Grocerant meal components bundled and portable make a family meal, a happy meal!



Convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization all hallmarks of grocerant fresh prepared food. Whole Foods, Central Market, Sheetz and now 7 Eleven are all creating a new level of competition for restaurateurs. Each focused on new fresh prepared food with restaurant quality are offering bundled meal options.

Alice May Brock said: “Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian, wine and tarragon make it French, sour cream makes it Russian, lemon and cinnamon make it Greek, soy sauce makes it Chinese, garlic makes it good.”

Grocerants allow customers to select from Italian, French, Russian or Greek and utilize the components at home any way they like. The new American meal can be a composite of any prepared food components that the individual may want and they can mix and pair them any way as well. Our society is a composed for people from all over the world, with different cultures, traditions and flavor preferences. The new American meal is a melting pot of flavor and choice.

Prepared ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat foods are now available for all comers and can be found at Convenience stores, Grocery stores, Restaurants, Mobile trucks all just waiting for the taking.

Consumers have been exposed to a plethora of flavors and have not the time to master the skill of cooking each. This growing trend is empowering the consumer to establish new customs and traditions in eating better, more flavorful food. The Grocerant niche is about convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization.

Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® a Tacoma, WA based consultancy has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. For product or brand positioning assistance contact Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® or visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or on Facebook at Steven Johnson, BING / GOOGLE: Steven Johnson Grocerants or twitter.com/grocerant

Food retail compliancy, economic doldrums, too quagmire and now a prepared food fight.



Our industry has been forced to reposition itself during our current economic doldrums. The grocerant niche once again provides evidence of an ongoing emerging trend. I have dubbed it the “grocerant trend” (fresh prepared ready-to-eat and or ready-to-heat-food--that is better for you). Times have never been better for manufactures to create new products, collaborate and bond with clients while building top lines sales and bottom line profits.

Two strong factors are expanding the niche from emerging to main stream. Dramatic new points of distribution are on the way. Fresh prepared food is emerging in non traditional points of fresh food distribution.

First is at 7 Eleven, which is entering the niche with fresh fruit and fresh prepared food at test locations around the world and at 105 units here in the US. Solid positive signs of consumer acceptance have been reported and this program will rollout to and additional 7,210 units within three years.

Second, Walgreens expanding brand quality in the pursuit of “fresh” prepared food. The halo effect will bolster the brand as contemporized and relevant to consumers. Focused, on its core consumer, portioned, positioned and priced competitively, Walgreens has the ability to over the next 3 to 4 years roll out that program too well over 7,500 locations.

Grocery stores the ilk of Wegmans, Metropolitan Market, Central Market, Harris Teeter, and Whole Foods are each expanding fresh prepared food. Safeway’s lifestyle stores are exceeding initial projections and the company is all smiles while expanding the fresh food focused units.

Convenience stores current grocerant leaders Sheetz, Wawa, Rutter’s, Quick Chek continue to test the bounds of fresh prepared food while doing an excellent job at bundling the meal components and pressuring the QSR industry to keep pace.

Many restaurant chains have or are preparing new programs and offering for this specific niche including Subway, Nathan’s Famous, Atlanta Bread, Denny’s, Jamba Juice and Quiznos. Yes, there does appear to be a new food fight and it is in the grocerant niche for consumer seeking better for you fresh prepared food that is ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat.

Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. For product or brand positioning assistance contact Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® or visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or on Facebook at Steven Johnson, BING / GOOGLE: Steven Johnson Grocerants or twitter.com/grocerant

Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru at Foodservice Solutions® most quoted articles of 2010.



If success leaves clues Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru at Foodservice Solutions® obviously has left his share again in 2010. Here is a list of his published articles with links that were quoted from Wall Street to Main Street during 2010.


1. Restaurant Consumer Discontinuity

a. http://foodservice.com/articles/show.cfm?contentid=4112

2. Convenience store sector: the stage is set for consolidation in 2010.

B. http://foodservice.com/articles/show.cfm?contentid=7513

3. The frozen “Food Court” is the new restaurant real estate play!

c. http://foodservice.com/blogs/show.cfm?contentid=14231

4. Roll, Roll, Roll, Away Roller Grill!

d. http://foodservice.com/articles/show.cfm?contentid=5512

5. Legacy retail foodservice operators, why are many stuck in the middle without direction?

e. http://foodservice.com/articles/show.cfm?contentid=11328

Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. For product or brand positioning assistance contact Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® or visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or on Facebook at Steven Johnson, BING / GOOGLE: Steven Johnson Grocerants or twitter.com/grocerant

Legacy grocery stores are winning with private label products.



Whole Foods, Central Market, and Metropolitan Market are but a few of the companies leveraging grocerant style fresh and prepared food to build top line sales and bottom line profits. Private label sale are reported to be 18%. However most grocery stores and tracking firms do not record or claim their fresh prepared food sales. That alone can push the 18% much higher. When you add in store prepared meat, fish, poultry and bakery products private label again moves into a new and increasingly valuable position much higher than 18%.


Walmart has focused on price to drive sales in doing so they quit requesting “trade funds”. Instead they focused on driving customer value while building consumer loyalty with private label products that shout competitiveness.

Legacy food retailers the ilk of A&P that have been focused on driving inside margins through trade funds that manufactures offer can’t stop taking the money it’s like a “monetary drug fix”. The problem is the companies relying on trade funds are all going to go the way of A&P.

With that said, there are many additional food retailers who are doing an excellent job with private label, such as Wegmans, Byerly's, Dorothy Lane, Stew Leonard's etc. If success leaves clues building strong fresh and prepared private label food programs at the retail level rank very high.

Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. For product or brand positioning assistance contact Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® or visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or on Facebook at Steven Johnson, BING / GOOGLE: Steven Johnson Grocerants or twitter.com/grocerant

MERRY CHRISTMAS

FROM

FOODSERVICE SOLUTIONS



Ready-to-eat, ready-to-heat fresh and prepared food is convenient meal planning!



Grocerant niche food is filled with fresh and prepared ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat meal components. It may be from Wawa as a salad or fresh hoagie! It can be from Whole Foods and come as sous vide /cook chill or fresh prepared from one of the display food stations ready-to-eat, it must have the ability to be portable however.

It can be eaten on site, in the car, at the office or down the road at the park. At times it is reheated; it is focused on single serve portions or portions for two. The list of companies in the grocerant niche doing a very good job continues to grow, Central Market, Speedway Super America, Boston Market, Ralphs, Food Lion, Tesco, HEB, Safeway, Sheetz, Burger King, Subway and KFC.

One of the most interesting new developments is bundling of the meal components it’s a Mix and Match combo that is very empowering for the consumer. Subway and Burger King have for years been doing this with individual sandwiches. Today however now consumer’s can buy from grocery stores and restaurants a fresh prepared sauce, and utilize it on fish, steak, chicken, a burritos or pasta. Two people in a home may use the same sauce on two different entrees! The same can be said for each course of the meal.

This mix and match of portion controlled, fresh and prepared food components makes meal time easy. Meal time is now becoming a time of convenient meal participation, with differentiation and individualization for the entire family.

Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. For product or brand positioning assistance contact Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® or visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or on Facebook at Steven Johnson, BING / GOOGLE: Steven Johnson Grocerants or twitter.com/grocerant

Independent restaurants are mastering the art of 5-minute takeout food.



Ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat fresh prepared portable food has been driving top line sales and bottom line profits for the convenience store sector for over two years. The C-store sector has led food industry in top line growth recently driving sector consolidation. The grocery sector has found new life with ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat prepared food. Chain restaurants continue to grow takeout and to-go food at a faster and faster pace.

Independent restaurants are not being left out and they are garnering attention from consumers and the press. Sue Kidd a staff writer for The News Tribune in an article titled: Master the are of the 5-minute takeout in Tacoma states that independent restaurants food is “CHEAP, GOOD, FAST”

Consumers have been finding grocerant bundled meal options within every sector of the retail foodservice industry. Independent restaurateurs have been paying attention, following the success of industry chain leaders most importantly listening to consumers. They are bundling meal combos from Tacoma, WA to Miami, FL and San Diego, CA to Portland, MA.

With new competition entering the fray for ready-to-eat food from the drug store sector and dollar store sector watch for innovation and regional leaders to emerge from independent restaurants.

Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. For product or brand positioning assistance contact Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions® or visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or on Facebook at Steven Johnson, BING / GOOGLE: Steven Johnson Grocerants or twitter.com/grocerant