BentoBox 'Bento Door-to-Door' Complements Grocerant Niche Fresh Food Sales

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® was the first too identify, quantified, qualified, the grocerant niche, then he coined the term Grocerant back in the day. Johnson was first to publish an article on both Nations Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality in 1995 tilted ‘Call them Grocerants’.

The grocerant platform has continued to evolve garnering consumers from every sector of food retail today. In fact, every sector of has evolved to include tat least basics of grocerant retail to some grocery stores doing 76.3% of all sales from within the grocerant niche. 

BentoBox, the hospitality platform that empowers restaurants to own their presence, profits and relationships, today announced the launch of Bento Door-to-Door, a convenient, affordable, and reliable delivery fulfillment solution for restaurants using Bento Ordering and perfect complement for grocerant niche retailers according to Johnson.

So, Bento Door-to-Door drives higher margins for restaurants through flat pricing, and BentoBox never takes a cut of the courier service fees. Besides affordability, Bento Door-to-Door offers fast setup and simple order management. The turnkey delivery service enables restaurants to access an on-demand network of best-in-class couriers to deliver orders directly to diners in their area.

So, how do they do that? Simple, by integrating delivery directly into their websites, restaurants benefit from simple, painless order management. Features include automatic driver assignment, visibility into order status, and control over settings like driver instructions and order minimums with the click of a button. By empowering restaurants to maintain ownership over customer relationships and data while outsourcing logistics, Bento Door-to-Door provides a compelling delivery option that helps restaurants to completely control delivery fees with a built-in, full or partial offset. 

Krystle Mobayeni, co-founder and CEO of BentoBox  stated "As part of our mission to help restaurants drive revenue, build relationships, and take control during COVID-19 and beyond, we are excited to announce this next evolution to our online ordering solution,”  “Restaurants have full ownership over branded ordering and customer information while also maintaining the convenience and simplicity of automatic couriers for incoming orders.” 

Bento Door-to-Door provides restaurants with access to an industry-leading delivery network, fast setup and service, and user-friendly integration. Bento Door-to-Door makes it incredibly easy for restaurants to add delivery fulfillment directly to their branded websites.  Are you empowering consumer choice within the grocerant niche? 

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

Ahold Delhaize Frictionless Checkout is Customer Relevance

Time is money, and as regular reader of this blog know the number one overall grip about shopping for groceries is how long it takes.  You all know grocery industry icon Bill Bishop who told us that back in the day. According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Bill was right then and he is right about it today.

OK, someone is listening it is Ahold Delhaize USA who plans to expand SCAN IT! That will speed the whole shopping expierence while adding relevance about how to shop for Millennials according to Johnson.

Ahold announced that the proprietary solution, which customers use by downloading their supermarket banner’s SCAN IT! Android or iOS app, is currently offered at select Stop & Shop stores and Giant Food Stores’ Giant Heirloom Market locations will speed up and enhance your shopping expierence.

Consumers with SCAN IT! Mobile, can scan product barcodes with their smartphone as they shop and put the items in their cart or bag. The app keeps a running tally of the groceries scanned. When done shopping, customers exit the store via a designated checkout lane, see a “payment approved” message appear while walking through and are charged for purchases.

Yes, SCAN IT! Mobile also incorporates a digital wallet that customers set up beforehand with their preferred payment method. Besides credit or debit cards, shoppers can pay via such platforms as PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay and Google Pay, which are integrated into the wallet.

Don’t have the app, not to worry, customers, too, can opt to use handheld scanners available at the front of the store for ringing up groceries while shopping. After scanning their items, shoppers then transfer the session to the SCAN IT! Mobile app on their smartphone and then proceed with payment by exiting the store through the designated checkout lane.

The fact is frictionless checkout brings convenience and technology together to meet the needs of our busy customers,” commented John Ponnett, senior vice president of retail operations at Giant Food Stores. “We’ve offered handheld scanning devices for several years, and as customer usage continues to increase, the next step was to align that offering with payment options, saving our customers even more time.” Are you adding customer relevance too speed-up service at your outlet?

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.

Zippin Expands Non-traditional Locations to Expand the Brand

Regular readers of this blog know that Zippin is a check-out free retailer. Well in order to drive adoption Zippin has now has partnered with Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif., to open the first in the world in-arena checkout-free convenience store and according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® that’s the incremental visibility that the brand need.

The new Zippin store will be located at the Southwest entrance of Golden 1 Center and will be open during Sacramento Kings home games and concerts at the arena. Sacramento Kings Chairman and Governor Vivek Ranadivé stated “We are committed to leveraging technology to identify and deliver cutting-edge, innovative solutions that enhance the fan experience,”  “Using AI-driven checkout-free technology we are excited to deliver a first-of-its-kind frictionless shopping experience ensuring our guests are able to get back to the action as quickly as possible.”

Starting this month (October 2019), Golden 1 Center fans and guests will have the opportunity to purchase food and beverage items such as popcorn, draft beer and a variety of snacks and drinks without the hassle of checkout lines and self-scanners.

For those of you who are not regular readers of this blog; San Francisco-based Zippin uses AI technology with cameras and sensors to accurately identify who bought what as shoppers walk around the store shopping naturally. So, here is how it will work:

Using the award-winning dual mode Sacramento Kings + Golden 1 Center app and/or the Zippin app, fans and guests can visit the store, grab items off the shelves, and exit without waiting anywhere or scanning any items. The receipt will appear in the app.

Shoppers who do not have the app will be able to enter the store by presenting a valid credit or debit card at the entrance.

Zippin’s technology also provides real-time inventory tracking allowing concessionaires to re-stock at just the right intervals and maximize sales conversion. As Zippin keeps accurate count of all the products on every shelf in the store, shoppers will be able to use the Kings or Zippin app to browse what is available in the store from anywhere.

Zippin CEO and Co-founder Krishna Motukuri stated “Banish the checkout line. That’s Zippin’s motto,”“I can’t think of a better place than a sports venue to eliminate the checkout line. When Zippin launches in Golden 1 Center this Fall, Sacramento Kings fans will be able to walk in, grab a beer, and walk out in under 30 seconds.”

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, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant

Ricker's Checkout Technology is a Competitive Advantage Over Restaurants

Restaurant customer service is defined the type of service say fast food drive-thru vs table service.  However, each type of service is evaluated on speed of service.  One convenience store chain that is selling as much fresh fast food as most chain restaurants just elevated it’s speed of service leaving fast food chains looking more like yesterday than today or tomorrow’s fast food outlet  according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Ricker's announced that it is implementing frictionless checkout technology at its 58 convenience stores throughout Indiana. Fast, faster, service is going to be the new electricity that drive incremental customer adoption at Ricker’s according to Johnson.

Ricker’s now has a partnership with Skip is a hybrid of mobile pay and the Amazon Go concept. The mission, according to Skip, is to provide a best-in-class convenience store experience, easy access to promotional deals, and enable customers to purchase in-store items at the pump or prior to arrival.

Quinn Ricker, CEO and president of Ricker's  stated "By adding Skip to our arsenal of customer service competencies, we expect to see higher frequency and volume of transactions simply from the competitive advantage this partnership will provide. Not to mention being able to convert frequent fuel purchasers into loyal in-store customers,"

Skip's technology reduces the speed of checkout from an average of 60 seconds to an instant pay-and-go action controlled by the customer. Via its partnership with Zipline, Skip also acts as a cost cutter for retail businesses bringing down transaction fees.

For Ricker's, Skip provides a competitive advantage expected to drive more transactions and frequency, including higher conversions from the forecourt to the food court thus garnering incremental restaurant customer migration according to Johnson.  So, what is your new electricity that is driving top line sales and bottom line profits?  Are your customer counts growing? 

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, coins /currency urban clothing, grocerant consultants, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand held marketing. This program has all of that.

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.

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? 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.