Grocerant niche Holiday Meal Sales Planning Starts Now

 

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® recent presentation “Falling Forward” outline when and how restaurants, convenience stores, grocery stores, and new non-traditional food retailers should think about building Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat sales through the fall and holiday season.

With football games, basketball games, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas on the way and with new limitations on large event gatherings and justified concerns over sharing food in public spaces. Johnson, stated grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared meals and meal components that can complement the ‘event’ or family gathering will be in greater demand this year than ever before.  Here is some of what we know Digital ordering and delivery has grown 300% faster than dine-in traffic since 2014

 

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%.

6.       55% of consumers would like to try autonomous EV delivery

That said, how and where are you preparing to sell food this fall? Most consumers lack the skill-set to prepared everything from wings, pizza, fried chicken, or holiday sides with the regional or family flavors ‘grandma’ was so good at preparing and no one else in the family learned how to cook.   

In a Battle for Share of Stomach

Are You Building Top-line Sales and Bottom-line Profits?

Friends, family, and colleagues still want to celebrate as they did before, but do not have the time to spend cooking a special meal not to mention once again the skill-set to do it. Gen Z and Millennials in search of food discovery are driving adoption of new avenues of distribution so that they can recreate convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization they have become accustom to with spending the time doing it. To that end we would like to introduce you to Freshop.  

So,Freshop is a eCommerce platform, where you can showcase your brands craveable meals, and meal components as a solution, while you re-engage your kitchen services team and meet the new customer demands created by the pandemic.

1. Holiday Meals
   Create customized meals specific to the holiday season and the size of the gathering. Offer full meals or your signature sides to enhance any table during your customers’ holiday celebrations.
    
2. Bundled Meals
   Include a limited daily menu of complete meals on your website so customers can add them to a regular shopping order. This brings convenience to the customer by eliminating an extra stop for takeout orders at a secondary location.
    
3. Catering for Business Events and Parties
   It’s a great time to take that tri-fold brochure and add those signature items to your website. Creating an updated menu of your catering items on your site allows your customers to plan ahead for their event on their terms and time schedule by creating a separate event and party shopping list.
    
4. Cakes
   The party must (and will) go on. It may be smaller, but offering cakes continues activity in the bakery area while providing your customers with a personalized focal point for their party.

We that even less than a year ago for most of you, adding catering, cakes, and prepared meal options to your website would have been considered an aspirational luxury. It has now become an incredible opportunity to increase online sales and differentiate one’s business while providing better service for customers. It can also prepare your store for what is to come in the post-pandemic era for the grocery business.

Freshop has built the ability to add and manage these products into its online grocery shopping platform. We ask you once again where are you selling your meals and meal components?

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

Moe’s Our Customers are Everywhere

 

At the intersection of a legacy chain restaurant and today’s consumer Moe’s Southwest Grill is adding value to its brand via the Frozen Food Court according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Extending your brands invitation is more important today than ever before according to Johnson who stated, “consumers are more mobile today than five years ago by a multiple of two and are shopping four times as many retail channels as five years ago.  

Recognizing the continued growth and customer migration to the grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meals and meal components, Moe’s Southwest Grill is releasing frozen, ready-to-heat burrito bowls that’ll be available at 1,950-plus Kroger locations nationwide. The frozen food court is alive, thriving, and valued by consumers looking for brands they knave grown to love.

Consumer craveability, is inspired by the bold flavors Moe’s Southwest Grill has become known for.  They are now offering; four enticing varieties of bowls will be available for just $5.49 or $6.49 for people to enjoy quickly and easily at home or work. 

·         Pollo Asada: Shredded chicken with cilantro rice, pinto beans, Monterey and cheddar cheese, salsa, roasted corn, onion and bell peppers

·         Beef Barbacoa: Beef barbacoa with cilantro rice, black beans, Monterey and cheddar cheese, salsa, roasted corn, onion and bell peppers

·         Chicken Tortilla: Pulled chicken with Spanish rice, enchilada sauce, Monterey jack & cheddar cheese, tortilla strips, roasted onions and bell peppers

·         Beef Tortilla: Shredded beef barbacoa with Spanish rice, enchilada sauce, Monterey jack & cheddar cheese, tortilla strips, roasted onions and bell peppers

The retail food space continues to evolve.  Consumers are exploring both old avenues of distribution and new avenues of distribution. Where is your customer, what are they eating?  If you have built up brand value in your brand in one channel, your foolish not expand your brands reach before another brands garners your customer.

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

Grocerant Niche Better for You Beverage Growth

 

Beverages have evolved from a side order, too an entrée, with the halo of ‘better-for-you’ according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Johnson continued, “I cannot think of a chain restaurant that has a drive thru that does not offer at least a mini-meal option with a beverage as a meal solution today.”

Yes, times they are a Changin’ once again, as fast casual, and fast-food restaurants are offering smoothies as meal solutions.  Once more they are evolving their menus to include smoothies that are less sweet and more focused on specific health-related purposes through interested plant-based ingredients, herbs and spices targeting consumers looking for food discovery and grocerant niche portable food with the halo of better for you.

Matt Dugan, corporate executive chef at Vitamix, stated, "In lieu of sweetness, people are becoming open to new and different combinations of flavors in their smoothies, for example, basil and strawberries or mango and chipotle". "The American palette, especially among the younger audiences, of Gen Z and Millennials s become more enterprising, curious, and open to new, unfamiliar flavors."

Beverage chains are growing up and garnering a larger share of stomach. In 2020, Dallas-based smoothie shop Smoothie King opened a record 263 new stores globally to reach more than 1,300 stores worldwide and closed out the second half of the year with a 12.2 percent-increase in comparable sales. Smoothie franchises such as Tropical Smoothie Café also reported double-digit growth last year. They are now more than just a beverage chain; they are a meal replacement option for many consumers today.

While Gen Z and Millennials like food discovery they also line menu option with the halo of better for you. Many of today's smoothie customers have specific health goals and expect smoothies to help them in their journeys.

Rocky Gettys, vice president of product development for Smoothie King, stated, "People are not just seeking out healthy foods — they are looking for a combination of ingredients that will serve a tangible and specific purpose," … "That places a particular onus on made-to-order smoothie chains to deliver a product that connects the dots."

Empowering choice today includes, menu concepts based on purpose can include smoothies designed for pre- or post-workout, immune health, joint health, energy, weight loss, protein and muscle building and more.

The move toward purposeful smoothies is expected to continue, according to Vitamix and Smoothie King, which predicted that new areas of consumer interest may include brain health and skin health as well as seasonally relevant areas of interest, such as cold and flu in the winter and energy and hydration in the summer.

As the smoothie market adjusts to consumers' concerns about excessive sugar, sweet ingredients such as sorbet, honey, purees and syrups are likely to play a less prominent role grocerant niche food retails from fast food to grocery outlets, expect to find recipes with kale, spinach, carrots and other vegetables will continue to gain ground.

Gettys continued, "The blending of tropical fruits with greens is a real winner in today's smoothie market". ."You have to remember that while a smoothie must be healthy, it also needs to taste good. So, mixing the antioxidant richness of vegetables with the allure of tropical flavors is the sweet spot for smoothies right now."

That ‘halo’ extends according to Dugan who added, "We are seeing a fast-growing interest in anything plant-based. It's not just vegans and vegetarians who are interested in plant-based nutrition. There is a broad-based awareness that vegetables, berries, seeds and whole grains play a very important role in our diet."

The use of herbs and spices to help manage sugar content in smoothies is on the rise. Blending ingredients such as ginger, cinnamon or cocoa adds healthful ingredients as well as flavor, lessening the need to add sugar for a great taste. Despite these emerging trends, customization is key for smoothie menus.

Empowering a consumer-focused interactive participatory look and feel so it’s clear too Dugan that, "No smoothie operator wants to play nutrition police and force consumers into a rigid set of guidelines. We're here to give people flexibility to choose what is right for them,". "That's why you are going to see more customizable options on smoothie menus, even as the menu overall becomes less sweet and healthier."

Getty’s went on to say, "The best model for customization is one that holds some ingredients stable while inviting choice on some others," … "For example, customers can substitute one fruit or vegetable for another; choose among nut butters; or choose between milk and other non-dairy options, like oat milk and almond milk. We are always open to substitutions at Smoothie King, but we also want to steer our customers toward what tastes good."

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

FreshRealm’s Grocerant Niche Growth is Stellar

 

There is no doubt that grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food continues too be the undercurrent of consumer demand driving growth in both traditional avenues of distribution and in new non-traditional avenues distribution for fresh food sales according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Most legacy grocery retailers have noticed that the prepared food section and the fresh perimeter have been busy during the pandemic, if not just look at the numbers from Nielsen. Strengthening its position in the high-growth grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meals and meal components, FreshRealm has plans to expand its operational facilities nationally. When complete FreshRealm facilities will allow the company to generate more than 100 million meals per year across its complete range of ready-to-cook, ready-to-heat, and meal kits.

The continuing increased demand for fresh meals and meal component solutions doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. In a February 2021 report from IRI they estimate a $30 billion retail grocery market opportunity for fresh meals. 

Then according to May 2021 data from Acosta Research, more than 90% of families say they plan to continue or increase home dining post- pandemic. Now look closely at this next fact Piplsay’s recently found that  42% of Americans subscribed to a meal kit service this past year, with 45% of subscribers planning to continue using a meal kit service going forward.

There will be four new FreshRealm facilities in California, Georgia, Indiana and New Jersey each will be fully operational in fall 2021. A fifth facility, located in Texas, is set to be online in the first half 2022. The expansion will further extend the company's reach, providing access to the top 20 metropolitan cities in the United States and reaching 85% of the U.S. population in just 10 hours. The strategic locations also will ensure just-in-time delivery to maximize the shelf life of the company's product lines, ensuring delivery within 24 hours of meal assembly.

In a Battle for Share of Stomach

are you Winning

Michael Lippold, founder and CEO of Ventura, Calif.-based FreshRealm, stated, "Our new state-of-the-art facilities will provide FreshRealm with increased agility, better quality control and rapid line expansion to ensure we can produce superior short-shelf-life meals at a scale that's relevant to the retail industry," explained. …"Through extensive research and development, we've been able to optimize our production runs and capacity to create fresh meals for today's most innovative and forward-thinking retailers, while keeping our costs extremely competitive."

Note: FreshRealm provides a complete retail solution, from product design, sourcing, implementation, meal assembly and logistics to marketing and promotion. The company recently received an infusion of capital, raising $32 million from investors for its launch of fresh meals in the grocery channel. Will you be able to sell 100 Million grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat fresh meals next year?

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

What’s for Dinner? More and More it’s Meal Kits

Tired of staying home and cooking from scratch, consumers are seeking and faster fresher way to get a full-flavored meal than cooking from scratch.  Today, consumers are seeking out meal components and meal kits to save time, money, while adding flavor to their menu according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

In case you did not know close to 66% of consumers purchase grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat prepared food meal or meal components items from a retail location at least three times a month. Let’s look at some more recent facts:

 

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%.

6.       55% of consumers would like to try autonomous EV delivery

According to Nielsen research, the 52 weeks leading up to Jan. 4, 2020 only saw 0.6% growth of retail meal kit sales. During the 52 weeks leading up to Jan. 2, 2021, however, the meal kit category grew by 18.7%, totaling nearly $132 million more in sales year over year. Importantly, a vast majority—77%—of consumers say they expect to maintain or increase their frequency of meal kit purchases after the pandemic, according to Technomic’s May 2021 Industry Insights report.

It is at the intersection of lack of skill-set to cook or prepared many new international full-flavored menu entrees are side orders and What’s for Dinner. That we find consumers more than willing to keep purchasing meal kits, meal components or fully prepared meals.  By focusing on consumers’ current shopping habits and occasions, retailers can develop strategies to tailor their grab-and-go meal kit selection to perfectly suit their shoppers’ preferences.

Identifying shopping occasions that drive grocerant visits can also be a key consideration as retailers craft their grab-and-go meal kit selection. For example, here are some top occasions that Technomic’s team found that include:

·         After work and school: Around the evening rush hour, retailers can highlight family-sized meals with kid-friendly options for busy parents stopping by the store on their way home.

·         Entertaining: Near holidays, retailers can offer seasonal dishes in extra-large meal bundles for consumers feeding a crowd.

·         Daily visitors: With more shoppers purchasing prepared meals from the grocerant on a daily basis than in the prior year, offering variety on the menu is crucial.

Restaurant meal components, fresh prepared meals, and meal kits can be designed to be weeknight meal solutions or they can be picked up at the last minute and become a branded meal solution with craveability.

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared continues to drive growth in every sector of food retail today.  Are you saving customer time? Money? Do you have craveable food that is full-flavored? Gen Z and Millennials are in search of food discovery and new avenues of distribution?  Where are you selling food?

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

Urban Value Corner Store and Vroom Delivery Robots Work

 

Texas has been a close second or leading the country in new COVID 19 cases of late so it can be no wonder that one Texas based foodservice retailer has opted to deliver food too customers with a robot according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Grocerant niche fresh food fast continues to drive top line growth and bottom-line profits in every retail foodservice sector today according to the team at Foodservice Solutions®. Now Urban Value Corner Store is partnering with e-commerce provider Vroom Delivery and last-mile delivery robot operator Tortoise to offer on-demand delivery in the coming months in hopes of driving new electricity into the brand.

In Dallas Urban Value Corner Store customers will have access to thousands of products via robot delivery in less than an hour, including grocery staples like milk and eggs, beverages, ice cream, snacks and more. Yes, including, alcohol and tobacco items will also be available for delivery from human drivers.

So, each delivery robot is approximately the size of a large cooler. They are remotely piloted, ensuring a human being is always at the wheel. The cart can carry more than 100 pounds of goods in sealed containers, which are remotely opened by the cart operator once it reaches its destination.

Battle for Share of Stomach

As most of us know the roads are a bit lumpy in the Dallas area, so he robots will operate on sidewalks and drive at an average speed of three miles per hour, allowing them to safely navigate around people, pets and obstacles.

This partnership between Vroom and Tortoise allows for a contactless, zero-emission and affordable home delivery option, mitigating sustainability and congestion challenges, according to the press release. The Tortoise cart is 100 percent electric, removing the need for a gas-guzzling delivery vehicle and minimizing the traffic impact of e-commerce.

Dmitry Shevelenko, co-founder of Tortoise, stated, "We are thrilled to be working with Urban Value, a leading convenience store chain in downtown Dallas, on a pilot deployment in the coming months".

For those who do not know, Urban Value, operates c-stores in and around the Dallas area, will initially pilot the program from its downtown Dallas store. Pending success of the initial pilot, the retailer will roll the program out across the Dallas metroplex.

Urban Value customers can already order for delivery through the Vroom platform, with robots taking up last-mile responsibilities in the coming months.

Vroom Delivery CEO John Nelson, stated, "We are very excited to pilot this first-in-market contactless shopping opportunity," ... "I expect that this technology combined with our diverse product offering will provide downtown Dallas residents and office staff a much more convenient shopping experience."

According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food 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, 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.

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.