods and frozen foods—into its Same-Day Delivery network.

By August 2025, the service had reached more than 1,000 cities and towns, with Amazon planning to expand to more than 2,300.

By 2026, Amazon says fresh grocery Same-Day Delivery is available in more than 2,300 U.S. cities and towns.

But the really interesting statistic isn't geographic coverage.

It is basket behavior.

Amazon says customers ordering perishables through Same-Day Delivery build larger baskets, adding nearly three times as many items and spending more than 80% more than customers who don't purchase perishables.

That's enormous.

It suggests Amazon isn't simply acquiring grocery customers.

Grocery may be increasing the economic value of the Amazon customer.

And Amazon says perishables sales through the Same-Day network have grown more than 40 times since their introduction in early 2025. Fresh groceries now represent nine of the top 10 most-ordered items for Same-Day Delivery where the service is available.

That is what I call a Grocerant wake-up call.

Food may be Amazon's new traffic engine

Here's the strategic possibility I see.

Amazon has historically trained consumers to think:

“I need something. I'll get it on Amazon.”

Now Amazon wants consumers to think:

“I need food. I'll get it on Amazon.”

That is a much bigger behavioral opportunity.

If Amazon can get a household to order:

·       bananas

·       milk

·       chicken

·       bread

·       snacks

·       frozen foods

·       household products

·       paper towels

·       toothpaste

in the same cart, Amazon doesn't have to convince the consumer to make a separate grocery trip.

It is collapsing shopping missions.

That is extraordinarily important.

Amazon itself describes the proposition as bringing fresh groceries together with millions of everyday items in a single, fast order.

The consumer isn't thinking about Amazon's fulfillment architecture.

The consumer is thinking:

“I need these 17 things.”

Amazon's job is to make the answer:

“Put them all in one cart.”

But can Amazon actually make money doing this?

This is the question that shouldn't get lost in the excitement.

Revenue is not profit.

A bigger grocery basket is not automatically a better grocery business.

Perishables introduce costs Amazon doesn't encounter with a box of books or electronics.

Fresh food requires:

·       temperature control

·       specialized storage

·       shrink management

·       quality inspection

·       labor-intensive picking

·       careful packaging

·       substitutions and refunds

·       tighter delivery windows

·       spoilage management

·       and a much greater risk of customer dissatisfaction.

Amazon says its perishables operation uses ambient, cooled and frozen temperature zones, with specialized facilities and quality-control procedures. It also says every perishable item undergoes a six-sided check for characteristics such as ripeness, discoloration, wilting, mold and bruising.

That's impressive operationally.

But it costs money.

The bigger question is whether Amazon can spread those costs across a much larger basket.

And that is where Amazon's model gets interesting.

If a customer orders only a $7 bag of strawberries, delivery economics can be ugly.

If that same customer orders strawberries, milk, chicken, bread, cereal, frozen pizza, paper towels and toothpaste, the economics become considerably more attractive.

The basket is the business.

 

Amazon may be redefining what “grocery delivery” means

Traditional grocery delivery often asks:

“How do we deliver a grocery order profitably?”

Amazon is asking a different question:

“How do we make grocery part of an already enormous delivery ecosystem?”

That is a much bigger idea.

Amazon says more than half of the customers who try fresh grocery delivery return within 30 days.

And Amazon's own 2026 data says monthly active perishables customers grew more than 50% during the first part of the year, while Same-Day orders containing perishables averaged more than three times the units of nonperishable Same-Day orders.

Those aren't simply grocery metrics.

They are customer-frequency metrics.

And frequency is one of the most valuable assets in retail.

The Whole Foods question becomes even more important

This brings me back to Whole Foods.

Amazon has more than 550 Whole Foods stores, with another 100 planned over the next several years.

Amazon also announced in 2026 that it was closing its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores and converting various locations to Whole Foods Market stores.

That suggests something important.

Amazon appears to have stopped trying to create an entirely separate physical grocery identity and is increasingly building around Whole Foods + Amazon + delivery + Prime + value.

Now the strategic question becomes:

Can Amazon make Whole Foods competitive enough on price to become a mainstream weekly grocery destination?

The company is already moving in that direction.

But the opportunity is much larger than another 10% discount.

Amazon could potentially make price transparency itself part of the Whole Foods brand.

Imagine a consumer knowing that Amazon is constantly comparing prices, adjusting promotions and using its enormous digital platform to demonstrate value.

That could change the psychological equation of shopping Whole Foods.

The Amazon food strategy is finally beginning to look like Amazon

For years, Amazon's grocery initiatives often looked like separate experiments:

Amazon Fresh.

Whole Foods.

Amazon Go.

Prime grocery delivery.

Local grocery partners.

Fresh delivery.

Same-Day Delivery.

Now the pieces are starting to look less like separate businesses and more like one Amazon food ecosystem.

And that is why I say:

Amazon's “Day 1” for food may have taken four or five years to actually arrive.

The irony is that Amazon has been in food for much longer than five years.

But the Amazon food proposition—selection + value + Prime + convenience + delivery + one cart—is only now becoming clear.

The Grocerant Guru® Bottom Line

Amazon doesn't need to beat every grocery store at everything.

It needs to make the consumer believe:

“I can save money, get what I want, get it quickly and avoid another shopping trip.”

That is an extremely powerful proposition.

And the grocery industry should pay attention because Amazon is no longer asking consumers to change where they shop.

It is asking them to change how they shop.

The old grocery trip was:

Go to the store → find the food → check out → drive home.

The Amazon model is increasingly:

Think about what you need → put everything in one cart → save money → get it delivered.

That's not merely grocery delivery.

That's a new food-shopping operating system.

And Amazon finally appears to understand that the strongest marketing message isn't necessarily:

“We have fresh food.”

It is:

“Save money on Amazon—and get your food while you're at it.”

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Food could become Amazon's frequency engine.

The strategic value of groceries isn't simply grocery revenue. It is the frequency of grocery purchasing that can bring consumers back to Amazon repeatedly—and increase the size of the entire Amazon basket.

2. Whole Foods' next chapter should be about competitive value.

Amazon bought Whole Foods on August 28, 2017. Nearly nine years later, Amazon has the technology, Prime membership, data and logistics infrastructure to make competitive pricing a much more visible part of the Whole Foods proposition. The question is no longer whether Whole Foods can be more competitive on price. The question is how aggressively Amazon wants to make that happen.

3. The real Amazon grocery KPI may be profit per delivery route—not profit per grocery order.

If groceries increase basket size, delivery frequency and utilization of Amazon's logistics network, Amazon can potentially justify food economics that look less attractive when viewed in isolation. The grocery order doesn't have to carry the entire economic burden if grocery makes the entire Amazon ecosystem more productive.

My prediction as the Grocerant Guru®: Amazon's next great food battle won't be about whether it can deliver groceries. It already can. The battle will be whether Amazon can convince millions of consumers that Amazon is one of the places they should check first when they want both food and value.

That is when Amazon food stops being an experiment—and starts becoming a habit.

For international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit www.GrocerantGuru.com , www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or call    1-253-759-7869