Will Albertsons be Able to Focus on Meals

 

At the intersection of food sales and retail brands selling food is a time starved consumer looking for solutions on how to put dinner on the table faster with less work and still have a fresh prepared meal.  At fist glance the DoorDash and Albertsons Cos., new partnership that offers on-demand grocery delivery from nearly 2,000 well-known Albertsons banner stores across the country including Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, and more from the DoorDash marketplace app sounds like a good idea.

Not all good ideas are a clear path to success according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Consumer are dynamic not static.  They move forward with technology, faster than many brands.  Consumers options and varitety of things to do in their spare time has grown exponentially, putting demands on time they want to cook from scratch.  In fact:

1.       Our new 2021 Grocerant ScoreCards found 82.3% of consumers don’t know what’s for dinner at Noon, and 61.1 don’t know what’ s for dinner at 4PM %.

2.       83.1% all dinners have at least 1 grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal component and 68.4% have two meal components.

3.       When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 90.4 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 82.7% chose meal components.

4.       Seventy-three percent of retail prepared food purchases are taken to go

5.       Prepared food purchases are frequently a planned purchase among 59% of shoppers, while 41% of shoppers said they buy prepared foods on impulse. Dinner has the highest amount of prepared food buys with 79% of respondents making purchases for that meal, while lunch comes in at 77% and breakfast at 62%.

Today, the price, value, service equilibrium continues to evolve, consumers can now order groceries and essentials on-demand for delivery within an hour through DoorDash’s marketplace with no time slot, queues or minimum order size required. The team at Foodservice Solutions® does not think that is enough too drive top-line growth and bottom-line profits.

Now, Albertsons will offer more than 40,000 grocery items from stores for delivery via DoorDash, including fresh and prepared food, core grocery, floral and convenience items at select stores. We ask what role with fresh prepared meals and meal components play?  There are no slotting fees paid for fresh prepared meals and meal components.

So, consumers can shop on the DoorDash app to fulfill their grocery orders. In addition, in select markets, customers can order groceries through their local Albertsons Cos. store’s website for same-day delivery powered through DoorDash Drive, DoorDash’s white-label fulfillment platform that powers direct delivery for any business. What role will be slotting fees play in online delivery?

Remember what Scott Moses  Managing Director and Head of Grocery, Pharmacy & Restaurants Investment Banking at PJ Solomon, wrote; “There are now 26,000 traditional supermarkets in the United States, roughly 900 fewer than 10 years ago. Regional supermarkets have been slowly eclipsed by the shadow of various extremely large, well-capitalized (investment-grade), non-union and fast-growing alternative grocers.”

Moses continued saying “alternative grocers now comprise meaningfully more grocery sales than traditional supermarkets and are the primary grocery shopping outlet for 61% of customers, up from 19% roughly 20 years ago. The average consumer now shops for groceries every week at five banners, in four different grocery channels (e.g., supermarkets, supercenters, drugstores, discount/dollar grocers, club stores and various specialty grocers), according to FMI.

That said, food customer migration continues from legacy grocery stores to restaurants, grocerants, c-stores, dollar stores and furniture stores.  Unless legacy grocery stores stop focusing on business models of yesterday and begin to focus on grocerant niche fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food their future will not look very bright according to our Grocerant Guru®.

Chris Rupp, chief customer and digital officer for Albertsons, stated, “We are committed to expanding our delivery experience in order to meet our customers’ needs whenever, wherever and however they want,”  “Our partnership with DoorDash is the next step in our digital transformation to help make our customers’ lives easier and help answer the perennial question, ‘What’s for dinner tonight?’”

Yes, that’s what he said.  Today, there are 29 restaurants for every grocery store selling meals and meal components.  How does he square that? Albertsons stores still look more like 1980 that 2023?  We ask, are grocery stores looking ahead or being forced forward?  The team at Foodservice Solutions® wonders just what legacy grocery store will be the next A&P.  Yes, A&P once the largest grocer in the US, unable to evolve is no more.  What’s worst the A&P brand experienced a long painful demise.

Ok, Albertsons’ partnerships with DoorDash Drive, is launching a custom loyalty program, expanding delivery hours, and offering a unique selection including specialty items, prepared meals, meal kits and new concepts but will they have the staying power to see them through the process to drive customer adoption?  Will they be focused on the consumer or a business model of yesterday filled with slotting fees?

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 us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Blurring the line between Franchisor and Franchisee

 

While the world is reopening after the pandemic, the shakeout within the restaurant sector is just beginning, to be uncovered.  Many legacy restaurant brands are asking themselves; where do we go from here. All the while banks are flooded with extra case as consumer savings has skyrocket to all-time highs in large part due to federal stimulus. Now bankers are making the rounds explain to restaurant companies why now is the time to either buy a chain or sell a chain. 

Heeding that advice foodservice franchisee and franchisors are buying, selling, legacy brands.  According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® one thing is clear, and that is the bankers are making a lot of money.

Johnson continued, franchisee are becoming franchisors, and now selling franchisee in a competitive world all food retailers are seeking a larger share of stomach, a larger share of food dollars, is anyone really winning?  

Consider that Ampex Brands LLC, a franchisee of 7-Eleven Inc. and Yum! Brands Inc. that has more than 400 convenience stores and restaurants, acquired the Au Bon Pain brand from ABP Corp., a subsidiary of Panera Bread.

Now, Au Bon Pain's 171 locations will join Ampex Brands family, increasing the company's revenue by approximately 10 percent annually. The deal also grants Ampex franchising rights to an additional 131 sites and expands its footprint internationally. (That’s banker talk, not a word about the brand or its customer base according to Johnson.)

In a Battle for Share of Stomach

and Share of Food Dollars

Can you Win

Ampex CEO Tabbassum Mumtaz. "Our QSR brands performed extraordinarily well throughout the pandemic as guests moved to drive-thru. That performance allowed us to diversify and jump on a great opportunity to reposition a legacy brand. The bakery café category will rebound, and Au Bon Pain is well-positioned to grow."

Talk about share of stomach / share of food dollar disequilibrium, post-acquisition, Ampex will assume the role of franchisor for the first time in its 16-year history. Remember that it has been a longtime franchisee of 7-Eleven, Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell and Long John Silver's.

Ampex plans to apply its operating strategy to ramp up Au Bon Pain's existing cafés starting in the brand's key markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Once existing cafés are reopened and executing with positive results, Ampex will kick off expansion efforts, starting with corporate-owned locations, according to the company.

Yes, here is a little more, the parent company of Taco Cabana has agreed to sell the 148-unit Tex-Mex chain to the largest franchisee of Jack in the Box and TGI Friday’s for $85 million. In case you did not know, the seller, Fiesta Restaurant Group, said it will use the proceeds from the sale to Yadav Enterprises to pay off $79.2 million in loans and related fees.

In this case the deal, leaves Fiesta with a single brand, Pollo Tropical. The transaction will enable “us to create a more effective, efficient and focused organization, applying appropriate resources to accelerate delivery of the exciting growth potential we have in our Pollo Tropical brand,” Richard Stockinger, Fiesta’s CEO, said in a statement.  Yes, you understood that correctly

For Yadav Enterprises, the deal will add another brand and 142 restaurants to its current holdings of about 400 restaurants. It will also deepen the company’s role as a franchisor; six Taco Cabana units are franchised.

In addition to operating units of Jack in the Box and Friday’s, Yadav is also a franchisee of Denny’s, Corner Bakery and El Pollo Loco. Its restaurants are located across 18 states, with a concentration in Texas and northern California. Does anyone think that they were thinking about brand differentiation or how to build a strong point of differentiation for each brand?  No, I bet most of you thought they simply were looking at you might say dollars not donuts.

Many multi-food concept companies appear to think that each brand is just a widget. In this case in a prepared statement they said, “We are confident he will be an effective steward of the Taco Cabana brand for the long-term.”

Does anyone reading this blog post believe that the buying and selling of C-stores, Chain Restaurants, or Grocery stores is over?  The team at Foodservice Solutions® believes that widgets churn and brands with differentiation grow.

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

Domino's Fresh is Fast Once Again

 

What goes a round comes around. Domino’s rose to become an industry disruptor and consumer favorite with 30-minute guaranteed delivery times back in the day. Brands that set new standards of service, quality, and price have and will continue to lead the industry while defining it according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Domino’s true to its original brand messaging is edifying a service standard once again. This time adding incremental customer relevance with a partnership with draftfkings.com a dynamic gamming app that is attracting new customers at a record pace. 

When announced, Domino's Carside Delivery 2-Minute Guarantee Over/Under Challenge is free to play and is taking place now through July 12, 2021, at draftkings.com/dominos and on DraftKings' Daily Fantasy app there was little doubt from industry insiders that time starved consumers would be knocking on Domino’s door to save time once again.  This branded messaging will once again be disruptive according to Johnson.

So, Domino's launching a new guarantee will garner customer migration from both other pizza players and other restaurants that offer curbside pick-up according to Johnson. Domino's Carside Delivery 2-Minute Guarantee is simple: order Domino's Carside Delivery online, check in when you arrive, and as soon as your order is ready, a Domino's team member will head to your car in less than two minutes or your next pizza is free. Ah, but that's not all.

Yes, Domino's and DraftKings Inc., a leading sports entertainment and technology company, have launched Domino's Carside Delivery 2-Minute Guarantee Over/Under Challenge as well, giving customers the chance to predict if Domino's Carside Delivery nationwide will be quicker than two minutes, more or less than 80 percent of the time, for the chance to win a share of $200,000. Once again readers of this blog will think about customer focused interactive, participatory, food marketing one of the hallmarks of grocerant nice success.

Art D'Elia, Domino's executive vice president – chief marketing officer, stated, "While Domino's is no stranger to guarantees, this is the first time DraftKings has created a betting pool based on a company's performance,". "We want to make every delivery to customers' cars an easy and fast experience, and if we don't, we're going to make it right. As a company that prides itself on transparency, and to show how much we believe in our franchisees and stores across the country, we're giving customers the opportunity to predict how we'll do and have a little fun, for free!".  This is the best example in the food industry of interactive participatory food marketing to date. We congratulate the team at Domino’s.

Yet, there is more; Domino's Carside Delivery 2-Minute Guarantee Over/Under Challenge is free to play and is taking place now through July 12, 2021, at draftkings.com/dominos and on DraftKings' Daily Fantasy app. Those who correctly predict Domino's performance will split the cash prize of $200,000 at the end of the challenge.

D'Elia continued, "Did Domino's just ask America to predict the over/under on our new two-minute guarantee? Oh yes we did,". "We want customers to put our guarantee to the test.". This is how you lead an industry while establishing, defining, new standards according to Johnson.  The partnership with DraftKings will drive new electricity for both brands.

According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products and or service, when you edify your core brand message you elevate a platform driving new electricity.”  That said, what are you waiting for?

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, 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 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.

Success does leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the consumer is dynamic not static”.  Regular readers of this blog know that is the common refrain of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Our Grocerant Guru® can help your company edify your brand with relevance.  Call 253-759-7869 for more information. 

Bokksu is Looking a Customer Ahead at Gen Z and Millennials

 

Food discovery is top of mind with both Gen Z and Millennials and Danny Taing, Founder of Bokksu.com/Community is leveraging the unmet need-set of food discovery to build a base of customers that will propel his company forward according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Snacking was a big part of Taing’s early days of lining in Japan. Tang loved discovering delicious snacks from local Japanese snack-makers.   Bokksu is not just about snacks, it’s a global community of passionate foodies in search of food discovery.

At Bokksu food authenticity matters. Most of the products sourced by Bokksu are from family-owned business that have honed their craft through years of practice and knowledge passed down through generations.  According to Johnson, the quality, freshness, flavors define Bokksu, and the unique grocerant niche mix & match snack bundling will more than exceed the food discovery that Gen Z and Millennials are looking for.   

So, let’s see how IRI describes the potential of Gen Z customers. Discovery, authenticity, in-store experiences key to connecting with this generation

Gen Z, with its oldest members graduating from college and its youngest still in grade school, has been the latest puzzle retailers have been trying to solve in terms of marketing and building connections. IRI offers some recommendations and insights into this influential generation—which account for 20% of all U.S. consumers, with an estimated direct buying power of $143 billion—in its recently published white paper, “Understand Me, Don’t Define Me.”

“[Gen Zers] are known for their work ethic, technology prowess and passion for action,” Lynne Gillis and Jennifer Pelino of IRI and Janis Gilman of The Female Quotient write in the white paper’s summary. “Moving away from labels and toward the future of data will successfully guide CPGs and retailers that want to market to Gen Z. … Brands that make the connection with this remarkable generation drive, on average, 14x greater dollar growth opportunity vs. other generations.”

Some ways retailers can build that connection with Gen Z, IRI notes, are through discovery, authenticity/transparency and in-store experiences.

Emphasize Discovery

Discovery plays an important role in shaping Gen Z’s brand and shopping experiences and how they ultimately become loyal customers, IRI notes in the white paper.  

“At its core, discovery is play—and [Gen Zers] love to explore,” the white paper reads. “While they are a generation hard-wired for seriousness and diligence, discovery within the world of CPG products is a low-risk way for them to experience the fun of trying something new.”

There are two components of discovery: visual and connection.

The visual aspects of products and their merchandising is a huge component of discovery for Gen Zers, who are very aware of product packaging and the messages it sends. IRI says, “Don’t be the brand that touts sustainability and then uses multiple layers of plastic in packaging; these ‘tells’ immediately undermine a brand’s credibility with Gen Z.”

Both personal and social media connections play a role in Generations Z’s shopping experience, but organic recommendations from family and friends carry more weight. Fifty-nine percent of Gen Zers said recommendations from friends and family would most likely get them to buy a product, followed by 54% who said seeing a friend/family member using the product would. Rounding out the top five were TikTok videos (39%), in-store displays (38%) and TV advertisements (31%).

Be Authentic and Transparent

One of the defining characteristics of Gen Z is its commitment to individuality, human rights and equality, and as brands and retailers look to capture this generation’s attention, IRI said it might be tempting to focus on a gender-neutral or gender-fluid approach but in actuality, how gender is portrayed in brand marketing and communications has little influence over their purchase decisions.

“Brands being obvious about calling out diversity and fluidity is distracting and feels inauthentic. We want to see real people using real products that actually work,” a Gen Z focus group participant told IRI.

“The consistent feedback we heard from Gen Z was that gender in marketing isn’t as much about whether brands are portrayed as male, female or gender neutral,” IRI said in the white paper. “Rather, it is whether the entire ‘package’ for the brand—everything from what the product is, to how it performs, to how the packaging looks, to its marketing and social media—is simple and authentic and makes sense for what the brand is.”

Part of being authentic also means being transparent. Gen Zers, in particular, want functional products that also give back to society, IRI notes. They are also drawn to simplicity in packaging, which can convey and eco-friendly message.  

“Spend 10 minutes talking to any Gen Zer and it will be obvious that they hold brands and retailers to a much higher standard of transparency, social responsibility and product efficacy than those in preceding generations,” IRI said.

In-Store Importance  

While Gen Z is a particularly tech-savvy generation, this group has not shied away from brick-and-mortar. IRI notes that more than half of the 17- to 23-year-old females it surveyed displayed a preference for in-store shopping as opposed to only one-third who preferred e-commerce. One of the main reasons for this is in-store shopping more easily lends itself to a “multi-sensory immersion.”

“Shopping in-store isn’t just a means to an end, it is an experience that gives them an opportunity for fun, socializing and experimentation,” IRI notes, adding that it also provides Gen Zers with a sense of immediacy and control.

“For some, especially during the pandemic, grocery shopping has been an almost therapeutic, relaxing experience. It is a forum for them to explore and find what they want, and, not inconsequentially, it allows them to get out of the house,” IRI continued.

To make the in-store shopping experience more enjoyable, the research firm suggests retailers focus on navigating the store.  

“This generation has grown up in a world of online shopping, so navigating the store is not always second nature. Departmental signage and aisle markers are among the most widely used in-store promotion vehicles that [Gen Zers] notice,” IRI said. “They also interact with technology-driven vehicles (e.g., computerized information/coupon center, video monitor displays and advertising on shopping carts) more than other generations.” So, how are you driving food discovery for your brand?

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.

Baskin-Robbins Beach Bonanza

 

Fun in the sun is on the menu at Baskin-Robbins, our ice cream impresario, according to the team at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  It’s hot, its summer, and the ‘halo’ of better for you encompasses ice cream, the beach, and many of the creatures around it.

So, Baskin-Robbins is serving up some serious under the sea ice cream fun with the launch of its new offering, Creature Creations Into the Sea. Just in time to beat the summer heat, these decked out, sea-inspired scoops feature a cast of nautical characters that will have ice cream lovers’ taste buds (and imaginations) adrift with excitement.

Your family will like the straight from the seven seas, the new Creature Creations - including a dolphin, shark, and sea turtle - are riding waves into Baskin-Robbins shops all summer long through playful cup designs, an edible white chocolate topper and a colorful explosion of sea-inspired sprinkles. Guests will also receive a free creature-inspired crown with every Creature Creations purchase to add a splash of fun while enjoying their ice cream, while supplies last. For a shareable Creature Creations experience, these friendly faces from under the sea are also available in customizable ice cream cakes perfect for summer birthdays, backyard barbeques, or any summer occasion.  

Get this, guests who want to dive deeper into the adventure, Baskin-Robbins’ July Flavor of the Month, Beach Day, is a scoop of summer paradise. Beach Day is a sweet and salty wave of blue sea salt vanilla-flavored ice cream, swirled with crunchy graham cracker “sand” and milk chocolate-flavored caramel-filled candy sea turtles and colorful frosting flecks – the perfect complement to any Creature Creations® character.

Shannon Blakely, Vice President of Marketing & Culinary, Baskin-Robbins, stated, “It’s officially summer at Baskin-Robbins,” …“Beach Day and our lively lineup of Creature Creations will have you feeling like you’re enjoying a day at the beach even when you’re not seaside.” How are your customer having fun with your brand this summer?

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 us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Hy-Vee Focusing on Restaurant Meals

 

Consumers are dynamic not static and Hy-Vee has realized that if you want to keep consumers buying meals and meal components from you, you have to sell customer what they want.  This month Hy-Vee is focusing on it’s in-store restaurant breakfast menu and doing a good job according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Giving consumers what they want and how they want it works. So, this month Hy-Vee has unveiled a new “Best Breakfast in America” breakfast menu—complete with breakfast cocktails in select locations—that focuses on fresh, high-quality ingredients.

So, the made-to-order menu features skillets, with eggs and homestyle potatoes as a base and various meat and veggie ingredient options; pancakes, including apple pie pancakes with caramel, cinnamon and whipped cream; waffles in Nutella Banana or Sweat Cream; omelets, with four varieties available as well as an option for customers to create their own; French toast, including a Berry Bliss Stuffed French Toast; and sandwiches and platters.

Not up to all of that? Well, that’s ok, the menu also includes “classics,” such as eggs served with sausage or bacon, toast or pancakes and potatoes or fruit; biscuits and gravy; oatmeal; a breakfast burrito; and a gourmet cinnamon roll.

Get this, in addition to fresh-squeezed orange juice, coffee, milk, tea and soft drinks, some Hy-Vee locations will offer a menu of breakfast cocktails, featuring mimosas, including a flight that includes four varieties; sangrias and margaritas; bloody marys; spiked coffees; and more. Breakfast hours will vary by store, Hy-Vee said on its website. All of this from a mid-west grocery store.  Hey, restaurants does this menu sound better than yours for breakfast?

Now there was even more fun than food during June, as in celebration of its “Best Breakfast in America” menu, Hy-Vee held an event June 24 at its Blue Springs, Mo., store to break the Guinness World Record for largest serving of pancakes. An adjudicator was on-site and declared the record officially broken when Hy-Vee chefs and employees flipped the 12,717th pancake. The team, however, continued to cook and ended the event with 13,000 pancakes at 12:16 p.m. The previous record was 12,716 pancakes set in 2017 in Moscow, Russia. Who’s ready for breakfast?  Hy-Vee anyone.

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.