Grocerant Guru®: Bob Evans Excels with 'Dining Out While Dining In' This Thanksgiving

More families than ever are looking to make Thanksgiving stress-free, delicious, and reminiscent of the flavors that bring people together. Bob Evans steps in with its Farmhouse Feasts, a celebration of family, flavor, and convenience.

Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® says, Thanksgiving is all about family time, but these days, preparing the traditional feast can be daunting. Enter Bob Evans’ Farmhouse Feasts: crafted for families to savor the holiday with all the favorite dishes and none of the stress. This year, the 'Dining Out While Dining In' trend is stronger than ever as families seek the nostalgic flavors they love without hours in the kitchen. Bob Evans’ ready-to-heat-and-serve Farmhouse Feasts and other hot carryout options bring family-size convenience and cherished flavors home, all in just two hours or less.

As America’s trusted go-to for turkey and hearty family meals, Bob Evans continues to raise the bar, providing everything from slow-roasted turkey to hickory-smoked ham and all the sides, baked goods, and desserts that feel like home. “Thanksgiving is a time to cherish family moments, and with Farmhouse Feasts, we’re bringing more of those moments to the table,” said Mickey Mills, CEO of Bob Evans. “Our goal is to offer a truly relaxing holiday meal experience so families can focus on what matters most.”

Why 'Dining Out While Dining In' Is Poised to Be Big This Thanksgiving

1.       More Families Seek Time Savings – According to food industry data, over 60% of families this year want to simplify meal prep. Bob Evans offers the Farmhouse Feast as a complete solution that brings cherished flavors without hours in the kitchen.

2.       Authentic, Familiar Flavors – Studies reveal that holiday dining trends lean heavily towards comfort foods and familiar flavors. Bob Evans, known for its classic recipes, captures that nostalgia, offering slow-roasted turkey, hickory-smoked ham, and sides like bread & celery dressing that remind people of Thanksgivings past.

3.       Restaurant-Quality Meals at Home – This year, 72% of consumers are prioritizing meals from restaurants to re-create a dining-out feel at home. Bob Evans’ Farmhouse Feast embodies this trend, delivering complete meals that taste like restaurant fare but can be enjoyed around the family table.

4.       Convenience Meets Tradition – With more consumers focusing on convenience, Bob Evans bridges the gap by providing traditional Thanksgiving foods that need only heating, letting families enjoy time together without sacrificing holiday customs.

5.       Feeding Gatherings of All Sizes – With flexible options, from a family of four to larger gatherings, Bob Evans offers meals and sides that scale to any occasion, keeping family connection at the forefront of Thanksgiving celebrations.

What Bob Evans Brings to Your Thanksgiving Table

·         Farmhouse Feasts: A Full Thanksgiving Meal for Gatherings Big or Small – Select from three entrée options, including Bob Evans’ famous slow-roasted turkey, hickory-smoked ham, or slow-roasted pot roast with caramelized onions and roasted carrots. Each Feast includes crowd-pleasing sides like mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans with ham, and house-made cranberry relish. Prices start at $84.99, making this an economical choice for a stress-free holiday meal.

·         Holiday Hot Family Meals – Families on the go can enjoy Bob Evans’ signature hand-carved turkey and hickory-smoked ham served hot and ready to eat. With ample family-size portions, the Holiday Hot Family Meal, priced at $99.99, also includes mashed potatoes, buttered corn, and a freshly baked pumpkin pie, perfect for a gathering of six.

·         New Potato Lovers Bundle – Because extra potatoes are always a favorite! The Potato Lovers Bundle, available for just $29.99, features two family-size roasted sweet potato dishes plus mashed potatoes and gravy, ensuring no one leaves the table unsatisfied.

·         Family-Size Sides and Seasonal Desserts – Adding to the Farmhouse Feast, Bob Evans offers favorites like macaroni & cheese, mashed potatoes with gravy, and green beans with ham for just $12.99 each. Complete your feast with seasonal pies like pumpkin and pecan, starting at $12.29, to wrap up Thanksgiving on a sweet note.

·         Dine-In Option Available Thanksgiving Day – All Bob Evans locations will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. for guests who want a traditional dine-in experience. Enjoy the Premium Celebration Platter featuring slow-roasted turkey, hickory-smoked ham, sides, and a slice of pie, all for $18.99.

“We know families want their Thanksgiving to feel special, yet easy,” said Bob Holtcamp, President and Chief Marketing Officer at Bob Evans. “The Farmhouse Feasts deliver the flavors of home, with dishes our guests remember fondly from childhood. We’re here to help families focus on what Thanksgiving is really about.”

Families can order Farmhouse Feasts online or through the Bob Evans app, available for carryout, curbside pickup, or delivery until November 26. For details and to order, visit BobEvans.com.

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 us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter 

Innovative Thanksgiving Menus Drive Consumers to Restaurants this Thanksgiving

Still not sure where you are going to eat this Thanksgiving?  Don’t worry you do not have to cook.  You can go out to eat at your favorite restaurant of you can order one of the 1,900 innovative new menu items put on the menu this year.

According to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® “restaurants have been adding new grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat menu options every year.  This year there are over 1,900 new menu options that restaurants have added targeting your Thanksgiving dinner table.”

According to SpotOn, a restaurant software and payment provider, reported a list of Thanksgiving meal trends it is seeing from the independent and small chain restaurants it serves across the U.S.

Here let’s look at some of the trends for this Thanksgiving they include:

Thanksgiving Menu Items

·         A majority of items were added Oct. 23-29 and include Thanksgiving Meal Kits from Looking Glass Hospitality, Thanksgiving Dessert Boards and Cookie Decorating Kits from M. Streeting Baking Co., and even a Thanksgiving Leftovers Kit from Lucius Q.

·         In the last 30 days, SpotOn reported an uptick in traditional Thanksgiving Day sides and desserts added to its restaurant clients’ menus, including 652 sweet potato items, 421 mashed potato items, 272 yam items, 275 pumpkin pie items, 164 pecan pie items, 83 stuffing items, 44 cranberry sauce items and 24 green bean casserole items.

Business on ‘Drinksgiving’

·         The night before Thanksgiving, also known as “Drinksgiving,” is typically one of the busiest bar nights of the year as consumers kick off the start of the holiday weekend.

·         Last year, SpotOn reported its bar and brewery clients saw a 50% increase in sales on “Drinksgiving” vs. the previous Wednesday.

·         Not surprisingly, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving was also the busiest Wednesday of 2021 for SpotOn’s pizza clients.

Post-Turkey Day Trends

·         After the holiday weekend is over, and the leftovers are gone, it seems diners are in the mood for a particular cuisine type(s). Last year, Japanese, sushi and seafood restaurants saw an 18% uptick in business on the Monday after Thanksgiving, welcoming in consumers hungry for a break from heavy holiday meals.

The Remaining Holidays

·         Holiday menu items, in general, have been on the rise, with over 500 holiday menu items added in the last 90 days, with the largest number of items added the week of Oct. 2. Some of the highlights include a Herbivore Holiday Meal from Pondichieri in Houston, Holiday BBQ Plate from Viewhouse with various Colorado locations and Holiday Wellington from Matthew Kenney’s Veg’d in Los Angeles.

·         SpotOn also saw an additional 405 Christmas menu items, with the largest spike added at the beginning of October, including The Christmas Mimosas at Famous Toastery, a “take n bake” Christmas Ham from Three Blondes Brewing and Christmas Chile at ABQ Burrito & Burger.

·         As for the season’s favorite flavors, SpotOn found restaurants added: 470 hot chocolate and 86 hot cocoa items, 410 peppermint items, 148 gingerbread items, 21 eggnog items, 39 candy cane items and 22 mulled wine items so far.

If customers don’t want to cook Thanksgiving dinner at home, they can now visit a restaurant and enjoy a nice holiday meal with family.

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 us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

C-Stores Mix and Match Meal Bundling with Spirts for Success

 

Getting your shoppers into the ‘Holiday Spirt’ just might be good for business.  If your consumers are happy there is a very good chance that they will be back in to buy more and more.  This Holiday season our Steven Johnson the Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® suggest that you focus on one of the hallmarks of the grocerant niche Mix & Match meal bundling.  Specifically mixing meal components with liquor, beer or wine. 

Now with the holidays around the corner and the coveted canned cranberry at jeopardy to be missing from the Thanksgiving table, Johnson thinks you should consider,  NÜTRL Vodka Seltzer they want to make sure you get your cranberry fix this season - this year, in the form of a holiday drink!

Introducing: NÜTRL’s Cranberry Vodka Seltzer variety pack - the first-ever all-cranberry seltzer variety pack on the market.  You can mix and match one or the entire variety pack into the meal bundle.

So, NÜTRL’s Cranberry Vodka Seltzer is an elevated, seltzer-inspired take on the bar scene staple, served in a ready-to-drink can. Perfect for holiday party hosts and hostesses, the variety pack features four crisp and refreshing flavors: Classic Cranberry, Cranberry Orange, Cranberry Grapefruit and Cranberry Apple.

Now take a moment to see how C-Stores including Oregon based, Plaid Pantry Inc. has upgraded its wine program edify its mix and match meal component offerings.

When Building a Larger Share of Stomach 

Adding Spirts to a Meal Drives

Top line Sales and Bottom-Line Profits

Did you know that in 2020 is when wine and liquor became a top 10 category in the convenience channel during the pandemic, and then gained an average of 8.5 percent in sales per store in 2021, according to the Convenience Store News 2022 Industry Report. The report went on to say:

“Elevating product offerings and redesigning stores to accommodate expanded selections of wine and liquor have been among convenience channel retailers' responses.

Take Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven Inc. In June, the nation's largest convenience store chain announced the opening of its fifth Evolution Store in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the ninth in the country. A wine cellar with an enhanced and expansive selection of wine is among the offerings customers can find in these stores — described as experiential testing grounds where customers can try and buy 7-Eleven's latest innovations in a pioneering store format.

Savannah, Ga.-based Parker's, La Crosse, Wis.-based Kwik Trip Inc. and Des Moines, Iowa-based Kum & Go LC are other c-store chains upping their game in the wine and liquor space. In February 2021, Parker's debuted Parker's Spirits in Pooler, Ga. The liquor-focused brand offers a large selection of premier wines, craft beers, collectible bourbons, and other packaged beverages. Last year saw moves by Kwik Trip and Kum & Go, too.

Kwik Trip launched Kwik Spirits, a new store format featuring a variety of wine and liquor, while Kum & Go worked with E. & J. Gallo Winery to streamline its wine assortment. Together, the companies identified bestsellers nationally and by state and generated a market-specific core list incorporating multiple store configurations. By clustering store configurations by state, the supplier was able to provide a consistent assortment at the right price points and introduce new items. The results were impressive: the retailer saw an 8 percent increase in wine sales year over year, and E. & J. Gallo was named one of Convenience Store News' 2022 Category Captains.

Consumer Preferences Are Key to Success

The ways in which wine and liquor drive consumers to c-stores underscores the important role these categories can play for convenience store operators and the channel overall.

Convenience store visits are highly mission-driven, with each trip usually serving a primary need. Alcohol has been identified as one of nine main trip missions, according to VideoMining, a provider of comprehensive insights on in-store shopper behavior.

When comparing the last three years (first quarter of 2022 vs. first quarter of 2019), the Alcohol trip mission gained 15 percent in share of store trips. Other trip missions that posted strong gains were Refreshment, Meal Building and Snacking, according to VideoMining.

Knowing what customers likely will be looking for when they arrive is key. When it comes to wine, Christian Rogers, Kum & Go's alcohol category manager, says he sees two trends: the premiumization of the wine consumer, and the continued acceleration of wine-based ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages.

"Super-premium wines, tetras [Tetra Paks] and tequila are also driving the wine and liquor categories," he added, noting that tracking trends helps Kum & Go select inventory that ultimately appeals to a broad a base of consumers.

"We have geared our assortment to meet the new demand in these subcategories, while still ensuring we are dedicating appropriate space to the mature subcategories of the wine segment," Rogers explained. "Within the wine and liquor categories, we offer a strong assortment of products at a number of different price points, with the goal of meeting our customers' needs for any occasion."

The approach has paid off, as Rogers reports the company's 2022 wine and liquor sales are up vs. pre-pandemic numbers, although he says they are "a bit softer than we would like to see YTD. Much of this is due to the convenience channel losing share of large packs to large format."

Beaverton, Ore.-based Plaid Pantry Inc. is another c-store chain reaping benefits from upgrading its wine program, according to President and CEO Jonathan Polonsky.

"In our market, selling spirits is not an option in the convenience channel, so we have to shine in the beer/wine categories," he said. Plaid Pantry operates 106 stores in the Northwest.

Layering a selection of "best" wines on top of what Polonsky calls a pretty broad "good" and "better" offering has brightened that shine. And so have local vintages.

"With us living in the Willamette Valley, there are a handful of local wines we offer up that resonate with the Northwest shopper and create a tailored local assortment," Plaid Pantry's Director of Marketing Jon Manuyag said.

The approach is working. "Wine sales are up, and I believe it is a combination of the 'COVID effect' and the addition of the higher-end wines we now offer," Polonsky explained. "We have indexed higher than our local competitors for a long time, and Jon has kicked it up a notch in the last couple of years."

Added Manuyag: "Wine sales are up as we continually invest in space, promotions [and] upgraded assortment to let our customers continue to know we are serious about our wine business." What are you mix and matching with your Holiday meals?

For international corporate presentations, regional chain 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 GrocerantGuru.com, FoodserviceSolutions.US or call 1-253-759-7869

Can’t Wait for Thanksgiving Order Popeyes Cajun-Style Turkey

 

Cooking at home is the number one hobby in the United States.  Now that said, it is a hobby not what everyone wants to do every day. Cooking, doing dishes, buying all of the spices you need to a ‘special’ meal.  No that is not what everyone wants to do.

There is a better way to get through the Holiday season according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  That way is to buy a grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared meal.

Now consider this according to a recent survey conducted by Popeyes of over 500 people, more than 50% of respondents feel stressed to host Thanksgiving dinner at their own home and think that the turkey is the hardest dish to cook as part of the meal.

Thanksgiving just got a lot easier this year, thanks to a “Cajun Fix” from Popeyes. 

Once again, this year Popeyes is bringing back its fan-favorite Thanksgiving dinner staple, the Cajun-Style Turkey. Marinated with our signature blend of Louisiana-style seasonings, the Cajun-Style Turkey is slow-roasted and then flash-fried to help guarantee a crispy, flavorful coating. Popeyes Cajun-Style Turkey is a “Cajun Fix” for any stressed-out Thanksgiving host as it’s a high-quality option, pre-cooked and only needs to be thawed, heated, and served. 

The best part? You can order your Turkey right now and you will have the choice to preorder Popeyes signature turkey from their local restaurant for pickup by calling or visiting in person while supplies last, or online at thecajunfix.popeyes.com for delivery direct to their doorstep. Delivery will begin on October 24 with the turkey arriving one to three business days after the order is shipped.

Popeyes is the one-stop-shop for your Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving celebration with family meals and traditional southern sides such as mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, biscuits and more.

Foodservice Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits. Are you looking a customer ahead? Does your messaging look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com 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.