Freebirds World Burrito Thinking Like the Smartest of College Students

 

Taking about customer relevance, college students are targeted by every sector of foodservice for their ‘life time value as a customer and propensity for eating out while a student according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

That said, today’s college students are digital natives, and technology is as normal for them as wearing shoes.  Ok, I’m old but back in my day most students sat in the grass, with grass and most did not wear shoes.  So, Freebirds World Burrito is not testing robotic takeout stations. That I believe will be a home run with college students.

So, Now Cuisine and Freebirds World Burrito, known as Texas’ No. 1 Burrito, have entered into a strategic partnership including a pilot program to bring Freebirds’ beloved and craveable bowls to new locations throughout the Dallas area using Now Cuisine’s robotic Takeout Stations.

Now Cuisine’s Takeout Stations are compact, fully-automated, AI-enabled kiosks that can be placed nearly anywhere to serve freshly made-to-order hot meals in minutes, 24/7. Freebirds has issued a purchase order to Now Cuisine which will allow its food to be served in multiple Takeout Stations in Texas as part of the pilot.

According to Now Cuisine Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Adam Lloyd Cohen, “Forward thinking leaders and companies like Alex and Freebirds are experimenting with technology to bring their great food much closer to the people they serve, making it more convenient to eat a delicious hot meal wherever one happens to be, any time of day or night.”

Restaurant-branded Takeout Stations will likely initially be placed in multifamily and office buildings, with plans to later expand to college campuses, airports, hotels, and other locations.

Alex Eagle, Chief Executive Officer for Freebirds World Burrito added, “We’re continuing to invest in new technologies that give people the option to have Freebirds’ craveable bowls whenever and wherever they want them. It’s just cool that a Texas-based AI and robotics company can help a Texas-based burrito company expand in ways we could only imagine just a few years ago.”

As part of the partnership, Eagle is joining Now Cuisine’s advisory board, where he will provide strategic guidance on marketing Now Cuisine and expanding operations throughout Texas.

Now Cuisine is bringing to market a new category of foodservice that addresses the fundamental mismatch between the distribution of people (who are nearly everywhere) and that of restaurants (which tend to be clustered, for example, in retail locations). The result is that enjoying a good meal—if it’s available at all—too often requires people take the time to travel to a restaurant or pay extra for someone to make the trip for them. Through its vision of Distributed Dining™, Now Cuisine seeks to democratize access to delicious, healthful, affordable food, making it ubiquitous and always nearby: wherever people live, work, and play. Through a connected network of Takeout Stations, Now Cuisine is working to improve nutrition, shrink food deserts, save precious time, and reduce waste, traffic, and emissions.

As Texas’ No. 1 Burrito and consumer choice for “Most Craveable Brand,” Freebirds uses certified Master Grillers to ensure its single-cut meats are marinated and grilled to perfection. With the most flavorful marinades and sauces in Texas, Freebirds is consistently craveable. “It’s Your World” at Freebirds where burritos and bowls are customizable and personalized with signature ingredients, including premium meats, guacamole, legendary Queso Blanco and other delicious options you won’t find anywhere else.

The partnership with Now Cuisine is just one of many investments in technology that is fueling Freebirds’ dynamic growth. Freebirds recently announced a new partnership Qu unified omnichannel ordering platform to integrate a wide range of systems and give guests their Freebirds favorites faster wherever they want to order or pick up their meal. Qu’s cloud-based design will let Freebirds experiment with additional mobile and non-traditional outlets. Freebirds is planning to double its total number of locations over the next 5 years, if not faster.  The main areas of expansion will be across Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, though the growth will see locations open across the state. The brand has already announced new restaurant openings in the pipeline in Kingwood, Spring, Katy and Dripping Springs. With its current growth rate, Freebirds will solidify its position as Texas’ second largest burrito chain.

Don’t over reach. Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® 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 us on our social media sites by clicking the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Yum Brands Pizza Hut is Back

Customer relevance, brand renewal, and customer interaction with participatory technology is the under current driving success at Yum Brands and much of the credit can be given to CEO Greg Creed according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Just take a look at how Pizza Hut is collaborating with FedEx, specifically to explore the use of the FedEx SameDay Bot, a new autonomous delivery device aimed to revolutionize local delivery. When tested, the bot will serve as support to existing delivery staff in an effort to improve efficiency of the delivery process without compromising the quality of America's favorite pizza.

Nicolas Burquier, chief customer and operations officer, Pizza Hut stated "Our success is built around the best-in-class experiences we provide to our customers," .. "As we look to advance our business and continue providing experiences that our customers deserve, exploring technology solutions that allow our team members to do what they do on an even greater scale is critical to our success. Testing of the SameDay Bot with FedEx is just one more way we're looking to the future of delivery at Pizza Hut."

Brie Carere, executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer for FedEx "The FedEx SameDay Bot is an innovation being developed to change the face of local delivery and help brands, like Pizza Hut, address the growing needs of their customers," "The FedEx bot looks to redefine delivery for this market in a manner that is cost-effective, safe and environmentally friendly."

The FedEx SameDay Bot is in development by both FedEx and the DEKA Research and Development Corp., and is equipped with proprietary technology that allows it to navigate unpaved surfaces, curbs, and even steps to deliver an extraordinary door-to-door delivery experience. Testing of the bot is slated to begin as soon as this summer in select markets pending final city approvals.

Under Greg Creed, Yum Brands companies have learned too drive top line sales and bottom line his companies understand that customer relevance is elevated when two brands build off each other complementing consumers preferences via a partnership the ilk of NFL and FedEx.

Is your brand is searching for the new electricity to help drive the brand forward. 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, free food / sampling, beer, 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.  Consumer like Eating-Out when Eating-In. It’s time to call the Grocerant Guru®

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 call: 253-759-7869 or visit www.GrocerantGuru.com

Battle for Share of Stomach 

Who’s Watching the Grocery Store

You have all heard the old adage ‘stack them shelves high and let them fly’ referring of course to product in our case any food product.  All food retailers suffer when there are holes on the shelves or out of stock items, as customer want what they want and want it now. Technology just may be the solutions to out of stock grocery store shelves.

Yes, a robot, named Tally, will begin scanning grocery store aisles at three St. Louis-area Schnucks stores in a six-week pilot program this week. The robot will check aisles three times a day to look for out-of-stock items and make sure items and price tags properly.

Dave Steck, the chain’s vice president of IT and infrastructure, announced a partnership with San Francisco-based Simbe Robotics stating “We’re excited to see what this partnership brings,” “This is just one of many ways that Schnucks is staying at the forefront of technology to enhance our customers’ shopping experiences.”

Schnucks is a regional grocery store chain that has close to 100 stores in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa.  They will use an adjustable robot to monitor items on store shelves but is hopeful that the robot “may open up a world of other possibilities” with the data it collects. 

Simbe CEO Brad Bogolea told the local newspaper that the robot’s ability to find items that need to be restocked and pricing errors allows employees to focus on other tasks. The robot has already been scanning aisles in other stores across the country, including some Target stores in San Francisco last year.

Mr Bogolea stated “The goal of Tally is to create more of a feedback mechanism,” “Although most retailers have good supply chain intelligence, and point-of-sale data on what they’ve sold, what’s challenging for retailers is understanding the true state of merchandise on shelves. Everyone sees value in higher quality, more frequent information across the entire value chain.”

How are you driving down cost, reducing out of stocks items? Do you have redundant programs or systems and still have out of stock items?  If success does leave clues and it does could a robot look at things differently enough to edify your operation?  So just who is watching your store?

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 the clue you need to propel your continued success