Burgerville Offers a Fresh, Local, Sustainable Branded Invitation

Success does leave clues and at Burgerville the foundation of its success is based on using fresh local sustainable foods.  Within the fast food space differentiation does not mean different it means familiar but with a twist and at Burgerville that means fresh and local according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

Burgerville is celebrating the flavors of spring in the Pacific Northwest with the return of Yakima Valley Asparagus to its rotating menu of local, seasonal favorites. Starting May 7, hand-battered fried asparagus spears will be available for a limited time throughout Burgerville’s 42 locations driving a renewed electricity for consumers edifying Burgerville’s brand message.

Grown nearby on family farms in Washington States Yakima Valley, Burgerville’s fried asparagus is handmade from scratch in its restaurants daily. Each spear is lightly battered and golden-fried to give it a crisp, yet tender crunch in every bite. Offering a mild flavor with earthy undertones, the spears are delicious on their own, but also pair well with Burgerville’s smooth garlic aioli. Now that has the ‘halo’ of better-for-you’ in the minds-eye of the consumer according to Johnson.

Asparagus is one of the first vegetables in the region to greet the spring. Burgerville begins offering asparagus to its guests in early- to mid-May, when the spears are at their peak. Burgerville’s asparagus spears launched in 2009 and have returned every spring since as part of the company’s rotating menu of seasonal, Northwest-grown specialties.

How is your brand building new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new menu related 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, free food / sampling, toy’s, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, Fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food 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. 

Are If 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.

Technology Driven Briggo Solves the Restaurant Labor Shortage

What’s next for Briggo?  Where will they open the first robotic coffee drive-thru?  Up early on your way to work and in a hurry?  Briggo just might be the next ‘restaurant’ coffee competitor filling your cup with fresh brewed coffee according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Briggo is rapidly expanding beyond their current footprint in Austin, Houston, and Dallas/Fort Worth creating a platform for fresh fast coffee that might be hard to compete against according to Johnson.  Briggo is once again expanding the Grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Drink fresh prepared coffee.  Currenlty, Briggo is ideal for high-traffic locations such as airports and corporate HQs where quality and convenience are in high demand.

When Briggo, announced the opening of their second robotic Coffee Haus location at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA). The team at Foodservice Solutions® asked what is next?  The simple answer is a drive-thru?  How will you compete with that?  Will your service be as fast? Will your coffee be as consistently made? 

Did you know that Briggo, way placed on Fast Company’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies, successfully activating the Airport Experience Conference in Las Vegas, and once again becoming a viral hit for SXSW Festival visitors both in Austin’s Airport and at Austin’s Convention Center. Furthermore, Briggo will be a featured customer demo at the annual Dell Technologies World later this month in Las Vegas.

Leveraging digital technology ordering ahead from the Briggo mobile app or on the Coffee Haus touchscreens, customers become their own barista by customizing their favorite coffee and tea drinks once again elevating grocerant niche personalization and customization. Using the precision and efficiency of Briggo’s robotic technology, the drinks are crafted within minutes from Briggo’s custom whole-bean blend, fresh dairy and gourmet syrups. So once again we ask, are you looking a customer ahead? Does your coffee house look more like yesterday than tomorrow?

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.

Will Positive Buzz, Customer Trial, Drive Sales for Burger King

Say good-by to the Angry Whopper, the M&M Shake, and hello Impossible Whopper.  Burger King has stepped up, to stand-out and Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® thinks it’s about time.

The Burger King marketing team has reason to be angry as the LTO’s have not been up to industry standards rather than creating a platform to drive sales recent LTO’s results seem to have missed the mark as year over year same-store sales rose just 0.4% domestically in the quarter ended March 31, and 2.2% globally.

Consumers are not angry, they are disappointed with the status quo and both the M&M Shake and Angry Whopper were just that. Angry, not the customers they were simply unimpressed.  When Burger King announced that it plans to expand its Impossible Whopper nationally by the end of the year, the marketing team knew the time had come to move beyond the status quo.

Burger King reported that the impossible burger test generated 6 billion media impressions. They said that the product was increasing sales and not taking away orders from its existing Whopper. Consumers are looking for differentiation in products, yet they want familiarly according to Johnson. The Impossible burger does just that with the ‘halo’ of better-for-you’ and better-for-the-environment according to Johnson.

Josh Kobza, chief operating officer for Restaurant Brands International, stated “ delivery is both “highly incremental” and “profitable” for the company’s restaurants. “I think our outlook is to continue to grow coverage over the coming quarters and years, and probably to expand the sources from which we take orders over time,”

Burger King franchisee just might be ready for the status quo to move forward.  Will the Impossible Whopper, Burger King do that?  The team at Foodservice Solutions® thinks that this is a very good start.  Does your brand look more like yesterday than tomorrow?  Success does leave clues and status quo marketing will not drive incremental business.  That is the success clue for today.

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.

Men Move Online for Grocery-Shopping

What’s for dinner? Well, if you want to know more and more you should as a man.  Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® believes that consumers are dynamic not static.  While our dinner culture remains familiar just who is deciding what’s for dinner has changed.

A recent Inmar study found that:

1.       Forty-five percent of the online grocery shoppers surveyed were men – a larger contingent than many attuned to this channel would have anticipated. With more men living alone, leading single-adult households with children or taking on their full share of family responsibilities, males are emerging more and more as the primary purchase decision-makers and shoppers.

2.        In fact, the Inmar survey found that 65 percent of male online grocery shoppers do most or all of the shopping for their households.

3.       When asked why they initially tried online grocery shopping, 53 percent of men reported that they did so because they “wanted the convenience.”

4.       Twenty-five percent said they had a free trial and/or discount that led them to make their first purchase(s).

5.       That same mindset is driving their ongoing online grocery shopping, with 29 percent of men saying they now choose ecommerce because they can shop for groceries whenever they have the time, there are no crowds (29 percent) and they don’t have to wait in line to check out (25 percent).

6.       Male shoppers are as likely as female shoppers to plan their meals ahead of time. Sixty-eight percent of both genders responded that they plan their meals in advance.

7.       A particularly attractive opportunity among men may be in prepared and semi-prepared meals. When asked if they would add these purchases to their online grocery order, if available, 53 percent of male survey participants responded “yes.”

8.       The men from our survey were 41 percent more likely than women to have purchased alcohol online. Therefore, it’s important to consider how adult beverages fit within the meal experience.  

9.       Two-thirds (67 percent) of surveyed men reported that they spent between $50 and $200 during a typical online shopping trip. In addition, roughly 30 percent of male online grocery shoppers surveyed spend 25 percent or more of their total monthly grocery bill online.

Are you selling Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared meals, meal components, or alcohol? Where are you selling it and what are you bunding it with?

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

Farm Stores: C-Store Opens “Better-for-You” Drive-Thru Besting Restaurants

Chain restaurants made the ‘Drive-Thru’ iconic but it took a convenience store to make a ‘better-for-you’ drive-thru exploiting another chain restaurant weakness, the inability to evolve as fast as the consumer according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Meals, meal components, fresh foods and essentials are what convenience stores are leveraging to garner incremental customers and Farm Stores understands that. In May Farm Stores targeting more restaurant customers will open a new 640-square-foot drive-thru c-store made from repurposed shipping containers, according to CNN. The idea was inspired by owner and CEO Maurice Bared's experience in construction.

Farm Stores opened in Miami in 1957 with a 350-square-foot drive-thru that sold fresh food and dairy products while restaurants made the drive-thru iconic Farm Stores is making it a family three meal platform and fashionable according to Johnson.

Maurice Bared, Farm Stores owner and CEO recanted “In the 1950s, Americans were already going to drive-in theatres and drive-in diners”.  Farm Stores now has 65 locations in Florida. The company became a franchise in 2015 and has a plan for expanding Farm Stores nationwide.

The Louisiana store will be the first to debut the shipping container model, which Bared said is about 40% cheaper than building a store from the ground up. “Bared continued “I had this vision of a Farm Store in a container for two reasons”…. “First, the shoebox layout of a container is the same exact size as our stores. I also grew up in the construction industry with my father having his own business. It’s where I saw the foremen had converted shipping containers into their offices.”

The store is made with two containers, welded into place on a concrete foundation. It features tiled floors, sliding glass doors and a canopy over the roof. The inside includes a baking station and employee bathroom.

The company plans to build all new stores in repurposed shipping containers, and over the next seven years, they aim to have as many as 600 new Farm Stores under development. More than half of those are already underway.   The halo of better for you and family dinners there is nothing new about that; but building it for less while doing good in the minds-eye of the consumers that’s fashionable.

Looking for success clues of your own? Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/  or www.twitter.com/grocerant

New Sonic Partnership aims to Energize Sales

Success does leave clues and when Red Bull and Sonic combined forces to create the all-new Red Bull Slush at Sonic they developed a new platform for Red Bull and a way for Sonic to edify its relationship with its target audience while creating new electricity according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

How is your brand building new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new menu related 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, free food / sampling, toy’s, beer, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, Fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food 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. 

At $3.99 for a medium, the new Sonic Red Bull Slush serves up Red Bull in a frozen, icy Slush. Or, try the Cherry Limeade Red Bull Slush, combining Red Bull with a Sonic icon.  Expanding the mutual partnership consumers cand get 8.4 fl oz. cans of Red Bull Energy Drink will be available for $2.99 at participating drive-ins all day.

Scott Uehlein, vice president of product innovation and development for SONIC. Stated “There’s nothing more satisfying than the taste of Red Bull in a frozen Slush on a hot summer day and that’s exactly what we’ve captured here with the Red Bull Slush,”.. “Whether a grab-and-go visit or pairing with a Chili Cheese Coney and Tots, SONIC can satisfy guests’ craving for icy cold Slush combined with Red Bull.”

Are If 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.

The Hell with Meal time: Millennials Consumers Eat when they Want to Eat

It’s at the intersection of the consumer, fresh prepared food and technology we fine that consumer eating behavior is evolving and is now beyond the control of traditional food marketers. That intersection is called the Grocerant niche and it is filled with Ready-2Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food options. According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® millennials are driving increased adoption of grocerant niche meal components.

E-sports, Kids, and yes, work are driving change as millennials want to do more and yet there is still only 24 hours in a day according to Johnson.

Millennials are helping drive change evolving culture and lifestyle, demographics along with the new uncertain economy are all putting pressure on the American food industry, which has not evolved must since the late 1950’s according to Johnson. According to Technomic Consumer Brand Metrics data, the percentage of millennials who say they visit restaurants “more than once a week” has declined to 55% from 59% over the past year. We know this, consumers are not eating less.  They are eating food from somewhere else.

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. Every retailer should be asking if the consumer is on the move, are we moving with them?

It is clear the restaurant sector is not.  Year over year restaurant traffic over the past 12 months is down 2%, according to the Technomic Chain Restaurant Index and down for the past 12 Quarters according to Blackbox Intelligence.

Battle for Share of Stomach

Recent advances in food packaging and new points of non-traditional food distribution have empowered Millennials consumer choice, and Americans are embracing these choices even as legacy marketers cringe. Who's after restaurant food dollars… simply put… everyone.

So, who is buying grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh Food?  Millennials, as the percentage of millennials who “never” visit casual dining has increased to 38.2% from 32.8% over the past year. Who benefits, Grocery store service Deli’s, C-stores, and restaurants bunding mix and match meal component bundling with new avenues of distribution according to

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

You should care because they are selling it, and you are not! The fastest growing sector of retail food service for the past four years has been the Convenience store sector averaging 8.8% growth. The C-store sectors growth in large part has been driven by fresh prepared food. Non-traditional avenues of distribution are growing, gobbling market share while establishing new patterns of consumption, price points and customer loyalty.

The time has come for chain restaurants traditional views of meals and mealtime to be discarded. The consumers is dynamic not static.  Food retailers must evolve their business models or risk capitulation market share, customers, and long-term financial viability according to Johnson.

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.

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. Chain restaurant practice brand protectionism, has stifled many brands all the 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. Millennials are looking forward not back.  Does your brand look more like yesterday than tomorrow? What are you selling and when?

Steven Johnson is Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®, with extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking. Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us