Electric cars positioned in fresh food Market Share Battle.



The restaurant industry known for following trends not creating them is once again getting out positioned in the battle for the food dollar. This time it is an attack on the restaurant Drive Thru and Convenience Store quick serve food options. Drug store giant and industry leader Walgreens is installing “green refueling” outlets for electric cars in the Houston, Texas.

Walgreens reentered fresh food retailing last year with ready-2-eat and heat-n-eat fresh and prepared food much of which is termed better for you. Installing “green” refueling outlets at stores clearly positions them to become fresh food superstars. Convenience stores have led all retail food sectors with top line growth bungling in large part fresh food options and fuel in recent years. Walgreens is positioning with the fuel of the future and better for you ready-2-eat and heat-n-eat food for success.

Ready-2-eat and Heat-N-eat fresh and prepared food that is “better for you” portioned as meal components that can be mix and matched have been driving the success of the grocerant niche. Time starved consumers have long loved the Drive Thru restaurants. However, better for you food and family meal mix and match assembly is tilting the food dollar the direction of the grocerant niche.

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits. Invite Foodservice Solutions® to provide brand and product positioning assistance or a grocerant program assessment available for Restaurants, Convenience stores and Grocery stores. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Food for the 65 inch TV: Why the food landscape is changing.



Americans love affair with restaurants is not dying. However increased competition with innovative food with a twist broadens consumer choice of dinning with quality, ease at home. Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh and prepared food is expanding consumer choice of Mix & Match Meal component options.

Restaurants, Convenience stores and Grocery stores are all selling Take-Away food. Meal Mix & Match grocerant meal components have been the leading sector in retail foodservice of late. It’s menu magic.

Mix & Match grocerant food allows the consumer too spend more time in front of the 65 inch TV. Grocery store brand loyalty and frequency increases with each advancement in quality Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food. Here are examples of Mix and Match Meal components from Grocery stores only: If you want to what grocery stores are selling the items below, Email mail us and we will let you know!

Goat Cheese Strawberry Salad: spring mix topped with thinly slicedstrawberries, blueberries, walnuts and crumbled goat cheese,

Cajun Seasoned Potatoes: roasted potatoes topped with Cajunblackening seasoning,

Coconut Crusted Mahi Mahi and Chicken Tenders: coated in toasted panko bread crumbs and cream of coconut (ready-to cook),

Mexican Lasagna, Mushroom Risotto, Crabcakes,

Aegean Salad: shell pasta with Feta, onion, artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes and kalamata olives,

Caprese Panini, BBQ Chicken Quesadilla,

Matzo Ball Soupeared Chicken Breast with Peach & Chive Sauce, Parmesan Chicken Fingers,

Turkey Roulade with Cranberry Stuffing.

Side orders:

Cauliflower Spinach Gratin,

Artichoke & Asiago Croquette,

Spaghetti with Seasoned Tomato Sauce,

Apple Almond Yam Cakes,

Florida’s Farm Stores offer Online meal components:

Cajun Chicken, Chicken Saute with Artichokes, Mushroom & Asparagus Israeli Couscous,

Sage Roasted Turkey Breast, Vegetable Fried Rice, Salmon Nicoise Salad, Flan, Key Lime Pie.

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits. Invite Foodservice Solutions® to provide brand and product positioning assistance or a grocerant program assessment available for Restaurants, Convenience stores and Grocery stores. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Private Label food takes center stage.



Wegmans, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, H.E.B., and Walmart all have now utilized End Caps to position their own private label products1st in the minds eye position of the consumer. Yes, even the 800lb food retailing gorilla Walmart has recently positioned at minimum 7 End Caps within their stores with either Great Value or Marketside products.

Utilizing legacy category management metric’s Walmart has positioned low end private label brand Great Value and their higher end private label Marketside on End Caps squeezing attention from legacy brands. Consumer have embraced and accepted private label products. What is needed for success is not a battle of private label vs. brands but new private label category brand managers. Each category needs a brand manager of its own. i.e. dairy, cereal, bread, etc.

Wall Street analysts who pride themselves on “state of the art information” need state of the art metrics. A&P and Supervalu tried to please the street with legacy metrics. Who well did that work? It’s time to reward those who are garnering customers, while reducing basket size as well.

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits. Invite Foodservice Solutions® to provide brand and product positioning assistance or a grocerant program assessment. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner fresh prepared food is entering the marketplace at new locations.



What Do Consumers Think About Lunch at 7 Eleven? With ready-2-eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food becoming the fastest growing and most profitable sector in retail foodservice aka the grocerant niche.

7 Eleven is perfectly situated to capture a large share of the marketplace. I think 7 Eleven will experience strong sales growth as they roll out an integrated grocerant food program with distinctive differentiated food consumable’s as an entity with identity by day part. 7 Eleven’s successful food product branding has allowed them to own the flavored crushed ice niche with the Slurpee! They will do it by daypart with other food items as well. If success leaves clues keep your eye on 7 Eleven they are changing and changing fast.

Quiznos desire to open 600 new locations within convenience stores highlights that the race for the share of stomach at lunch and dinner is only heating up. In a recently completed consumer proprietary research study Quiznos found that 54% of people eat lunch in 20 minutes or less. This works equally well for convenience store location and QSR’s.

Consumer are multi-tasking more and more; convenience stores with a plethora of food offering combined with other services may have an edge moving forward. According to the same study “ 75 percent of consumers are more satisfied when offered a variety of menu options to choose from; 60 percent of consumers say price is important when choosing between lunch options; 47 percent of consumers choose restaurants that are "earth-conscious"; and 76 percent of consumers take calories and nutrition into account when deciding on lunch.”

Grocerant ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat food is garnering the attention of the consumer. This niche is filled with better for you products that are portioned, priced and portable in ways that many legacy operators have yet to understand.

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits. Invite Foodservice Solutions® to provide brand and product positioning assistance or a grocerant program assessment. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

The rise of the Grocerant; food success clues.



Foodservice Solutions® president Steven Johnson has documented, followed and even defined the grocerant niche. It is no wonder the success his grocerant blog has garnered. The grocerant niche is booming. It is followed by thousands on LinkedIn daily and thousands more via Facebook.

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh and prepared food that is better for you continues to spread from restaurants, into grocery stores, convenience stores and now into the drug store sector. Grocerant niche food is entering the convenience store niche at such a fast pace that the C-stores sector of the foodservice industry has lead all other retail food sectors in year over year growth for the past two years.

The primary driver of the grocerant niche is quality food bundled as components allowing and promoting consumer choice. Meal time is now becoming a time of convenient meal participation, with differentiation and individualization for the entire family. When a family can mix and match components everyone wins.

Companies that utilize Foodservice Solutions® 5 P’s of food marketing: Product, Packaging, Placement, Portability and Price; will understand success can be found within the grocerant niche. Building strong sales if they roll out an integrated grocerant niche food program with distinctive differentiated food consumables as an entity with identity by day part.

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits. Invite Foodservice Solutions® to provide brand and product positioning assistance or a grocerant program assessment. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Better for you food getting noticed.



Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh and prepared grocerant niche food had been growing in popularity and now it is getting noticed.

Kay Logsdon, editor in chief of The Food Channel published the Top 5 gourmet food trends for 2011:

The Top 5 gourmet foods trends for 2011 include:

1. Chocolate for Breakfast—Tea, Belgian waffles, granola and hot chocolate on a stick.

2. Foods for Healing—Ancient healing teas, Blackwater with 77 minerals, aloe and cucumber drinks, plus micro-batches of healthful beverages.

3. New Noodles—Yam, kelp, farro and spelt.

4. Heat with Flavor—Ghost peppers, yuzu-wasabi sauce and piquillo almond glop.

5. Creative Chips—Pinto beans, naan, peas, mung beans, kale and wild rice.

Logsdon noted that :“Breakfast is certainly hot including alternative grains and portability," …the intensity of the spice has certainly been increased in almost everything." Bold flavors and portability have been mainstays on this blog as many of you know. We have a large following via Linkedin and Facebook including food editors and Wall Street types. Success leaves clue, thank you for reading and sharing.

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits. Invite Foodservice Solutions® to provide brand and product positioning assistance or a grocerant program assessment. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant

Food fight and the Convenience store sector is winning.



It all started with the $ 5.00 food long and the Subway restaurant chain has be the individual retail food winner. Subway is growing units and top line sales like no other food retailer in the United Sates. Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh and prepared food is driving top line growth and bottom line profits in food retail today.

The Dollar menu has pushed the QSR sector along and now with inflation on the horizon; a global food price war in the food sector and grocery sector particularly has broken out. It is painfully clear whom ever is the last to raise prices in the QSR sector will be the clear winner, garnering market share.

In the grocery sector; Wegmans is freezing prices on “basic” items, Tesco’s ala Fresh and Easy’s parent has targeted its largest European rival in a price war. Tesco has found it’s footing in the US and is now expanding again with a focus on Price and Product differentiation. Don’t count on large price increases in grocery any time soon, at least in urban centers. Kroger and Safeway must try and keep competitive.

The only over all sector of food retail that has gained both top line revenue and more units during the past two years is the C-store sector. Both the Grocery store and Restaurant sector have lost units. Companies that utilize Foodservice Solutions® 5 P’s of food marketing: Product, Packaging, Placement, Portability and Price; will understand success can be found within the grocerant niche.

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits. Invite Foodservice Solutions® to provide brand and product positioning assistance or a grocerant program assessment. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant