Walgreens entering fast casual with “need it now” grocerant focused food.



Excitement, niche expansion, evolving retail foodservice the grocerant niche continues attracting consumers in non-traditional outlets. With a focus on grocerant niche better for you fresh prepared ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat food, Walgreens is positioned to capture market share from both the grocery and restaurant sectors.

Walgreens via Duane Reade opened a store at 40 Wall Street in Manhattan that may well prove to be a disruptive new footprint in food retailing. The new store has a “fresh sushi station, The Juice Market, offering fresh made-specialty themed smoothies; a Starbucks coffee and fresh bakery counter; a Coca-Cola “Freestyle” machine dispensing 130 varieties of fountain drinks; and an expanded natural and organic section containing fresh fruits; vegetables, wraps, sandwiches and salads.” O’ya that’s not your average chain drug store. It is the next ideation and a clear step above the 400+ Café W’s.

Paul Tiberio, senior vice president of merchandising and chief marketing officer for Duane Reade stated “the fresh and healthy food offerings will be unparalleled within the drug store industry…We have positioned 40 Wall Street to best service the ‘need-it-now’ trips of the area’s growing residential and professionals populations, offering an ‘up market’ fresh food proposition and their one-stop shop solution.

Walgreens is not new to retail food. This new grocerant style concept has the ability to work in all major urban area and with a bit of tweaking it may be the template for continued success in the suburbs as well.

Since 1991 retail food consultancy Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® Bing or Google Grocerants or visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant, twitter.com/grocerant or Facebook Steven