Dinner America’s Melting Pot Forces Change for All Food Retailers

Most of you have hear this quote from Guy Fieri “Cooking is all about people. Food is maybe the only universal thing that really has the power to bring everyone together. No matter what culture, everywhere around the world, people get together to eat.”

Today the U.S. multicultural population is projected to grow by 98 million people in the coming decades, multicultural shoppers will continue to have significant influence in determining what’s for dinner; according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Recent research titled Multicultural The Why? The Behind The Buy™ provides insight into the preferences of U.S. Hispanic, African American and Asian American shoppers that will continue to drive change.  Here is some of what they found:

·         More multicultural shoppers enjoy grocery shopping. Seventy-two percent of African American shoppers, 65 percent of U.S. Hispanic shoppers and 61 percent of Asian American shoppers reported this versus 56 percent of White/Caucasian (Non-Hispanic) shoppers.

·         Shopping with other people is more common among multicultural groups. Seventy-two percent of Asian American shoppers, 67 percent of U.S. Hispanic shoppers and 63 percent of African American shoppers reported shopping with others during their routine, regular grocery trips versus 55 percent of White/Caucasian (Non-Hispanic) shoppers.

·         Multicultural shoppers purchase groceries across more channels than total U.S. shoppers. Twenty-three percent of U.S. Hispanic shoppers reported shopping in a Hispanic/Ethnic grocery store in the past six months versus three percent of total U.S. shoppers.

Multicultural Shoppers Are Engaged with Brands

·         Forty-nine percent of U.S. Hispanic shoppers and 46 percent of Asian American shoppers agreed that they buy grocery brands that are authentic to their ethnic heritage.

·         Sixty-five percent of African American shoppers and 59 percent of U.S. Hispanic shoppers agreed that they are passionate about their favorite grocery brands.

·         Compared to total U.S. shoppers, more multicultural shoppers agreed that they buy brands that are socially responsible.

Convenient Meal Solutions Are Important

·         More multicultural shoppers brought grocery prepared foods home in the past thirty days. Seventy-six percent of U.S. Hispanic shoppers reported doing this in the past month versus 59 percent of White/Caucasian (Non-Hispanic) shoppers.

·         Seventy-six percent of Asian American shoppers reported ordering from a restaurant for pick-up/carry-out in the past 30 days versus 53 percent of White/Caucasian (Non-Hispanic) shoppers.

Multicultural Shoppers Comfortable with Grocery Digital

·         Forty-four percent of U.S. Hispanic shoppers reported reading a digital grocery flyer versus 35 percent of total U.S. shoppers.

·         Thirty-eight percent of African American shoppers reported using a search engine to find recipes online versus 28 percent of total U.S. shoppers.

·         Thirty-seven percent of Asian American shoppers reported using a shopping list on their mobile device versus 26 percent of total U.S. shoppers.

If you are looking for a new partnership to drive sales consider Acosta? 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.

Technology Invades the Grocery Store

Every sector of retail foodservice is exploring, testing, rolling out new technologies, services, and formats to add customer relevance to their brand while edifying its relationship with its core customers according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Recently Hispanic grocer Sedano’s Supermarket has joined forces with e-grocery solution Takeoff Technologies to launch what the companies say is the inaugural automated hyperlocal fulfillment center anywhere, or “the world’s first robotic supermarket.” While Amazon might dispute they were first this is a big step for the grocery sector according to Johnson.  This will be a platform for new electricity at Sedano’s.

The cutting-edge technology will allow customer orders to be placed via online app and carried out by Takeoff’s automated micro-fulfillment center, with the support of Sedano’s associates. Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled robots will put together full supermarket orders of as many as 60 items in just a few minutes – a fraction of the speed and cost of current manual picking options.

Jose Vicente Aguerrevere, co-founder and CEO of Waltham, Mass.-based Takeoff  stated “Grocers have been dipping their toes in e-groceries for years,”… “Now it’s time to jump in with both feet. Our automated, hyperlocal micro-fulfillment center enables grocers to thrive in e-grocery.”

The new robotic center will service 14 Sedano’s stores in the grocer’s hometown of Miami and offer consumers pickup services. Javier Herran, chief marketing officer for Sedano’s “We are excited to partner with Takeoff at the forefront of this groundbreaking robotics solution,” …“This model gives us the ability to leap into the e-grocery industry, develop a new level of employment opportunities, and continue meeting the needs of our valued consumers by offering an affordable and convenient online service.”

Takeoff’s aim is to develop hyperlocal fulfillment centers in one-eighth the footprint of a average supermarket, using innovative robotics and compact vertical spaces. The company is currently collaborating with five U.S. regional and national retail chains and has several sites in the pipeline to roll out in next year. Ultimately, Takeoff plans to build such centers across the United States, in both urban and suburban areas.

“Sedano’s is a great partner for kicking off our solution, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to work alongside them in providing a turnkey e-grocery solution,” said Takeoff co-founder and President Max Pedro. “We’re robotizing the supermarket – which has never been done before. This is the first of many deployments we are working on, and shoppers will soon see more local grocery stores with micro-fulfillment centers.”

So, just what is your brands new electricity? 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.”

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, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, Fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

Foodservice 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.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

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/