Dollar Store Sector Continues Laughing at the Grocery Sector

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson has since 1991 has been touting the success the dollar store sector has had cherry picking food products from grocery stores drive top line sales and bottom line profits.

Once again it was the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that first reported on outstanding growing driving the success of Dollar General.  The team at Foodservice Solutions® has since 1991 reported that food, fresh food, and mix and match meal components all are contributing to the continued growth of the dollar store sector.

Dollar General’s growth consist proves that success does leave clues and with 14,000 stores.  I guess the clues are in your back yard.  Did you know that Dollar General has yielded more than double the profit of Macy’s on less revenue during its most recent fiscal year according to the WSJ. Did you know that Dollar General $22 billion market value eclipses the largest U.S. grocery chain, Kroger Co., which has five times the revenue according the WSJ?

Dollar General CEO Chief Executive Todd Vasos told the WSJ that “While many large retailers are closing locations, Dollar General executives said they planned to build thousands more stores, mostly in small communities that have otherwise shown few signs of the U.S. economic recovery.”

Why is Dollar General’s laughing at legacy grocery stores?  First they have been cherry picking CPG products from the shelf of grocery stores and selling them for less and the grocery sector has denied that they were a competitor.  Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® said “that denial is how Dollar General was able to grow to 14,000 stores. It’s the same denial that allowed grocery stores today to be out numbered 29 to 1 by restaurants in the United States. There is a battle for a larger Share of Stomach and grocery stores are simply on the track.”

Regular readers of this blog know that consumers are dynamic not static.  Food manufactures, retailers including grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants all need to be dynamic not static as well.  We ask does your brand have customer relevance?  Who are your competitors and what are they doing better than you?  Why?  Remember the customer is dynamic are you capitulating year over year customer counts, sales, or products to your next competitor?

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.

Foodservice from Shelf Life to Popping Fresh

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, has been curating how consumers are migrating from legacy CPG foods to fresh and how consumers are migrating from traditional restaurants to new non-traditional fresh food outlets the ilk of IKEA, Nordstrom’s, and Tommy Bahama’s since 1991. 

Many CPG manufactures are now taking legacy shelf stable CPG products from the self to fresh and planning them not on a shelf but in a retail foodservice outlet.  One such product is Cheetos.  Snacking giant PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division is evolving the Cheetos brand as Cheetos will be the star of the show at Regal theater concession stands.

Cheetos Popcorn, featuring Cheetos-flavored popcorn mixed with Crunchy Cheetos, is now at least 15 at participating Regal Cinemas nationwide. Sean Mathews, director of marketing, Frito-Lay North America stated  “We’re excited to give moviegoers a chance to experience Cheetos in an unexpected and delicious new way through our first national theater partnership,”

Mathews continued  “Cheetos and popcorn are the ultimate movie snack combination, and Regal Cinemas is the perfect partner to launch Cheetos Popcorn nationally.”  While Regal Cinemas is the first national cinema chain to offer Cheetos Popcorn don’t for a minute thing that it will not be at a theater venue near you soon. 

John Curry, senior vice-president of foodservice, Regal Cinemas  stated “Cheetos Popcorn is our gift to Regal fans enjoying their favorite movie this holiday season,” .. “We are thrilled to partner with an iconic brand like Cheetos to deliver blockbuster snack choices to moviegoers.”

Cheetos Popcorn features light, airy Regal popcorn that has been puffed to perfection and paired with warm, cheesy Cheetos flavor and Crunchy Cheetos to create the perfect cinema snack.  The team at Foodservice Solutions® once again asks where are you selling your food?  Has your customer moved?

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

2018 Eating-Out While Eating-In Continues

We have been told that as a result of the tax cuts to expect higher wages, a booming economy, and growth which means time starved consumers will see an increase demand on their time according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® So in 2018 expect to see an increase in consumers desire for Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.

According to foodservice industry icon Bonnie Riggs of The NPD Group, “50 percent of dinners purchased from restaurants are consumed at home, and Riggs expects that to grow in 2018.” Once again our own Grocerant Guru® was the first identify, quantify, and qualify Eating-Out while Eating-In. Is your food portable?  Are you selling meals for both inside and outside your four walls? 

Price just might trump portability in 2018 as McDonalds launched1,2,3 value promotion beginning in January and the one thing we all know is within the restaurant sector it is a proven fact that follow-the-leader mentality.  The retail foodservice Price + Value +Service = Equilibrium will be reset in early 2018 as consumers value price over most loyalty programs.  Do you have menu items designed, positioned, and priced to garner a larger share of stomach in 2018? 

The team at NPD forecasted that “the only growth in the industry next year will be from quick-service restaurants, not full-service operators. ..Full-service operators can drive their business forward any way they can get food and beverage into the home”. Now consider that NPD found” In the year ended February 2017, 18 percent of in-home meals included at least one ready-to-eat item from foodservice, an increase from 15.5 percent in 2015”

Foodservice Solutions® team believes that mobile marketing drives delivery creating a new platform of fresh food distribution.  Foodservice branded mobile App’s that extend a branded messaging, offered as a trial invitation will become more relevant as a marketing tool than most legacy loyalty programs.

Foodservice delivery continues to expand as branded mobile digital marketing elevates personalization driving incremental growth in digital ordering. Digital ordering has posted rapid growth in the last five years, and the most recent data reveal its represents 53 percent of all delivery orders, up from 33 percent in 2013 according to The NPD Group.

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? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Mark 2018 as the Year of the Proliferation of the Grocerant Niche

The line between restaurants and food retailers is growing ever thinner. The fight for America's food dollars continues to intensify as consumers find fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat food options at a wide and growing array of outlets across almost every channel including convenience stores, chain drug stores, restaurants, grocery stores, club stores, vending and even more non-food traditional fresh food retailers like dollar stores.

While manufacturers, retailers, and restaurants worry about choice overload, consumers have embraced their new choices and show no signs of returning to the old ways. This fight is taking place in what is called the grocerant niche.

The restaurant industry is not known for trying to be the fastest to market with an ideation, food, or tech advance.  Restaurants are slowly understanding that the consumer never takes a step backwards from technology or fresh prepared food quality, speed of service, prepared food meal component options according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

In the United States, the larger the chain in almost all cases the more slowly they are to adopt something than a smaller chain or independent restaurants will. Chain restaurants goal is simple to feed one meal at a time in the restaurant while protecting and edifying the brand according to Johnson.

Historically chain restaurant leaders have denied the credibility of start-up competitors as non-relevant. The pizza sector is a great example; evolving from family dining independents to a national chain of "Red Roof" Italian, then to delivery-only outlets and now take-N-bake is garnering market share in the pizza sector.

Trends in the Food Industry Point to an Increase in Non-Traditional Meal Occasions

At the intersection of the consumer, freshly prepared food, and technology we find that consumer eating behavior is evolving and is now beyond the control of traditional food marketers.

Evolving culture and lifestyle, demographics along with the new uncertain economy are all putting pressure on the American food consumer: Demands of work, economic shrinkage, demands of raising a family, commuting, social interaction, kid's after-school activities, all contribute to a food marketplace where convenience vies with price over legacy brands.

Recent Advances in Food Packaging and New Points of Non-Traditional Food Distribution Have Empowered Consumer Choice

Americans are embracing these choices even as legacy marketers cringe. Who's after restaurant food dollars? Simply put everyone including retailers from Tommy Bahama, Macys, and Ikea.

Why should you care if Walgreens is selling fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Made-2-Order sandwiches? Why should you care if Amazon-Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Safeway and Wegmans are selling Ready-2-Eat and or Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared pizza? Why should you care if Coinstar is selling Seattle Best Coffee at 1,000 locations around the United States for $1.00?

You should care because they are selling it, and you are not! The fastest growing sector of retail foodservice for the past four years has been the Convenience store sector. The C-store sector's growth in large part has been driven by freshly prepared food. Non-traditional avenues of distribution are growing, gobbling market share while establishing new patterns of consumption, price points, and customer loyalty.

The Shopper Is in Control Spurring New Retail Food Formats

Trader Joe's and Amazon -Whole Foods have created Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food items with qualitative differentiation as an entity with an identity that has helped propel them into Ready-2-Eat fresh prepared food leadership.

Recent research shows that both Trader Joe's and Amazon-Whole Foods are each known for high quality (restaurant quality) Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat foods with distinctive offerings. More important each is leading with innovative products and package size that create value and have positioned each chain 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 your 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

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® Five P'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 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.

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  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. 

Foodservice Operators Face It, In 2018 Facial-Recognition will be Top of Mind

When Apple released a special phone (iPhone X) for the 10 year anniversary of the fist iPhone facial-recognition technology became a social media talking point.  Sure there were a couple of glitches but they were resolved quickly and iPhone X customers like the phone and facial-recognition technology has become a new industry standard according to the team at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Now that facial recognition is more accurate and in use every day several restaurant operators have begun implementing it in stores via a new POS systems that recognize customers and drive increased throughput. 

Jon Alexis, partner in the fast-casual Malibu Poke in Dallas spoke with Ron Ruggless of NRN and stated “Every generation is having fun with it”, which opened Nov. 28 with three kiosks that allow guests to save their order history and access them again through facial recognition. “It has exceeded my expectations.”

Alexis, who also owns two full-service T.J.’s Seafood Market & Grill units in Dallas, said in another interview “I would say a minority of guests use it, but it’s a growing minority,” said “Our concern in the beginning was that it was going to be a parlor trick and no one would use it,” he said. “But the biggest thing that happened was iPhone coming out with its X [model] and facial recognition capabilities. That was the seal of approval that this is real.”

Facial-recognition capabilities are expanding around the world in companies the ilk of North Palm Beach, Fla.-based BurgerFi International Inc., Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based Bryn + Dane’s, and Burlington, Mass.-based UFood Grill. A KFC affiliate in China tested facial-recognition earlier this year.

Success does leave clues www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  is the global leader in grocerant niche business development.  We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  Has your company had a Grocerant ScoreCard completed a Grocerant Program Assessment, or new Grocerant niche product Ideation?  Want one?  Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Quicklee’s Convenience Stores Doubles Down on Food for Growth

Retailers large and small have been tracking the success derived after companies add grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  Regular readers of this blog know that 25,740 plus unique views a day of this blog across all Foodservice Solutions® social media platforms alone is a sign of the strength of the grocerant niche.

Quicklee’s Convenience Stores, a 14-store chain in upstate New York, positioned itself for aggressive growth in 2018 adding new stores and remodeling many current stores after it recently debuted a new 11,500-square-foot travel center complete with two c-stores, amenities for professional drivers and a food court.

Quicklee’s Vice President Ken Perelli, vice president stated  we replaced the previous Quicklee’s spanned 2.5 acres with a 3,500-square-foot c-store featuring a Dunkin’ Donuts, as well as a separate car wash. “We tore down the 3,500-square-foot building and its existing gas canopy, which had five pumps total,” ….

“Quicklee’s expanded the property by an additional six acres, constructing a new, 11,500-square-foot building. The forecourt includes six diesel, non-ethanol pumps and six high-speed diesel and DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) dispensers out back. The car wash remained, and the chain added a 7,500-square-foot truck maintenance building and a CAT scale. By converting the property to a travel center, Quicklee’s was able to offer its local community a bigger, all-inclusive c-store.

Perelli continued “In the main building area we have two convenience stores—each about 2,500 square feet. One has traditional convenience items. Then we have a truck-specific convenience store. We still have Dunkin’ Donuts and we have a New York-style deli called Calabresella’s,” Calabresella’s serves both hot and cold foods, including wraps, pasta and potato salads, specialty Italian sodas, and also sells meats and cheeses by the pound.

“If you imagine the building being broken up into thirds, the left side features a traditional c-store with a Dunkin’ Donuts. The middle third is actually a food court with seating for 50, and the right side features the Calabresella’s and the truck-stop convenience store. The far side of the truck stop features a laundry facility, changing area, four private showers and restrooms with heated floors,” Perelli said. The site can easily accommodate 100 guests within a few minutes….

The food court features a proprietary food area called the “Chill and Fill,” as well as a fireplace, a large screen TV, leather chairs and sofas. Food options include a soda fountain, a soup bar, a pizza station, chicken dinner, chicken fingers, pretzel rolls, corn dogs, hot dogs, mashed potatoes and mac n cheese. Grab-and-go options also abound, including salads, puddings, string cheese and cold-cut sandwiches.

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® agrees with his team that doubling down on grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food will drive traffic, build sales all while increasing the bottom line. 

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

Is China Fast Foods New Concept Test Market

Recently Taco Bell announced that they were opening new restaurants in China with new menu items and the team at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® began wondering if China has become the new testing ground for branded restaurants?  Considering the three largest global restaurant brands Starbucks, McDonalds, and Yum Brands all have new and test products in China.

The new China Taco Bell restaurants will introduce a new dinner menu, exclusive to China, as well as a range of freshly grilled menu items to entice curious diners. Taco Bell’s chefs spent countless hours to come up with their new craveable lineup, including the Ribeye Steak & Mushroom Taco, Taco Salad Bowl (available with either Ribeye Steak or Grilled Chicken), Beef Kebab Nachos, and XL-Wing Nachos. To complement the freshly prepared dishes, the Wu Jiao Chang and Feng Sheng Li restaurants will unveil an array of alcoholic beverages, including the all new “Shanghai Cosmopolitan”, a refreshing and beautifully crafted cocktail inspired by mixologists.   

The two new Taco Bell restaurants in Shanghai will also introduce a new service model, with orders delivered directly to designated tables, which will enable customers to relax and enjoy the company of their friends and fellow students without having to get back up to pick up their food.

Brian Niccol, Chief Executive Officer of Taco Bell stated “Bringing the Taco Bell experience to more customers globally in locally relevant ways is key to our continued growth,” .  So we ask where are you testing new products.  What are you doing to drive sales in 2018 and where are you doing it?

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.