Rite Aid Targets Sprouts, Earth Fare, and Whole Foods

 

In a never ending battle for share of stomach Rite Aid is targeting the ‘better-4-you’ space and it’s preminmum profit subset of ‘better-4-you’ snacks.  According to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®, “Rite Aid is right on, cherry picking the preminium profit sub-category of ‘better-4-you’ snacks.

In case you did not know, Ello Market is a private label snack line at Rite Aid that is focused on healthy eating will garner customers from customers who vist Whole Foods, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Earth Fare.

Taking the lead from the Dollar store sector at successfully cherry picking the grocery store sector, now Rite Adi is doing the same thing to the ‘better-4-you’ grocery store sector.

Rite Aid has divided the new private label ‘better-4-you’ line into categories – Core, Better for You, and Indulgent. Products include “healthy snacks, pantry essentials and indulgent treats,” according to a release from Rite Aid.

So, actual products include things like savory nuts (pistachios and dry roasted peanuts), assorted sweets (chocolate almonds, peach rings and gummy butterflies), as well as trail mix varieties including Protein Trail Mix and Probiotic Trail Mix, and other kitchen items like honey and spices.

Pamela Kohn, SVP, chief merchandising officer at Rite Aid, stated, “We’ve been paying close attention to consumption habits to ensure our offerings fulfill the needs and desires of our customers”.  According oi Johnson snacks are profitable, ‘better-4-you’ snacks are even more profitable.

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

Rite Aid Evolving with a Fresh Food Focus

 

Retailer after retailer find that evolving with consumers pays off in the long run. Consumers are dynamic not static and retailers must be as well.  Demand for grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food had created new growth for many a retailer as regular readers of this blog know.

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® believes that Rite Aid will benefit from its new partnership with Uber Eats garnering new electricity for its food, beverage, and snacking offerings. So, how is your branding extending your brand invitation this fall?

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

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. 

So, when Rite Aid announced the expansion of its partnership with Uber Eats to offer same-day delivery of grocery and healthcare products the undercurrents of customer demand were once again in play.

Get this, now on-demand delivery is now available for 2,185 Rite Aid drugstores across 17 states on Uber Eats. Customers who wish to order Rite Aid items for delivery open the Uber Eats app, tap the convenience or pharmacy icons, select Rite Aid, and begin shopping. Within the app, users can access a full catalog of healthcare and grocery products from their local Rite Aid store. Uber Pass and Eats Pass customers will also enjoy no delivery fee and 5% off on all orders over $15.

Battle for Share of Customer Dollars

Jim Peters, chief operating officer of Rite Aid, stated, “Consumer shopping preferences are changing, so we are continuing to evolve our retail business to ensure customers are able to conveniently get what they need to keep their family happy and healthy – whether they visit us in-store or buy online,” ... “By adding Uber as a delivery option, we are doubling down on an omnichannel approach that complements the busy lives of our customers. Ensuring convenient access to whole health essentials enables us to live our purpose of helping people achieve whole health for life.”

So, Uber Eats now becomes Rite Aid’s latest partner for on-demand delivery service for front-of-store products. The Camp Hill, Pa.-based drugstore chain has offered same-day delivery of groceries and OTC health products at all of its stores through Instacart under a partnership announced just over a year ago. This past May, Rite Aid teamed up with DoorDash for same-day delivery of nonprescription health, wellness and convenience products. And most recently in August, Rite Aid joined with Shipt nationwide to offer delivery in as soon as an hour.

Raj Beri, Uber’s global head of grocery and new verticals at Uber Technologies, stated, “Convenience is a key component of Uber’s delivery strategy, allowing us to create a seamless delivery experience by ensuring we have the essential stores and products customers need," said. "With our partners at Rite Aid, we're thrilled to make shopping for everything from cold medication to cosmetics more 'convenient' than ever."

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

Rite Aid to Deliver Food & OTC

The line between food retailers continues to blur in the minds eye of the consumer, according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Rite Aid is expanding the halo of ‘better-for-you’ by adding same-day service delivery that includes groceries, health products but not prescriptions.

When Rite Aid has partnered with Instacart to offer same-day delivery of groceries and over-the-counter, health care products through all of its drugstores it was clear that elevating service will create new electricity for the brand and help drive food and OTC sales according Johnson.

So, the Instacart service excludes prescriptions for now and we think that a state by state trial of that will be the next step announced. Currently, Rite Aid customers will be able to access the drug chain’s full catalog of grocery and health care products and daily essentials from their local store.

Jim Peters, chief operating officer at Rite Aid stated  “At Rite Aid, we are focused on providing our customers and communities with the essentials they need during these unprecedented times,” …“To further enhance our services, we have teamed up with Instacart to offer our customers another convenient method of shopping at Rite Aid from the safety and comfort of home.”

Battle for Share of Stomach

Here is how it will work; in Rite Aid stores, an Instacart personal shopper will pick, pack and deliver orders within the customer’s selected time frame, offering an alternative to in-store shopping, the companies noted. All Instacart orders now default to “leave at my door delivery” to promote social distancing and allow customers to receive deliveries safely.

Since Rite Aid has expanded its food offering in recent years, including more perishables and a larger selection of private-label items. Some of the drug chain’s locations, especially in urban markets, carry a higher percentage of food products and serve as neighborhood grocery destinations.

Now get this during 2020 fiscal year, Rite Aid’s consumables sales totaled an estimated $5.09 billion, nearly a third of the company’s retail segment sales. Delivery will drive new electricity there is no doubt.

Driving new electricity into a legacy brand with a partnership is a good move and will accelerate the marketing messaging for all companies involved according to Johnson. How is your company positioning to grow your brand, the top, and bottom line?

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply chain and includes such things as fresh foods, online ordering, delivery, plant based foods, sampling, toy’s, beer, developing brands,  grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food and beverage retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food and beverages that are portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  Does your retail path forward look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Why? This new partnership does all of that.

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 253-759-7869. 

Expanding Grocerant Niche Fresh Prepared Food Sales is Exactly what Grocer’s should be Doing

Success does leave clues and one sure clue of success is the rapid adoption of grocerant niche fresh prepared meals and peal components according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. 

At the intersection of the family dinner table and food sales Foodservice Solutions® most recent Grocerant ScoreCard found that 64.7% of households do know What’s for Dinner at 4PM every day.  The same report also found that 83.1% of dinner tables included at least one grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food item, or as we call them meal components.

So, when our Grocerant Guru® heard that The Kroger Co. and Walgreens are teaming on an exploratory pilot in which shoppers will be able to order Kroger grocery items online and pick them up at 13 of the drug store chain’s stores in northern Kentucky, he got excited thinking Kroger is getting on the right path.

When in fact all it was about is extending Kroger’s private label ‘Our Brands products, including the natural and organic Simple Truth brands into some Walgreens. What a big miss for Kroger and even bigger missed opportunity for Walgreens.

Clearly Kroger with over 18 store Banners and several private label brands still is looking back wanting to be a company that fills your pantry with food from there banners and private label product line.  Selling more of what they used to sell is how Kroger got itself into a pickle today? 

That pickle is a grocery store company with national footprint that is growing 1/3 the rate of the fastest growing grocer Aldi.  How can that be?  Simply put they have a ‘category management’ mindset of yesterday. 

With 9,800 units Walgreens can take lots of Kroger’s private label branded foods.  However, much like other CPG food manufactures consumers will continue to migrate from legacy CPG shelf stable food from the pantry to fresh prepared meals.  If Kroger wants to thrive in 2025 they had better start looking a customer ahead instead of looking like a company of yesterday.

Walgreens on the other hand does and outstanding job at its Duane Reade units with ‘Fresh & Ready’ foods that have provided a platform for incremental customer adoption by daypart.  If success does leave clues and it does Walgreens grocerant niche ‘Fresh & Ready’ will be a brand that continues to expand from urban to suburban locations.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? 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.