1. Department & Category

Grocerant Meals, Snacks, Bundled Beverages are a Consumer Welcome Mat

 

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

The Shopper Is in Control Spurring New
Retail Food Formats

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

Recent research shows that both Trader
Joe’s and Amazon-Whole Foods are each known for high quality (restaurant
quality) Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat foods with distinctive offerings. More
important each is leading with innovative products and package size that create
value and have positioned each chain as a food shopping destination for
meal components customized and personalized for immediate consumption or mix
and matched for a meal time at home. In short, they are stealing your
customers.


Walgreens is now growing price, quality,
and speed of service advantages over legacy retailers. Legacy restaurant chains
must reconsider the speed at which they evolve and adapt or non-traditional
outlets will capture profits margins as well.

Traditional views of meals and mealtime
can pretty much be discarded. Legacy retailers waiting for the “next big
thing” to copy simply might be out of luck this time. Legacy food
retailers may not like to be first movers very much but it may prove that
waiting too long will not work this time.

Product, Packaging, Placement,
Portability, and Price

The retail food world is evolving at an ever-increasing
pace filled with innovation in food, portion size, points of distribution, and
quality fresh prepared meal solutions. The price, value, service equilibrium is
resetting in retail foodservice. In order to edify the brand and reinforce
consumer relevance restaurateurs must leverage Foodservice Solutions® Five
Ps of food marketing.

Many legacy food retailers continue to
practice brand protectionism, stifle the brand while diminishing consumer
relevance. The consumer is dynamic, not static. Brands must be dynamic,
evolving with the consumer. Four years of watching other retail sectors thrive
should be long enough. Success in the restaurant world is no longer simply
about what happens within your 4 walls.

Are you
trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way? 
Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your
retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient
meal participation
differentiation and individualization?  Email us at:
[email protected] or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more
information.


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