Walgreens Fresh Prepared Food with Portability Finding Customers

Walgreens fresh foods focus on busy moms and urban customers. Distinctive differentiated foods are segmented by day part for both the office worker for lunch and meal components for them to take home for dinner.

  

Do you have time to eat, time for dinner or even time for cooking at home today?

If you are "ready-2-eat" there is a very good chance you are looking for fresh prepared multi-flavor, multi-ethnic Grocerant meal components. Heat-N-eat and ready-2eat fresh prepared food with portability is driving retail food success in 2012. Where are you shopping for you food today is not the same place your mother was nor is the meal prepared the same way.

As long as multi-generational family's gather for meals together, the demand for more divergent flavors continues to permeate. Grocerant mix and match bundled meal component offerings allow for increased family integration, understanding and acceptance in less time without a required cook from scratch skill set.

In the 1940's cooking from scratch was the normal. The average home cooked meal took 150 minutes to prepare. Everyone sat down at the table and enjoyed it or not but they all ate the same thing. Today's "home cooked meal" takes on average less than 30 minutes to prepared. In most cases at least two different entrées are served.

The average time spent inside a McDonalds in the 2,000 was 11 minutes. Today 65+ percent of all McDonald's food is sold via the drive-thru. U.S. fast-food chains are increasingly remodeling restaurants in an effort to garner additional drive-thru customers inside and increase sales, simple because the drive-thru can't hold all the cars.

According to the New York Times Magazine - McDonalds Came Back Bigger Than Ever McDonald's Corp. saw a 50% increase in sales during the first quarter of 2012 after opening a remodeled restaurant in Riverside, California, that features a new décor, solar panels on the carport, and ceiling panels that contain L.E.D. lights. During the first 12 months, sales at this restaurant increased 20% overall.

Walgreens is creating and bundling distinctive differentiated food consumable's as an entity with identity by day part in a mix and match meal component format in select urban setting targeted at both the office worker for lunch and meal components for them to take home for the family dinner. It is a successful program. With over 7,550 units operating in the United States Walgreens has the potential to become the most disruptive force in food retailing in 50 years. Walgreens with its modular mid-sized foot-print is garnering customers from both restaurants and grocery stores.

Consumers Want Easy to Prepare Meals

The grocerant niche continues to grow with companies like Central Market, Whole Foods, Wegmans and 7 Eleven entering the fresh prepared better for you space. Meal time is now becoming a time of convenient meal participation, with differentiation and individualization for the entire family. Safeway with its lifestyle stores are heading in the right direction however the stores are so large consumers are forced to spend more time in them than they want.

More often than not the multi-generational family today is multi-ethnic as well. Creating a demand for more varied flavors and additional cooking skill set that is simply not there. Grocery stores, Convenience Stores, Restaurants and Chain Drug Stores are all selling ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food. Is your focus family dinning? Are you selling meals or meal components for Take-Out, delivery or Take-Away?

Lacking the skill set to prepared fresh prepared multi-ethnic meal components at home coupled with the time it takes to prepared a home cooked meal it is clear the buying habits of consumers will continue to evolve. Bundling mix and match meal components into a meal is one key driver within the grocerant niche. Given that most American family are comprised of multi-cultural background. The fight for share of stomach will only intensify.

Restaurants menu's at one time were very narrow in focus and have moved more upscale with offerings such as Oriental; Chicken Salad, Southwest Chicken Salad, along with a chef salads. Grocery stores on the other hand are expected to sell complete lines of reay-2-eat multi-ethnic food. That places higher expectations on grocers than restaurants or a company like Walgreens. Walgreens might just be in the perfect spot to expand fresh prepared food offerings capturing customers from both restaurants and supermarkets. Would you like more information? Ready to enter the Grocerant Niche?

Contact: Foodservice Solutions® at 253-759-7869 a Tacoma, WA based retail foodservice consultancy that has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche since 1991. For product or brand positioning assistance contact Steven  Johnson or the Grocerant LinkedIn page or on Facebook at Steven Johnson, BING / GOOGLE: Steven Johnson Grocerants or Grocerant on Twitter

More People, Means More People Eating, But Where?

May 2012 through May 2013 restaurant traffic was FLAT. The NPD Group's latest CREST report, which tracks daily consumer use of commercial restaurants and non-commercial foodservice outlets daily; found “total restaurant traffic was flat for the year ending May 2013, compared to the same period last year. U.S. consumers made 61 billion restaurant visits during the period, which is 1.73 billion less than the visits volumes in year ending May 2009”

Are consumers migrating to grocerant niche ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat food faster than even Foodservice Solutions® bullish grocerant guru Steven Johnson has predicted? In NPD's recently released A Look Into the Future of Foodservice report forecasts a four percent growth in restaurant supper visits through 2022, which is less than half a percent a year. Cleary new non-traditional points of fresh prepared food distribution are evolving with the consumer faster than the restaurant industry as a whole.

Competition for share of stomach has heated up.  The grocerant niche filled with ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh food continues to attract more and more consumers.  Mix and Match meal component bundling now offered at grocery stores, convenience stores, drug stores, liquor stores, food trucks, and mobile kiosk are garnering top line sales and bottom line profits as they grow in numbers expanding points of fresh food distribution around the world.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging 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

The Grocerant Niche Expanding Retail Channel Blurring within the Food Space.

Food that can be found at the intersection of cook from scratch at home and retailer prepared fresh food sold as a meal component is Grocerant niche food.  The Grocerant niche targets the time-starved consumers, not with ingredients rather with ready-2-eat or heat-N-eat fresh prepared food components that can be bundled into a meal.

Think about how you shop for most meal preparation needs. You might buy a rotisserie chicken, pick up something at the salad bar and maybe an appetizer at the deli service case. Those are components vs. buying uncooked chicken, a head of lettuce and then having to clean, cut, season and then assemble and/or cook.

Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru  at Tacoma, Washington based Foodservice Solutions says this "Grocerant means any retail food item that is ready-2-eat or ready to heat while prepared fresh. Traditionally these items can be found in grocery stores in the deli / lifestyle section, C-stores in the prepared food area and prepackaged, ready-2-eat items and in restaurants under the To-go, takeout or take-away, or delivery section of the menu or on the website."

When Johnson says retailer, it is broadly defining supermarkets, mass drug merchants, C-Stores (convenience stores) and fast food or fast casual restaurants.  For the consumers it is about ease of meal preparation, quality and family meal customization vs. time, cooking skill set.  If you’re company does not think they are in the grocerant niche it might be time to consider it.  Share of stomach trumps legacy positioning.  Consumers do not care where dinner comes from they do care that everyone in the family eats and is happy.

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Migration Marketing assessment, grocerant program

Assessment, or brand, product placement, menu positioning assistance simply call Foodservice Solutions®253-759-7869.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

5 Reasons Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat Fresh Prepared Food is Booming.

Companies targeting the grocerant niche developing a platform that allows meal co-creation in the car, at the office, or at home are winning the hearts and minds of today’s retail food consumer.  The grocerant niche comprised of the ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food is driving the success of the retail foodservice today.

Each sector has or had innovators; Restaurants started with Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), now have Chipotle Mexican Grill, Panera Bread, Domino’s Pizza, MCD, BK and a whole lot more.

Grocery stores started with Wegmans, Metropolitan Market, Whole Food’s and now fast charging HEB and its Central Market stores.  Convenience Stores have Sheetz, Wawa, with fast charging Rutter’s, Casey’s General stores and 7 & Eleven. Top 5 reasons for ready-2-eat growth are:

Placement: Visceral presentation, Freshness based on how it looks and is presented.

Product: Individualized portions, power to select quality and quantity of items viewed.

Price:  Food Quality and Convenience vs. time and cooking skill set.

Packaging: Ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat food provides Time Saving vs. cook from scratch.

Portability: empowering choice eat in or take home / office

Success does leave clues and many retail food operators are now adopting Foodservice Solutions® 5 P’s of Food Marketing: Product, Packaging, Placement, Portability and Price.

Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization contact us via Email us at: grocerant@q.com or visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Foodservice Solutions® at the Intersection of Consumers and Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat Food.

The success of ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food has been documented, talked about and written about for one reason of late. It is driving top line sales and bottom line profits within existing points of distribution and more importantly at non-traditional points of fresh food distribution garnering share from legacy food retailers.

Is your food company prepared to succeed in 2014, 2015 … 2020? Here are some of the advantages to entering or expanding your business within the grocerant niche:

Exposure to more customers and all Sides of the Food Business

Most large food retailers, big companies, have a narrow focus. That has worked for 50 years. They have honed their brand and supply chain. They have set and defined boundaries, and it is difficult to get outside of them. Time and technology have redefined the consumer playing field. Your brand must become dynamic again or risk losing consumer relevance. There is a huge opportunity for share of market if you elect to evolve you brand with migrating fresh food consumers in take-out and take-way options.

People Reward Potential

Large food retailers typically pay more at the C-level, and are seen as stable employment currencies (not-taking risk). However the grocerant niche when vertically integrated into an existing brand creates a new level of excitement within the entire company. When sales grow, the opportunity for advancement expands, building team momentum, excitement explodes like a wildfire. Customers can feel the proactive positive buzz from employees. Doing nothing Boring Doing Something Soaring.

Proactive Change is Exposure to Success

Change is incredibly dynamic, consumer focused changed is contagious. Change evolves and will go through a bell curve, and you see the whole thing step by step when you vertically integrate change into brand and consumer values. If not integrated you do not really get to escape the velocity of the event, but change is exciting nonetheless and customers will still follow.

Impacting Consumer Relevance Means Thriving not Simply Staying Alive

Are you going to tangibly impact your company or maintain the status quo? Today like never before companies have the ability to evolving a brand at a speed not seen since your company was a start-up. What impact are you going to have on your company? There is a difference between the work you do and the impact you have. Fresh Food retailing is evolving at break neck speed, evidenced by the Dollar Store formats selling more foods and Walgreens selling fresh foods and doing it well as you can see from this video of a Walgreens in San Francisco. Is your brand evolving fast?

Spin Out, Spin Off or Springboard to more Profitability

If you do nothing but wait, watch or blame the economy you are very likely to simply spin out of control. Redefining your brand with consumer relevance will position you too either create a positive spin off or springboard to the next level. Legacy organizations need to be mindful that springboards do great things for your organization, your team and your shareholders.

Success Does Leave Clues and Foodservice Solutions® is clue # 1

LTO's (Limited Time Offers) can drive top line sales and bottom line profits while taking you in a new direction. Are your LTO's leading your brand, testing your brand or simply copy-cat marketing tactics absent strategy?

Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® a Tacoma, WA based retail foodservice consultancy has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche 253-759-7869. For product or brand positioning assistance contact: grocerant@q.com, the Grocerant LinkedIn page or on Facebook at Steven Johnson, BING / GOOGLE: Steven Johnson Grocerants or Grocerant on Twitter

New Retail Food Formats Driven by the Evolving Consumer

Trader Joe's was recently chosen as consumer’s favorite grocer. Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s both have created ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food items with qualitative differentiation as an entity with identity that has help propel them into ready-2-eat fresh prepared food leadership.

Recent research shows that both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods are each known for high quality (restaurant quality) ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat foods with distinctive offerings. Most important each is leading with innovative products and package size that create value and have positioned each as a food shopping destination for meal components customized and personalized for immediate consumption or mix and matched for a meal time at home. In short they are stealing restaurant customers.

Walgreens fresh prepared food is restaurant quality and priced less than Panera Bread or Corner Bakery CAFE. Both Panera Bread and Corner Bakery CAFE thrive in urban locations. Walgreens is now growing price, quality and speed of service advantages over legacy retailers. Legacy restaurant chains must reconsider the speed at which they evolve and adapt or non-traditional outlets will capture profits margins as well.

Traditional views of meals and mealtime can pretty much be discarded. Legacy retailers waiting for the "next big thing" to copy simply might be out of luck this time. Legacy food retailers may not like to be first movers very much but it may prove that waiting too long will not work this time.

Product, Packaging, Placement, Portability and Price are Foodservice Solutions® 5 P’s of food marketing driving top line sales and bottom line profits. Have you integrated the five P’s? Foodservice Solutions® can help.

The retail food world is evolving at an ever increasing pace filled with innovation in food, portion size, points of distribution, and quality fresh prepared meal solutions. The price, value, service equilibrium is resetting in retail foodservice. In order to edify the brand and reinforce consumer relevance restaurateurs must leverage Foodservice Solutions® 5P's of food marketing. 

Many legacy food retailers continue to practice brand protectionism, stifle the brand while diminishing consumer relevance. The consumer is dynamic not static. Brands must be dynamic, evolving with the consumer. Four more years of watching other retail sectors thrive should be long enough. Success in the restaurant world is no longer simply about what happens within your 4 walls.

Steven Johnson is Grocerant Guru at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions, with extensive experience as a multi-unit operator, consultant and brand/product positioning. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the leading Global Grocerant niche consultancy Contact Steven Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant 

Take-Away Fresh Food on the Rise

Hot Dog Carts once a novelty are quickly became an acceptable option for a hot meal, snack or on the go ready-2-eat fresh lunch option in urban centers.  Today hot dog carts are alive and well, but crowed out is some cities by taco carts, carts offering wraps and some focused on salads alone.

The take-away fresh prepared ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat food aka the grocerant niche is expanding beyond carts to food trucks, C-stores, Grocery stores and retail drug stores all adding made to order foods. 

Walgreens is offering fresh prepared products from sushi, salads, wraps and sandwiches all made fresh in the stores is select urban markets while offering fresh prepared packaged options in many suburban locations. Gone are the days of roller grill hot food masked as fresh and better for you.

Consumers increasing are leveraging many platforms including restaurants, grocery stores, C-stores, food trucks, carts and C-stores for purchasing meal components that can be bundled into a family meal.  Fresh prepared ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat food that is “better for you” will continue to drive retail sales as long as it continues to get closer and closer to the consumer. What new avenues of distribution is your food in?

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits.  Invite Foodservice Solutions® to provide brand and product positioning assistance or a grocerant program assessment. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Steven Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant