Enjoy A Happy Holiday Feast with Blue Apron

Staying home for the holidays, and worried you holiday meal will not be a feast like the one you usually get at a restaurant with your family?  Don’t worry stay home and stay safe.  This year for the first time Blue Apron is offering its first-ever Thanksgiving “feast”, featuring chef-designed recipes, as a meal-kit.

If success leaves clues and it does cooking a gourmet meal at home has never been made easier.  If it’s you first Thanksgiving meal, or your fist Thanksgiving with the in-laws over don’t worry Blue Apron has you covered according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

Blue Apron's Thanksgiving-inspired, southern-style menu will give options to suit every holiday table for parties up to eight people. Complete with a step-by-step guide on how to organize, prepare and cook a Thanksgiving meal, Blue Apron will also support its home cooks by sharing tips on its social channels to help make the holiday as fun as possible.

John Adler, vice president of culinary at Blue Apron stated "Thanksgiving is going to be different for many families this year, and we're happy to join them in the kitchen by creating a one-stop shop to make their entire holiday feast a little easier," "Building upon positive reactions to our dessert offering last year, we wanted to give our home cooks more Thanksgiving options, especially as some people may find themselves playing different roles, either as a first-time host or just cooking for themselves."

So, satisfy yourself, cook at home, with the help of Blue Apron.  Yes, you get the satisfaction and assurance you need to cook a meal that will be full flavored, complete, and simple. Customers can select a complete Thanksgiving feast with a boneless and easy-to-carve turkey breast, side dishes and dessert; or add Thanksgiving recipes to the Signature Menu, including a holiday pork roast, dessert or side dishes.

So, you want the one stop online experience you can get that as well. Blue Apron will also offer a Holiday Feast Favorites wine bundle, featuring its chefs' selections of four red and two white wines chosen to complement its new Thanksgiving dishes. Don’t stress out over your holiday meal, Blue Apron takes out the stress, you simply add the smiles.

Don’t over reach. 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

Amazon Fresh Is Looking A Customer Ahead

 

Sometimes in business when a company has its pulse on relevant consumer touchpoints hands on experience and intellect combine to create a sustainable retail food store according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

Even grocery store research legend Bill Bishop, Brick Meets Click co-founder and chief architect stated Amazon Fresh is ‘built to outlast’ other grocery retailers.  Regular readers of this blog know that consumers are dynamic not static.  That said, consumers don’t want different they want familiar but with a twist.  That is a key distinction that the team at Amazon understands and has incorporated within Amazon Fresh.  

Amazon Fresh looks like a conventional grocery store, however it is edified with the attributes that consumers have indicated they want.  They want item / product selection choice but not overload. The don’t want a choice of ketchup, not a never-ending selection of ketchup. That never-ending selection simply drives the consumer into choice overload.  The pardox of choice takes up too much time, in the mind of the consumer, and the consumers does not like how long they are in the store now. Amazon knows that, offers choice but not choice overload.  

With a smaller footprint, and ending the choice over load. Bishop continued saying “These Amazon Fresh stores should be able to maintain profitability as margins compress and sales volumes fall, which is a key to survival,” Amazon Fresh stores were built too evolve not stay the same.  They will evolve with new products, new faster checkout technology, AI replenishing, customer relevant co-branded messaging according to Johnson.

 Amazon Fresh has integrated grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared foods its meat, seafood and deli departments all offer fresh prepared items.  Yes, there is also grab-and-go pizza. Bishop believes that the undercurrent of success will be technology stating “Amazon Fresh is a digitally integrated grocery store, merchandised for today’s customers, that provides a seamless shopping experience. Its low break-even sales volume means that it can operate profitably in intensely competitive markets.”

Amazon Fresh is positioned to compete even with ‘hard discounters according to Johnson. The messaging is of “consistently low prices,” and those paying with the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card or Amazon Prime Store Card get 5% back. Once again, an integrated brand message, that reinforces value.

Amazon ability to leverage AI technology to drive discovery / “surprise and delight” with its product assortment also will enable Amazon Fresh to challenge legacy grocery stores that look more like yesterday and take more time to get in and out of than consumers want to spend.

Integrating consumer interactive participatory items, the ilk of the ‘The Dash Cart’ which saves time checking out, helps you find an item on your shopping list and also provides navigation guidance. The Dash Cart ties Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh with just walk out technology, it empowers customers to shop, and when they are done shopping, leave the store without having to stop to pay.

Bishop reiterated so I want to as well, “The store’s unit economics allow Amazon to operate profitably even in extremely competitive environments,” … “As competition increases (as it inevitably will) and margins are pushed down, many competitive stores will no longer be economically viable and eventually need to close,”. “This is where the low break-even of Amazon Fresh will make a big difference.”

Foodservice Solutions® team is here to help you drive top line sales and bottom-line profits. Are you looking a customer ahead? Visit GrocerantGuru.com 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.

Technology Drives Convenience Store Sales

 

Restaurants success with mobile contactless ordering, pick-up, and marketing helped propel sales so much that grocery stores the ilk of Walmart, Kroger, and Publix have jumped in and consumers adoption of mobile ordering continues to accelerate according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Convenience stores need a strong digital strategy to meet new consumer demand and adoption of and for less contact, or even no contact ordering and pick-up according to Johnson

Pepared food is the primary driver of the foodservice category within Convenience stores, generating 47% of the category’s sales industrywide.  Among small operators, prepared food accounts for more than half of the category’s sales at 53%, compared to 38% for large operators.  Johnson added that 83.1% all dinners have at least 1 meal component and 68.4% have two meal components. 

Mike Flebotte, partner at Business Accelerator Team, said during the recent Conexxus 2020 Annual Education and Strategy Conference stated, "Being mobile-friendly is very important at this point,". "So many consumers are looking at mobile devices and trending toward mobile that it is really essential for retailers to have a mobile-friendly web presence."

Millennials matter as the average daily mobile internet usage of millennials aged 25 to 34 was almost four hours. Flebotte continues "Operators focused on appealing to this generation of shoppers really have to make sure their website is responsive across all devices,". 

With a digital marketing strategy geared toward increasing customer visits, Flebotte said there are two ways for c-store retailers to drive visits and sales: sell current customers more and more often, and increase total customer count.

This is important mobile apps drive conversion more so than websites, according to Flebotte. In fact, mobile apps can generate up to 300 percent higher conversion rates than a website. "Operators evaluating the cost to maintain both — responsive website and a separate mobile app — should consider potentially a web app," he said.

Other best practices he offered for developing a digital strategy to drive traffic are:

·         Plan for integration;

·         Have a mobile strategy that enables two-way communication between the customer and the brand;

·         Plan to be flexible;

·         Redefine success; and,

·         Think outside the box.

"Looking outside of your industry for marketing innovation and finding new ways to stand out against your competition is essential," Flebotte said. "As platforms continue to evolve, and shopping behaviors continue to change and shift, it's important for retailers to try to stay ahead of the curve seeking new and innovative ways to leverage technology to more effectively market to customers." Are you looking a customer ahead?

C-stores have an opportunity with mobile commerce, and it starts with registering the consumer and moving him/her into the path to purchase journey, according to fellow Conexxus Conference presenter Don Frieden, CEO and founder of P97, a mobile commerce and digital marketing platform provider. 

Consumers will want more than just mobile ordering.  The opportunity to provide multichannel marketing, such as emails and in-app messaging, to influence the consumer along the journey. And then, step three is to leverage geolocation by having all the retailer's locations in the platform.

Additional steps in the mobile commerce journey, Frieden cited, are:

·         Mobile pay at the pump;

·         Mobile order ahead; and

·         Loyalty rewards and targeted offers. 

The benefits of moving a consumer to mobile are in the numbers, Frieden pointed out. Comparing NACS State of the Industry (SOI) data to P97 data, he cited that the average gallons per transaction based on card-based transactions is approximately 10.8 gallons per SOI's findings vs. an average of 12.2 gallons based on mobile transactions per P97's findings. Are you looking a customer ahead?

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how our Grocerant Guru® 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 one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Grocerant Niche Technology Partnerships Drive New Electricity

 

Last week we learned that CCEP Ventures, the investment arm of Coca-Cola European Partners, has acquired a 25 percent stake in ITS the creators of technology that enables consumers to pour their own beer first and other beverages and increase efficiencies for the hospitality industry.

At the intersection of the age-old question, What’s for Dinner, retail beer sales restaurant beer sales consumers are seeking a one stop solution when sourcing dinner according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. It is at that intersection where PourMyBeer found a sweet spot and its technology solution found new partners to drive New Electricity into its brands growth.

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply chain and includes such things as fresh foods, online ordering, delivery, plant based foods, sampling, toy’s, cereal, developing brands,  grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food and beverage retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food and beverages that are portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  Does your retail path forward look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Why?

The investment will see CCEP work with Innovative Tap Solutions to introduce self-pour dispense technology to CCEP’s customers in Western Europe, beginning with a trial in Spain. ITS’s technology allows consumers to pour and pay for drinks themselves – cutting down queues, reducing the need for unnecessary contact and wait times, and freeing up staff.

The partnership also represents another step forward for CCEP’s Action on Packaging strategy, launched in 2017. CCEP is committed to investing and innovating in refillable and dispensed delivery models to eliminate packaging waste and lower its carbon footprint. CCEP is looking at developing suitable dispense solutions for different environments, and the partnership with Innovative Tap Solution is a key part of this initiative.

This agreement forms part of the wider CCEP Ventures program, which aims to find, fund, and nurture new technology and innovation. Nik Jhangiani, Chief Financial Officer at CCEP, says: “We are committed to supporting package-free technology and finding new ways to help our customers increase value, reduce their costs and provide a better experience to consumers. ITS is an exciting and ambitious business. We are confident we can help them expand successfully into the soft drinks category and grow their presence in Western Europe.”

Josh Goodman, Founder & CEO of Innovative Tap Solutions dba PourMyBeer, adds of the partnership: “We’re excited to take this Self-Pour Revolution to the next level with CCEP. Less than 5 years ago, our company was just me and one other person and our focus was just self-pour taprooms dispensing beer, wine, and cocktails through our technology.

Here are some facts: Foodservice Solutions® recent Grocerant ScoreCards found 87.1% of consumers bought Ready-2-Eat, Heat-N-Eat, or Ready-2-Drink fresh prepared food and beverages because it was Fresh. With 86.6% of consumers saying they were seeking a specific Flavor, 82.5% believe it is restaurant quality and 77.2% were buying because it was a Complete Meal.   

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

QuikTrip’s QT Kitchen Menu Looks Like Fall Does Yours?

 

Fall has arrived and everywhere you look there are signs of trees turning color, election signs in yards, and several pumpkin coffee menu items or deserts at every restaurant in the America. It not just restaurants any more either QuikTrip Corp. (C-store) QT Kitchens offer great fresh fast food and grocerant niche items for takeout are now offering once again pumpkin Snackles.

QuikTrip is just the latest convenience stores that has begun to look more like a restaurant than aa C-store according to Johnson. brought the pumpkin-flavored menu items to its QT Kitchen locations in mid-September.

The pumpkin Snackles hitting its QT Kitchen stores this season are the Pumpkin Pretzel, which has proven to be fan-favorite treat among QuikTrip customers. The Pumpkin Pretzel is a warm, soft pretzel topped with a sweet cinnamon and sugar blend and stuffed with a pumpkin filling. One choice of dipping sauce is included as well.

But that’s not all, Fall-themed creations are also making a repeat showing on QuikTrip's soft-serve menu. The Pumpkin QuikShake is a drinkable frozen treat featuring premium vanilla soft-serve and blended with pumpkin flavor. The Pumpkin QT Twister features premium vanilla soft-serve twisted with pumpkin syrup.

The Pumpkin QT Twister is only available in the Phoenix, Tucson, Dallas, Kansas City, Omaha, Des Moines, St. Louis, Atlanta, Charlotte and Greenville-Spartanburg markets.

On the coffee bar, the retailer is bringing back its line of seasonal coffee items, which vary by store and market. The beverage options include the Pumpkin Frappe, Hot Pumpkin Latte and Iced Pumpkin Latte, and pumpkin flavored Cold Brew and Cold Brew Frappe. So, what are you doing this fall? Are you looking a customer ahead?  What are you doing next Spring?

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

 

Grocerant niche Alcoholic Beverages are a Mix and Match Meal Solution

 

One hallmark of the grocerant niche growth is mix and match meal component bundling.  With 60% of all restaurant meals being order for delivery chain restaurants need to brand their alcoholic beverage offerings and bundle them with a meal or incorporate other branded products into their offering to meet the current unmet need according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Restaurants and hotel guest more and more want a ‘contactless’ experience both when eating inside or for takeout.  Thus, forcing incremental service and staff cuts at many restaurants and hotels.  It’s very hard in most states to sit at a bar and have a drink.  The simple fact is alcoholic beverage sales and profits at many restaurants and hotels are down.

So, how do restaurants and hotels try to recoup some of the lost bar revenue?  Simple grocerant niche Ready-2-Drink cocktails according to Johnson. Recently, Hard Rock International announced a partnership to bring Hard Rock® Premium Hard Seltzer to fans nationwide later this year.

The Hard Rock Premium Hard Seltzer is crafted for music fans in a variety of stand-out options that highlight Hard Rock Cafe’s® most prominent cocktails and fan favorite flavors, with each can featuring the iconic Hard Rock® logo and a guitar symbol. Fans eager to bring home Hard Rock Premium Hard Seltzer can visit select beverage retailers and grocery stores nationwide beginning this holiday season. Ok, you get it. 

Battle for Share of Stomach

What if you are a restaurant or a chain restaurant not a hotel.  Here is an example from Marriott that you can understand easily see a path forward. Dana Pellicano, Marriott’s vice president of F&B Experience, The Americas. Stated Marriott is one hotel chain that is encouraging its properties to make and batch cocktails in-house and add more Ready-2-Drink ‘canned-/packaged drinks, including canned wines. “The pandemic has changed habits and democratized food and drink,” 

Consider this according to Nielsen Premium Panel data, on the retail side, ready-2-drink (RTD) cocktails is the fastest growing spirits category, rising 28% year over year, In the past several months, growth has accelerated even more, to 171%. Ok, you can see the unmet need. 

How do you fill that unmet need?  Not a problem there are companies the ilk of Heineken that have a new har seltzer called Pure Piraña for one. While the trend was already taking off before the coronavirus companies the ilk of White Claw is another great example.

There may be a local player in your city or state as well as there are now more players in the space. And with takeout and to-go orders pushing the demand for portability, the Ready-2-Drink cocktail is a habit now not something new. It is a grocerant niche mix and match meal solution.

Don’t lose alcoholic beverages sales.  Foodservice Solutions® excels at vertical brand product positioning, marketing strategy, and business development specifically identifying, quantifying and qualifying niche opportunity for global foodservice related activity specifically Ready-2-Eat, Heat-N-Eat, Ready-2-Drink fresh prepared food and beverage. Call 1-253-759-7869 today and learn how the 5 P’s of fresh prepared food marketing can Drive Sales at your retail operation.

7-Eleven’s Competitive Breakout Foodservice Move

 

Consider this 7-Eleven is in only 17 countries but has over 70, 319 stores selling fresh fast food.  Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® stated, “as 7-Eleven increased fresh food offering by daypart delivery will add incremental top line sales and bottom line profits at the unit level around the world blurring the lines between food sector even more.”

Milk, Eggs, Beer, Wine, Pizza, Beef Jerky, Bread, Pepsi, Coke Cola, Coffee, chips and Slurpee’s create a grocerant niche mix and match fresh food delivery juggernaut the retail food industry has never seen the likes of, until now. Restaurants, grocery stores have one new conundrum, who to slow down 7-Eleven until they can figure out how to compete according to Johnson.

Price drives trail, and customer adoption and convenience store giant 7-Eleven continues its creep into the restaurant space, this time enticing diners with the offer of a free pizza, available through its app leveraging technology as good as or better than most restaurants of grocery stores.

So, the free cheese, pepperoni or extreme meat pizza is available only for delivery or pickup on Oct. 4 via the 7Now delivery app, the Irving, Texas-based company announced Thursday. Diners will still have to pay for delivery. I urge all of you to try it.

The offer is designed to “help loyal sports fans cheer on their teams and properly homegate,” 7-Eleven said in a press release. We all know that the gameday meal occasion, of course, has long been dominated by quick-service brands such as Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Wingstop.

There is no doubt that 7-Eleven is looking to one-up many restaurants with its convenience offerings, noting that customers can add items such as cut fruit, fresh-made salads, and bone-in and boneless wings, as well as beer or wine in participating areas.

Regular readers of this blog know that mix and match meal component bunding is the hallmark driving the explosive growth of the grocerant niche.  Raghu Mahadevan, the chain’s vice president of digital and head of delivery for 7-Eleven stated, "Our 7Now delivery app has proven especially popular as people choose to order-in their favorite comfort foods and snacks not only while watching sports games, but also when working at home, helping kids with schoolwork or binge-watching Netflix,", "We at 7-Eleven want to make life easier and convenient any way we can."

7-Eleven’s delivery app is currently available in about 1,300 cities, with a menu of fresh and hot foods, household items, groceries, over-the-counter medications and more. Most orders are delivered in about 30 minutes. Upsetting the price service value equilibrium even more the new 7Now customers can use a promo code for $50 in delivery credit until Nov. 3.

Regular readers of this blog know that this is not the first time 7-Eleven has tried to steal business from restaurants. The chain has been opening Laredo Taco Company restaurants inside its retail units for at least 18 months. The Mexican concept specializes in housemade tacos and other traditional street foods.

Regular readers also know that 7-Elven has also been experimenting with a new format, known internally as the Evolution concept, that features a designated area for on-premise food consumption as well as a section for craft wines and beers.

The consumer is dynamic not static.  Is your brand dynamic? Are, you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.