Drive-Thru’s much more than Burgers, Sodas, Fires and Coffee now Beer and more!

Prepared ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat food has been the staple of the QSR industry for years. Most offer bundled grocerant meal solutions with three choices small, medium or large. Recently the Convenience Store sector has been working hard to expand fresh food offerings via drive-thru’s. It looks as if Texas based Pak-A-Sak Inc. might just have found the right formula. The first drive-thru opened now accounts for 33 percent of all grocery sales at that store. Given the positive customer response, all new Pak-A-Sak convenience stores will have a drive-thru a third is already under development. The largest selling items for Pak-A-Sak reportedly are cigarettes, fountain drinks and beer.


Pak-A-Sak joins a long list of other convenience stores operators who are using or testing drive-thru’s including Quickie Mart Hackensack, N.J. Dairy Barn, New York. Bennie’s, drive-through convenience store Arizona, The Kwik Trip convenience store chain, Wisconsin. Loveland Farms Drive-Thru Albuquerque, New Mexico.

If success leave clues there will be many corporate visitor heading Texas visit Pak-A-Sak Inc. new drive-thru stores and then calling the design firm Paragon Solutions. What is your company doing with it’s fresh food. Consumers are flocking to the grocerant sector and C-stores are taking advantage of the opportunity. Marketshare can be won or lost early in this fight for the transitioning consumer. Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma, WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche. View my complete profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or leave a comment below.

Convenience stores have learned menu bundling from Quick Serve Restaurants.

Grocerant prepared ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat food is booming in the Northeast United States Convenience store sector. According to Convenience Store news;” Rutter's Farm Stores recently expanded its fresh-food menu to include turkey wings and sliders, which are available in all 36 of its stores that offer touchscreen ordering. The wings, which are $1.39 each and can be ordered one, two or three at a time, comprise 2.25 ounces of meat that is marinated and then fried. They can be ordered with original, buffalo or spicy seasoning, according to the convenience chain.”

What I like is the fact that Rutter’s utilizes restaurant industry bundling options for items; “ new sliders offer a hamburger or fried chicken patty served on a fresh-baked roll. Yellow American cheese, pickle and onion can be added at no additional cost. Sliders can be ordered in quantities of one ($1.29); three ($3.39); six ($5.94); or 12 ($9.96) at a time.

QuickChek, Wawa, Sheetz and Rutter’s all have a strong fresh fast quality food program. Products that are priced with many would say is at a competitive advantage or many Quick Serve Restaurants. Recently we discussed all of the new product in test at 7 Eleven. This sector in currying favor with consumer and retailers are responding.

Contact me for more at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or leave a comment below. For more read this article: http://www.anything4restaurants.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/restaurant-consumer-discontinuity-the-consumer-moved-first/

Bank stocks are up but Food Bank stock is down.

Top of the day to you! 2009 is winding down and with the stock market well off it’s lows for the year many investors are rejoicing. If nothing else they are collectively taking a deep sigh of relief. I was contacted by my local food bank this week and asked for an additional contribution. With unemployment hovering around 10% nationwide we must remember everyone deserves a meal.


The focus of this blog in the Grocerant niche, which is prepared ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat better for you food. We must never forget those with children and the elderly or anyone who can’t afford food. I urge everyone who can to contact a food bank in there area and offer your time, talent or food. It may be December and cold outside, but we can warm one another with a gift of food.

For more on Grocerants or to view my complete profile utilize the following links: http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or leave a comment below. Or for more on Grocerants view www.foodandbeverageunderground.com/grocerant-trend.html or http://www.anything4restaurants.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/restaurant-consumer-discontinuity-the-consumer-moved-first/

Food shoppers psyche: from outer fringe to main street consumer are cutting back.

In a recent report by HealthFocus® International entitled Grocery Buying in the Current Economy there was alarming news for anyone in the retail food business. Consumers are cutting back on purchases at Grocery stores, Convenience stores and Restaurants. In large part due to the rising unemployment, uncertainty in positive changes to our current economic conditions. 56% of all consumers have or are cutting back! Here is the list of where respondents to the study say they are cutting first:


1. Fast Foods 79%

2. Pizza Delivery 75%

3. Soda’s 70%

4. Grocery store prepared meals 66%

5. Cookies 62%

6. Beef 59%

7. Ice Cream 59 %

8. Chocolate 58%

9. Frozen Snacks 57%

10. Alcohol 52%

What is quite apparent is consumer are concerned. First about there the economy second about their health. Consumer want better for you food and better for you products. I continue to believe that the new promo from Kentucky Fried Chicken 395 calories for a price of $3.95 will be a big hit. More important it will spur many other to copy this new formula.

View my complete profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or leave a comment below. Or for more on Grocerants view www.foodandbeverageunderground.com/grocerant-trend.html or http://www.anything4restaurants.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/restaurant-consumer-discontinuity-the-consumer-moved-first/

Roll, Roll, Roll, Away Roller Grill! Don’t become Square.

Harkin back to the days that employee’s uniforms were back & white. Employees all dawned paper hats, a time that the roller grill was introduced and ready-to-eat hot prepared food was introduced in the Convenience store channel. It was a time when the availability of food staples in extended hours of operations drove sales in this dynamic channel. The Convenience store channel continues to be dynamic, currently it is booming in the prepared ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat food sector or what I call the grocerant sector. I believe that differentiation does not mean different it means familiar within each food niche and this one is no different. Consumers young and old are demanding more choice, fresher quality and more contemporary food options.


Niche and industry global leader 7-Eleven has left the roller grill at the back door and recently has introduced Stay Fresh Bananas, Pizza, Chicken Wings. They are testing in new pilot stores their “latest insights into market trends to provide a range of 45 freshly prepared food products, including a hot breakfast menu and toasted sandwiches cooked to order.” This test includes a “café-esque range of hot lunch alternatives and will combine with Lavazza to offer barista-made coffee.”

Sheetz & Wawa both offer a full range of prepared food choice including fresh salads and fruit options. Good companies do good things over and over again. Recently Wawa CEO Howard Stoeckel detailed several efforts the convenience store chain is undertaking in during the economic slump the US is in, He stated "we're performing better than the vast majority of retailers," Fresh prepared ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat food products are strongly contributing to on-going sales and profit success. Game

On my post for yesterday garnered so many Emails and question about product positioning. Here is KFC’s new meal and focus for this “holiday promotion for its Kentucky Grilled Chicken combo meals. The meals, which contain a grilled chicken drumstick and thigh, green beans, and mashed potatoes and gravy, are now on sale at participating restaurants for $3.95. Louisville-based KFC Corp. said in a news release that the meal is rated at 395 calories. That I felt the need to repost this about the roller grill to add light on the changes underway. View my complete profile at:

Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us ,Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

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KFC or as a global communities remembers Kentucky Fried Chicken is back and GAME ON!

Once the leader in prepared ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat food niche, KFC has announced it is getting back in to the consumer focused meal game! Having shifted and slid around the foodservice industry trying to build there way outside the US to greatness. They have finally turned back to the US, studied the consumer and plated a meal that is positioned to win back customers and loyalist to its legacy brand.


Three years ago we here at Foodservice Solutions we called for a reset of foodservice metric’s. We have been looking for a public company with the tenacity to buck the trend of only focusing on a “higher” check average and return to customer count and volume based on consumer generated values. The term “better for you” has been an over ridding value in the food platform for five years it time for success. With the quagmire of our economy price has been a recurring focus. KFC has both directly in focus with consumer. If success leaves clues, I think this will be a solid fist step and many other companies will follow.

Here is KFC’s new meal and focus for this “holiday promotion for its Kentucky Grilled Chicken combo meals. The meals, which contain a grilled chicken drumstick and thigh, green beans, and mashed potatoes and gravy, are now on sale at participating restaurants for $3.95. Louisville-based KFC Corp. said in a news release that the meal is rated at 395 calories.

The grocerant niche is booming, once lead by KFC, I welcome them back! Contact me for more at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or leave a comment below. For more read this article: http://www.anything4restaurants.com/blog/index.php/2009/07/restaurant-consumer-discontinuity-the-consumer-moved-first/

The foodservice consumer is on the move and the advantaged is now in prepared ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat food.

The NPD Group recently reported that restaurant sales for 2009 will be flat or down “NPD noted that it does not expect traffic trends to turn positive until after June 2010.” NPD Analyst Bonnie Riggs said. "Food prices at supermarkets are less than a year ago, while restaurant prices are higher than a year ago."In addition Technomic Inc., said there is "a ways to go before we see a [traffic] rebound," while forecasting that 2009 and 2010 would mark the industry's first ever consecutive years of sales declines.


Foodservice consumer discontinuity is the focus on much attention from consultants to chain executives. . As an industry our concern is and should be share of stomach, first by company, second by niche-marketshare and third the restaurant industry overall. The economy is not our largest problem it is competition for share of stomach; specifically by the ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat prepared meal section of the grocery stores and C-stores or as I call it the Grocerant section. Under reported but signifently noted first here at Foodservice Solutions in 2005; was the first year that recorded a consumer increase in percent household spending for food in grocery stores and away from restaurants in 25 years. We here at Foodservice Solutions have been discussing this fact since 2005 and studying the grocerant niche since 1997.

Restaurants, Grocery stores and the Convenience store sectors are all competing for share of stomach and the consumers are attracted to the options presented by within the Grocerant niche. Is your company in need of a grocerant niche assessment, national or global grocerant store tour?

Contact me for more at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or leave a comment below. www.FoodserviceSolutions.us Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us 253-759-7869