Foodservice Solutions

Amazon, Uber Eats and the Battle for Dinner: Why Restaurants, Grocery and C-Stores Are Entering a New Era of Foodservice Consolidation

2026-11-13T00:13:00.000-08:00

Amazon isn't simply changing its restaurant delivery partner. It is making another strategic move in the increasingly competitive battle to own the consumer's dinner decision.

The transition from Grubhub to Uber Eats represents something much bigger than free delivery for Amazon Prime members. It signals an accelerating convergence of e-commerce, restaurant foodservice, grocery retail, convenience stores, prepared meals and third-party delivery according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

For the food industry, the important question isn't whether consumers will order more food online. They already have. The bigger question is who will control the consumer relationship, the transaction, the data, the fulfillment and, ultimately, the next meal occasion.

Amazon brings hundreds of millions of Prime memberships worldwide. Uber Eats brings an extensive restaurant marketplace and delivery infrastructure. Together, they create a powerful distribution proposition: make restaurant food another reason to maintain an Amazon Prime subscription.

That matters to restaurants, grocery operators and convenience-store retailers because the competitive battlefield is no longer defined by traditional retail categories. Consumers don't think in industry silos. They think about what's for dinner, how much it costs, how quickly they can get it and whether it satisfies their expectations.

The Grocerant Guru® perspective: This isn't just a delivery partnership. It is a customer-acquisition, customer-retention and customer-migration strategy disguised as a membership benefit.

Separating Confirmed Facts from Forward-Looking Analysis

There is an important distinction between what Amazon has announced and what its partnership with Uber Eats could mean for the broader food industry.

The partnership, qualifying order threshold, promotional discounts, geographic reach and transition from Grubhub are announced facts.

The potential elevation of Whole Foods, increased C-store participation, grocery deli growth, additional consolidation and new opportunities for independent restaurants are industry implications and forward-looking predictions.

Those outcomes have not been guaranteed by Amazon or Uber.

The distinction matters. Foodservice operators should make investment decisions based on verified market conditions while preparing strategically for the opportunities that could emerge.

The Grocerant Guru® evaluates both: what is happening today and what those developments could mean for tomorrow's consumer.

Confirmed Industry Facts: The Numbers Behind the New Foodservice Battleground

Before examining the implications, consider several important industry data points.

Restaurant Off-Premises Dining: Nearly 75% of restaurant traffic now occurs off-premises, including takeout, drive-thru and delivery, according to the National Restaurant Association's 2025 Off-Premises Restaurant Trends report. Off-premises business now represents a larger share of sales for 58% of limited-service operators and 41% of full-service operators compared with 2019.

Grocery Prepared Foods: FMI's 2025 research found that consumers replacing restaurant meals with grocery deli-prepared foods more than doubled, increasing from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. Additionally, 53% of Americans were combining prepared deli foods with ingredients from their own kitchens to create meals.

Grocery's Next Opportunity: FMI's October 2026 research found that 56% of households combine home preparation with foods prepared outside the home for dinner at least once a week. Consumers are showing interest in meal bundles, heat-and-eat sides and family-size combinations.

Convenience-Store Foodservice: NACS reports that foodservice represented 28.5% of convenience-store in-store sales and 38.9% of in-store gross profit dollars in 2025. Prepared food accounted for approximately 74% of foodservice sales.

Restaurant Delivery Consolidation: DoorDash announced a proposed acquisition of Instacart in October 2026, valued at approximately $17 billion. The transaction illustrates how delivery companies are competing to combine grocery access, restaurant ordering, technology and fulfillment. The proposed transaction should not be confused with a completed acquisition.

These numbers tell an important story: food consumption is migrating across channels, while the businesses that control convenience, ordering and customer access are becoming increasingly influential.

Importantly, these statistics describe existing industry conditions. They do not establish that Amazon's new Uber Eats partnership caused these consumer behaviors.

1. Does Amazon's Uber Eats Partnership Drive Consolidation?

Confirmed fact: Amazon is replacing its Grubhub arrangement with Uber Eats as its restaurant-delivery benefit for Prime members. DoorDash's proposed acquisition of Instacart is a separate example of consolidation activity in the broader delivery marketplace.

The Grocerant Guru® outlook: Consolidation is likely to remain an important competitive strategy, but it is important to understand two different forms.

First, corporate consolidation. Delivery companies are pursuing scale, technology, geographic reach and access to more transactions.

Second, consumer consolidation. Consumers increasingly want fewer steps between deciding what to eat and receiving it.

Amazon understands that a Prime member who already shops, watches movies, purchases household necessities and receives packages through Amazon may welcome restaurant ordering without opening another application.

That is a meaningful competitive advantage.

The Amazon-Uber Eats arrangement provides:

· Access to hundreds of thousands of restaurants.

· Availability across nearly 10,000 U.S. cities and towns.

· $0 delivery fees on qualifying restaurant orders of $25 or more.

· Two introductory $20 discounts on qualifying initial orders.

· Restaurant discovery and ordering through Amazon.com and the Amazon Shopping app.

· No requirement for a separate Uber account.

Amazon estimates potential annual savings exceeding $175, although that figure is based on its own assumptions about order frequency and promotional savings, not a guaranteed saving for every household.

The important strategic distinction is that Amazon does not have to own the restaurant, the kitchen or the delivery fleet to influence the consumer's food purchase.

It needs to own the relationship.

Prediction: The delivery industry will continue pursuing partnerships, acquisitions and membership integrations that increase consumer access and transaction frequency. Whether this produces additional mergers or acquisitions remains to be seen.

2. Will This Elevate Whole Foods?

Confirmed fact: Amazon owns Whole Foods Market, and Prime members already receive certain grocery-related benefits through Amazon's ecosystem. The new restaurant-delivery announcement does not establish that Whole Foods prepared foods will automatically be included in Uber Eats restaurant ordering.

The Grocerant Guru® outlook: Whole Foods has an opportunity to benefit from Amazon's expanding foodservice ecosystem.

Amazon can potentially connect restaurant delivery, Whole Foods prepared foods, Amazon Fresh and everyday grocery shopping into a more complete meal-solution ecosystem.

Whole Foods already has a recognizable fresh-food identity. Its prepared meals, salads, sandwiches, hot foods, sides and specialty offerings can compete for occasions traditionally captured by restaurants.

But Amazon's new restaurant-delivery benefit does not automatically make Whole Foods a preferred dinner destination.

It creates an opportunity to cross-sell.

Imagine a Prime member ordering an entrée from a neighborhood restaurant through Amazon and separately purchasing a Whole Foods salad, dessert, appetizer or beverage.

Or consider a household that decides against a $60 restaurant order and instead assembles a family dinner using Whole Foods prepared entrées and complementary grocery items.

These are different transactions, but they compete for the same consumer meal occasion.

The opportunity is to connect the occasions rather than force the consumer to choose one channel.

The Grocerant Guru® observation: Whole Foods should not think of its deli as a department that sells prepared food. It should think of it as a foodservice destination competing for restaurant occasions.

Prediction: Whole Foods could gain from increased attention to prepared foods and cross-category meal solutions, but Amazon would need to develop the appropriate merchandising, ordering and fulfillment connections to realize the full opportunity.

3. Will Amazon and Uber Eats Drive Food Delivery Nationwide?

Confirmed fact: Amazon says the Prime benefit will extend to nearly 10,000 U.S. cities and towns, with access to hundreds of thousands of restaurants in Uber Eats' delivery network.

The Grocerant Guru® outlook: The partnership could accelerate adoption and expand the perceived availability of restaurant delivery, but nationwide access does not mean every community has equal restaurant selection, delivery coverage or delivery economics.

This matters for:

· Suburban households looking for convenient family meals.

· Smaller communities where restaurant delivery choices have traditionally been limited.

· Rural consumers who may have fewer restaurant alternatives.

· Independent restaurants looking for incremental customer exposure.

However, delivery availability is not the same as delivery profitability.

The food must travel well, arrive at the right temperature, retain its texture and still deliver an acceptable experience after packaging and delivery costs.

Pizza, sandwiches, bowls, fried chicken and certain ethnic foods have different travel characteristics. Restaurants must engineer menus for the journey, not simply put their dine-in menu into an online catalog.

There is another important consideration: $0 delivery fee does not mean $0 total ordering cost. Taxes, service fees, tips and other applicable charges can remain.

The consumer's final checkout price still determines perceived value.

Prediction: More consumers may come to expect restaurant delivery as a standard membership benefit. Whether that translates into profitable growth across smaller markets will depend on restaurant participation, delivery economics and customer demand.

4. Will C-Stores Capitalize on Bundled Meals Through Amazon and Uber?

Confirmed fact: NACS reports that foodservice represented 38.9% of convenience-store in-store gross profit dollars in 2025. Prepared food represented approximately 74% of convenience-store foodservice sales.

That is not a peripheral business. It is a major profit engine.

The Grocerant Guru® outlook: C-stores have an opportunity to become more competitive in complete meal occasions rather than concentrating exclusively on individual snacks, beverages and convenience purchases.

C-stores should examine three opportunities.

A. Bundled Meal Occasions

Instead of selling a sandwich, chips and beverage separately, create complete meal propositions:

· Breakfast sandwich, coffee and fruit.

· Chicken sandwich, side and beverage.

· Pizza, salad and family-size beverage.

· Protein bowl, snack and functional beverage.

· Late-night meal bundle with dessert.

The objective is to increase average transaction value while improving the consumer's perception of affordability.

B. Digital Discovery and Delivery

C-stores should investigate participation in third-party marketplaces and relevant retail delivery programs.

However, Amazon's announcement does not automatically make every convenience store an Uber Eats merchant or guarantee that Amazon will offer its products through restaurant ordering.

That requires merchant participation, platform availability and appropriate commercial agreements.

C. Cross-Category Merchandising

Imagine a consumer ordering a restaurant entrée and discovering that a participating convenience retailer offers a complementary beverage, dessert or snack.

Or a C-store offering its own complete dinner bundle through an available delivery marketplace.

The opportunity is to compete for the entire meal, not just the traditional convenience-store snack occasion.

C-stores have one potential advantage that restaurants and grocery retailers should not underestimate: proximity.

When time is the consumer's primary concern, a nearby C-store with a quality prepared meal may beat a restaurant requiring a longer delivery wait.

Prediction: More convenience retailers will explore prepared-meal bundles, digital ordering and delivery partnerships as they seek to increase foodservice profitability. Amazon-Uber integration with C-stores, however, remains a potential opportunity rather than an announced program.

5. Will Grocery Deli Options Finally Get the Attention of Diners?

Confirmed fact: FMI's 2025 findings show that 28% of consumers reported replacing restaurant meals with grocery deli-prepared foods, compared with 12% in 2017. FMI's 2026 research also identifies the continued importance of combining home preparation with externally prepared foods.

The Grocerant Guru® outlook: Grocery retailers have an opportunity to become legitimate dinner competitors, not merely grocery suppliers.

This is the Grocerant Niche in action.

Consumers are combining:

· A grocery-store prepared entrée.

· A restaurant-quality side.

· A fresh salad assembled at home.

· A packaged dessert.

· A beverage purchased from a convenience store.

The meal no longer needs to originate from one foodservice operator.

Grocery deli operators should develop meal bundles based on consumer occasions rather than simply promoting individual deli products.

For example:

Family Dinner: Rotisserie chicken, two sides and rolls.

Lunch for Two: Sandwiches, salads and beverages.

Date Night: Prepared entrée, premium sides and dessert.

Game Day: Wings, dips, sliders and snacks.

Late Afternoon: Heat-and-eat entrée and side.

The winning grocery retailers will make it easier to purchase a complete meal, not simply provide a collection of ingredients.

Prediction: Grocery delis will increasingly compete for restaurant meal occasions. Their success will depend on food quality, menu innovation, availability, pricing, packaging and the ability to make complete meals easy to purchase.

6. How Can Independent Restaurants Take Advantage?

Confirmed fact: The Amazon-Uber Eats partnership creates another restaurant-discovery and ordering channel for eligible participating restaurants within the Uber Eats network.

The Grocerant Guru® outlook: This is where the announcement becomes particularly interesting.

Large chains have advertising budgets, technology departments, national brand recognition and established delivery infrastructure. Independent restaurants often have fewer resources.

But independents have something that large platforms cannot manufacture overnight: local relevance, neighborhood relationships and distinctive food.

Amazon and Uber Eats could provide an additional discovery channel for independent operators.

Here are six practical strategies.

1. Treat Marketplace Participation as Customer Acquisition.

Independent restaurants should evaluate whether incremental orders justify marketplace commissions, packaging, discounts and operational expenses.

A new customer is valuable only when the transaction contributes to profitability or creates a reasonable opportunity for future direct business.

2. Build Delivery-Specific Menus.

Not every menu item belongs on a delivery platform. Identify foods that retain flavor, temperature, texture and presentation during transportation.

Create a smaller menu that travels exceptionally well.

3. Create Exclusive Meal Bundles.

A $25 order threshold creates a natural incentive to build higher-value baskets.

Independent operators should develop two-person dinners, family bundles, entrée-and-side combinations and game-day packages.

The objective is to raise average order value through genuine customer value rather than simply adding expensive items.

4. Protect the Direct Customer Relationship.

Use legally and platform-compliant packaging, branded inserts, loyalty programs and restaurant-owned digital channels to encourage repeat visits and direct ordering where permitted.

Don't make a third-party marketplace the only place customers can find the restaurant.

5. Differentiate Through Local Food Identity.

A neighborhood restaurant should not attempt to outspend a national chain. It should offer something a national chain cannot easily replicate.

Local ingredients, signature sauces, regional specialties, culturally distinctive meals and community connections are competitive advantages.

6. Measure Contribution Margin, Not Just Sales Growth.

An additional $10,000 in delivery revenue is not necessarily $10,000 in business success.

Operators should measure:

· Food cost.

· Packaging cost.

· Marketplace fees and commissions.

· Incremental labor.

· Discounts and promotions.

· Refunds and order errors.

· Repeat purchase rates.

· Contribution margin per order.

Independent restaurants that understand these numbers can use delivery as a growth channel without allowing it to become an unprofitable dependency.

Prediction: Independent restaurants that build profitable, delivery-friendly menus and use marketplaces strategically could gain new customer exposure. The degree of benefit will vary by market, platform terms and restaurant execution.

7. The New Competition: Who Owns the Meal Occasion?

The Amazon-Uber Eats partnership highlights a competitive shift that will become increasingly important over the next several years.

Restaurants, grocery stores and convenience stores are no longer competing exclusively against businesses that look like them.

They are competing against every food retailer capable of satisfying the same consumer need.

Consider a family deciding what to eat on a Tuesday evening.

Their choices might include:

· Ordering burgers through Uber Eats.

· Purchasing a rotisserie chicken and sides from Whole Foods.

· Picking up a prepared meal from a neighborhood C-store.

· Ordering pizza directly from an independent restaurant.

· Combining grocery ingredients with a restaurant entrée.

These are five different purchasing paths serving essentially the same meal occasion.

This is why traditional channel definitions are becoming less relevant.

The consumer is migrating between channels based on price, convenience, quality, portability and perceived value.

The businesses that recognize this migration will have a competitive advantage.

The Price + Quality + Social + Portability = Value Equation

Amazon's strategy puts pressure on every foodservice operator to reconsider its value proposition.

Free delivery is a compelling promotional benefit, but delivery alone does not create customer loyalty.

Consumers still evaluate:

· What does the entire meal cost?

· Is the food worth the price?

· Will the food arrive as expected?

· Is the portion appropriate?

· Can the meal accommodate the household?

· Is the experience repeatable?

A $25 minimum order is also an important behavioral threshold. It encourages consumers to think about adding another item, ordering for two or purchasing a larger meal.

Restaurants and retailers should respond with intelligently constructed bundles rather than arbitrary discounts.

The winning proposition is not necessarily the cheapest meal. It is the meal that delivers the strongest combination of price, quality, convenience and experience.

8. The Grocerant Guru® Outlook: Five Predictions for the Food Industry

The following are strategic forecasts, not announced corporate initiatives or guaranteed outcomes.

Prediction 1: Membership Ecosystems Will Become More Important Than Individual Delivery Applications.

Amazon is demonstrating that restaurant ordering can become another benefit inside a broader consumer relationship. Other retailers and technology companies will have to evaluate how their membership programs influence food purchasing frequency.

Prediction 2: Grocery Prepared Foods Will Increasingly Compete with Restaurants.

Whole Foods and other supermarket operators have an opportunity to turn deli departments into destination foodservice businesses. The next competitive advantage will come from meal solutions, not simply more prepared-food SKUs.

Prediction 3: C-Stores Will Move Further Toward Complete Meals.

The economics support the investment. With foodservice contributing 38.9% of in-store gross profit dollars, convenience retailers have a financial reason to expand meal bundles, improve food quality and explore digital ordering.

Prediction 4: Independent Restaurants Will Face a Choice Between Marketplace Dependence and Marketplace Leverage.

Those that understand customer acquisition costs, contribution margins and repeat purchasing can use Amazon's expanded reach to introduce themselves to new consumers. Those that simply chase order volume risk surrendering profitability and customer relationships.

Prediction 5: Food Delivery and Grocery Delivery Will Increasingly Converge.

DoorDash's proposed acquisition of Instacart and Amazon's partnership with Uber Eats point toward a future in which the consumer may expect restaurant meals, groceries, snacks and prepared foods to be accessible through increasingly interconnected platforms.

The next competitive battle will be about who can fulfill more of the household's food needs without creating additional friction.

Three Insights from Steven Johnson, The Grocerant Guru®

These are Steven Johnson's strategic interpretations of the developments discussed above, not independently measured industry findings.

Insight 1: The Next Consolidation Battle Is for the Consumer's Food Identity, Not Just Market Share.

Amazon does not need to own every restaurant, grocery store or convenience store. It needs to become the place consumers begin their food decisions. That distinction is profound. Whoever owns the discovery, transaction and purchasing data has an opportunity to influence where consumers spend their food dollars. Food companies should recognize that distribution power is increasingly measured by access to the customer, not simply ownership of physical locations.

Insight 2: The Future of Meal Bundling Will Be Channel-Agnostic and Occasion-Specific.

The next generation of successful meal bundles will not necessarily come from one restaurant, one grocery store or one convenience retailer. They will be constructed around the consumer's occasion. An entrée from a restaurant, a salad from a grocer and a beverage from a C-store can collectively become dinner. The brands that learn to complement one another rather than defend traditional channel boundaries will uncover new growth opportunities.

Insight 3: Brand Relevance Will Increasingly Be Determined by How Much Friction a Brand Removes from the Consumer's Life.

Food brands have spent decades protecting their identities, distribution channels and traditional customer relationships. That is no longer enough. Today's consumer is dynamic, not static. Brand relevance comes from understanding changing meal occasions, offering meaningful price-value-service equilibrium and making it easier for consumers to satisfy their needs. The strongest brands will not necessarily be those with the largest advertising budgets. They will be those that consistently solve the consumer's next food problem.

The Grocerant Guru® Bottom Line

Amazon's move from Grubhub to Uber Eats is not simply a delivery partnership change. It is another indication that the food industry is moving toward an integrated, digitally connected, occasion-driven marketplace.

Restaurants must protect their margins while expanding discovery. Grocery retailers must make their delis more relevant to diners. C-stores must recognize that prepared meals are an increasingly important profit engine. Independent restaurants must leverage technology without surrendering their customer relationships.

And Whole Foods has an opportunity to benefit from Amazon's broader food ecosystem, provided it continues to deliver compelling prepared-food value.

The ultimate winner will not necessarily be Amazon, Uber Eats, DoorDash, Whole Foods, a national restaurant chain or a convenience-store operator.

The ultimate winner will be the business that understands the consumer's next meal occasion before its competitors do.

That is the essence of the Grocerant Niche, identified and championed by Foodservice Solutions®.

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: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Gift Cards Are No Longer Just Holiday Gifts: The $503.7 Million Opportunity Restaurants Can Turn Into Year-Round Customer Traffic

2026-11-12T00:12:00.000-08:00

Gift cards have graduated from the holiday stocking stuffer to something much more important: a year-round food marketing, customer acquisition, and revenue-generation tool. For restaurant operators, convenience stores, grocery retailers, and other foodservice businesses, the opportunity is not simply selling more gift cards. It is using those cards to create more consumer occasions, encourage customer migration, build brand relationships, and bring customers back according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. .

New research from Paytronix underscores this changing marketplace. According to its 2026 Gift Card Report, gift card revenue increased 18.3% year over year, climbing from $425.7 million in 2024 to $503.7 million in 2025. Yet the number of cards sold increased just 2.6%, from 11.3 million to 11.6 million.

That difference deserves attention.

Consumers are not necessarily purchasing substantially more cards. They are purchasing higher-value cards. In other words, the gift card business is experiencing a meaningful increase in dollars per transaction.

For foodservice brands competing for increasingly selective consumer spending, that is a marketing opportunity worth recognizing.

Consumers Are Trading Up, Not Simply Buying More

The most interesting finding in the Paytronix research is the shift in gift card denominations.

The $50 gift card was the strongest performer, with unit sales increasing 11.5%, from 1.88 million to 2.10 million cards. Meanwhile, $25 cards declined 5.8%, although they remained the largest denomination by unit volume, with 2.29 million cards sold.

The $10 denomination increased 5.3%, while $5 cards experienced the steepest decline, falling 12.5%.

What does this tell foodservice marketers?

Consumers appear increasingly comfortable giving a more substantial gift or putting more purchasing power behind a single brand relationship.

For restaurants, this creates an opportunity to rethink gift card merchandising. Rather than simply displaying $25 cards at the checkout counter, brands should consider promoting $50 cards, family meal occasions, dinner experiences, bundled offerings, and digital gifting.

A $50 gift card can represent more than a prepaid purchase. It can introduce a household to a restaurant, encourage a family dinner, or give a consumer a reason to try a brand they have not visited previously.

However, operators should not abandon smaller denominations. The $10 card's growth demonstrates that accessible entry points remain relevant.

The objective is to offer choices that match different gifting occasions and consumer budgets.

Full-Service Restaurants Are Finding Growth

Paytronix also identified an important difference between restaurant segments.

Full-Service Restaurants (FSR) led growth, with gift card units increasing 4.4%, reaching nearly 4.3 million cards.

Electronic gift cards increased 3.0%, reaching approximately 972,000 units.

Quick-Service Restaurants (QSR), despite representing approximately 58% of all cards sold, experienced a slight 0.3% decline, with approximately 6.65 million cards sold.

That is a development QSR operators should not overlook.

Quick-service restaurants have historically benefited from convenience, familiarity, accessibility, and frequent consumer visits. Yet the gift card numbers suggest that full-service restaurants are gaining momentum in this particular category.

Could consumers be placing greater emphasis on experiences, shared meals, and occasions when selecting a restaurant gift?

That is a possibility worth exploring.

QSR operators should not assume that convenience alone will sustain gift card growth. They need to make their gift cards more relevant to today's consumer.

Family meals, group occasions, digital gifting, breakfast bundles, snack occasions, and meal deals can all give consumers a reason to purchase a gift card.

The winning strategy is to sell the occasion, not just the card.

Digital Gifting Is Changing the Customer Relationship

Electronic gift cards accounted for approximately 8.4% of total card volume in the Paytronix data.

While that remains a relatively small portion of the overall market, its continued growth demonstrates the importance of digital accessibility.

Consumers want to purchase and deliver gifts when and where it is convenient for them. A birthday, graduation, thank-you, employee recognition, or last-minute celebration no longer requires a trip to a physical store.

For foodservice brands, digital gift cards also create opportunities to connect gifting with loyalty, mobile ordering, online ordering, and personalized marketing.

A digital gift card can become an entry point into a brand's broader customer engagement ecosystem.

But there is an important distinction: selling a digital card is not the same as creating a digital customer relationship. Brands must have a plan to encourage redemption, introduce customers to their menus, and provide reasons to return.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 Off-Premises Restaurant Trends research found that nearly 75% of restaurant traffic occurs off-premises. It also found that 65% of drive-thru customers and more than 60% of takeout and delivery customers say loyalty program membership influences where they order.

That makes the connection between gift cards, loyalty, digital ordering, and off-premises dining particularly important.

A gift card should work across the consumer's preferred access points, whether that means dining in, ordering takeout, using the drive-thru, or arranging delivery where available.

Redemption Speed Matters: The Clock Is Working in Restaurants' Favor

Another encouraging Paytronix finding is that consumers are redeeming gift cards faster.

Average days to redemption declined from 32.7 days in 2024 to 31.1 days in 2025, a 5% improvement.

That matters because redemption represents an opportunity to create an actual foodservice transaction.

The gift card purchaser may be the person who introduces the recipient to a brand. The recipient becomes a potential customer. The redemption visit becomes an opportunity to sell additional food, beverages, desserts, sides, and future occasions.

However, redemption should not be treated as the finish line.

The real marketing opportunity begins when the recipient walks through the door or places an online order.

Restaurants should use that first redemption occasion to introduce loyalty enrollment, encourage a second visit, promote a relevant menu item, and create a reason to return.

In the Grocerant Niche, where consumers migrate between restaurants, grocery prepared foods, convenience stores, and other fresh-prepared food destinations, every new consumer interaction matters.

A gift card can be the introduction. The food, service, convenience, and experience must earn the next visit.

December Is Still King, But the Opportunity Is Expanding

According to Paytronix, December accounted for approximately 31% of annual gift card volume in both 2024 and 2025.

Yet December 2025 sales were essentially flat compared with the previous year, at approximately 3.623 million cards.

The more interesting development is what happened outside the traditional holiday season.

January gift card sales increased 16.2%, April increased 10%, and June increased 10.1%.

These numbers suggest that gift cards have opportunities beyond Christmas, Hanukkah, and other traditional holiday gifting occasions.

Think about the possibilities:

· January: New Year's celebrations, resolutions, and employee recognition.

· February: Valentine's Day, friendship, and shared dining experiences.

· March and April: Spring celebrations, Easter, and graduation gifting.

· May and June: Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduations, and summer gatherings.

· July and August: Travel, family reunions, and summer celebrations.

· September and October: Back-to-school appreciation, birthdays, and employee recognition.

· November and December: Holiday gifting, corporate incentives, and family celebrations.

Every month offers a reason to connect consumers with a food brand.

The National Restaurant Association reported in December 2024 that 59% of American adults planned to give restaurant gift cards during the holiday season. That figure increased to 74% among Gen Z adults and 70% among Millennials.

Those findings reinforce the potential of restaurant gift cards to reach consumers across generations.

Meanwhile, the National Retail Federation projected $29 billion in total gift card spending during the 2025 holiday season. Gift cards ranked as the second-most popular holiday gift category.

The market is large, but the opportunity for restaurant brands is to capture a greater share of those dollars and turn gifting into repeat business.

Gift Cards Must Deliver Price, Value, and Convenience

There is another consideration foodservice operators cannot ignore: consumers remain price-conscious.

The National Restaurant Association projected 2026 restaurant and foodservice sales of $1.55 trillion, while identifying persistent operating costs and cautious household spending as continuing industry challenges.

Its 2026 industry research also found that 61% of consumers consider restaurants essential to their lifestyles and intend to continue prioritizing dining out.

That creates a balancing act for restaurant marketers.

Consumers want convenience, quality, service, and experiences, but they also want to feel that their money is being well spent.

A gift card can help communicate value without requiring a brand to permanently discount its menu.

For example, a restaurant can merchandise a $50 gift card alongside a family meal experience, a special occasion dinner, or a seasonal menu promotion. The card becomes a vehicle for purchasing power and an introduction to a particular dining occasion.

Brands can also create incremental sales opportunities through suggested pairings, limited-time offers, and loyalty incentives.

The important point is to avoid confusing a gift card promotion with a discounting strategy.

Gift cards should strengthen the brand's Price Value Service Equilibrium. The consumer must believe the food, service, convenience, and experience justify choosing that brand again.

The Grocerant Guru® Perspective: Stop Treating Gift Cards as a Holiday Department

Gift cards are not merely a financial transaction or a seasonal retail item. They are a customer acquisition vehicle, a brand introduction, a potential loyalty trigger, and an opportunity to influence future food purchasing behavior.

The Paytronix findings reveal three important developments: higher-value denominations are gaining momentum, full-service restaurants are growing their share of gift card activity, and redemption is happening faster.

For restaurant and food retailers, the next step should be connecting those findings to consumer behavior.

Brands must stop thinking in terms of selling a card and start thinking about selling the next food occasion.

The consumer does not think in channel silos. A household may use a restaurant gift card for dinner, purchase fresh-prepared meals at a grocery deli the next evening, and pick up breakfast at a convenience store the following morning.

Every brand needs to remain relevant at the intersection of price, time, flavor, convenience, and service.

Gift cards can help accomplish that objective, but only when they are integrated into an ongoing customer engagement strategy.

Three Grocerant Guru® Insights: How Gift Cards Can Help a Brand All Year Long

1. Gift Cards Are Customer Acquisition Tools, Not Just Revenue Tools.

Every gift card represents an opportunity to introduce a new consumer to your brand. The purchaser may already be a loyal customer, but the recipient could be a first-time visitor. Make redemption the beginning of a relationship through loyalty enrollment, personalized offers, and reasons to return.

2. Merchandise Gift Cards Around Food Occasions, Not Just Holidays.

Birthdays, graduations, employee recognition, family meals, sporting events, summer travel, and everyday appreciation create year-round opportunities. Connect gift cards to specific meals, menu bundles, and experiences. Sell the occasion and the food, not simply the denomination.

3. Use Gift Cards to Create Repeat Visits and Increase Customer Lifetime Value.

The initial redemption is only the beginning. Connect gift cards with loyalty programs, mobile ordering, seasonal menu introductions, and targeted promotions. Measure not just cards sold, but redemption, incremental spending, repeat visits, and long-term customer engagement.

The Bottom Line: Gift cards should never be relegated to a holiday display or an occasional promotional campaign. They are a year-round marketing asset. Brands that understand how to turn a gift into a food experience, and that experience into a repeat customer, will be better positioned to grow.

Success Leaves Clues—Are You Ready to Find Yours?

One key insight that continues to drive success is this: "The consumer is dynamic, not static." This principle is the foundation of our work at Foodservice Solutions®, where Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru®, has been helping brands stay relevant in an ever-evolving market.

Want to strengthen your brand’s connection with today’s consumers? Let’s talk. Call 253-759-7869 for more information.

Blue Apron, the Meal Kit Wake-Up Call: When the Customer Changes, the Business Model Must Follow

2026-11-11T00:11:00.000-08:00

There is an important distinction in the latest Blue Apron story that the food industry should not overlook: Blue Apron did not file for bankruptcy. Its major meal-kit fulfillment supplier, FreshRealm, did. That distinction matters, but the consequences for Blue Apron customers, the meal-kit category and the future of home meal solutions are significant.

In 2026, the FreshRealm bankruptcy exposed just how vulnerable a food brand can become when its customer promise depends on a third-party supply chain. Blue Apron and Marley Spoon customers experienced missing ingredients, incomplete boxes and delivery interruptions as fulfillment operations changed hands.

For the Grocerant Guru®, this is bigger than a supplier bankruptcy. It is a case study in customer migration, brand relevance, convenience, operational execution and the importance of understanding what consumers actually want today.

Blue Apron helped pioneer the modern meal-kit business in the United States. Since its launch in 2012, the company says it has delivered more than 600 million meals. But being an industry pioneer does not guarantee a permanent place at the consumer's dinner table.

The central lesson: Consumers do not owe a brand their loyalty. Brands must continually earn it.

The food facts: The meal-kit market is changing, not disappearing

The numbers tell an important story. Meal-kit companies are operating in a much larger food marketplace than the traditional subscription box category.

Consider these independently identifiable industry data points:

· 2024 – A $12.8 billion opportunity: Euromonitor data published by Canada's Agriculture and Agri-Food department estimated U.S. food-kit retail sales at $12.85 billion in 2024. Meal kits represented approximately $7.83 billion of that total. These are estimates, not audited company revenues.

· 2024 – The post-pandemic correction: Meal kits had grown at a 28% annual rate from 2019 through 2023, but the category's momentum slowed as consumers returned to other eating occasions, faced higher ingredient prices and rediscovered grocery shopping.

· 2025 – Consumers still see potential value: A Harris Poll food and beverage report found that 73% of U.S. adults considered meal-kit subscriptions a luxury purchase. Yet 47% of meal-kit subscribers agreed that cooking at home was more expensive than subscribing. That contrast is important: perceived affordability and actual household value are not necessarily the same thing.

· 2026 – Price is a competitive vulnerability: Technomic's 2026 Emerging Channels research reported that 39% of consumers had reduced meal-kit usage because of expense. It also found that value was more important than quality in this emerging channel.

The message is clear. Consumers like the idea of meal kits, but liking a concept and buying it repeatedly are two very different things.

The competitive set has also expanded. Meal kits are competing with grocery deli meals, prepared refrigerated entrees, restaurant takeout, drive-thru, delivery, warehouse-club family meals and ready-to-heat products.

The consumer is not shopping by industry classification. The consumer is shopping for dinner.

That is the Grocerant Niche in action: consumers migrate between foodservice and retail channels to find the right combination of price, quality, convenience, portability and service.

Blue Apron: Five things they got right

Blue Apron deserves credit for several important innovations. Its history offers lessons that other food companies should study.

1. They helped create a new food category.

Blue Apron helped popularize the modern meal-kit experience in the United States beginning in 2012. It gave consumers an alternative to conventional grocery shopping and restaurant dining.

It transformed recipes, ingredients and home cooking into a delivered food experience. That was an important innovation.

2. They sold more than ingredients; they sold inspiration.

Pre-portioned ingredients and chef-designed recipes helped remove some of the uncertainty from home cooking.

Consumers were buying a dinner solution, but they were also buying culinary confidence, variety and an opportunity to prepare something different.

3. They recognized the importance of premium ingredients and food quality.

A meal kit cannot simply be a box of groceries. The promise must include freshness, flavor, consistency and an appealing finished meal.

A 2024 academic study published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management identified convenience, price and food quality as important drivers of consumer attitudes toward meal-kit services.

4. They built brand recognition and consumer trust.

Blue Apron became a recognizable name in a relatively new food category. Its reported delivery of more than 600 million meals since 2012 illustrates the scale of consumer trial it achieved.

That kind of brand awareness is an asset, even when a company must change its operating model.

5. They eventually recognized that the traditional subscription model needed to evolve.

This is particularly important.

In August 2025, Blue Apron introduced a subscription-free shopping experience, expanded its menu to more than 100 meals per week and introduced three distinct offerings:

· Dish by Blue Apron: prepared meals ready in as little as five minutes.

· Assemble & Bake: meals requiring five minutes or less of hands-on preparation.

· Traditional meal kits: ingredients and recipes for consumers who still want to cook.

Blue Apron also introduced greater menu customization and a permanent selection of customer favorites.

That was a meaningful acknowledgment that customers' needs had changed.

Six things the meal-kit business got wrong

These are strategic criticisms of the traditional meal-kit model and the industry's vulnerabilities, not allegations that every problem applied equally to Blue Apron.

1. They confused subscription convenience with customer convenience.

A weekly subscription may be convenient for the company, but it is not necessarily convenient for the customer.

Consumers have changing schedules, different appetites, unexpected travel, changing family needs and unpredictable work commitments.

A food company should not expect customers to organize their lives around a delivery calendar.

2. They underestimated the competition from grocery stores.

Grocery retailers were never simply suppliers of ingredients.

They have increasingly become competitors in prepared meals, fresh deli offerings, heat-and-eat dinners, meal bundles and ready-to-cook solutions.

The U.S. food-kit market was already estimated at $12.85 billion in 2024, while ready-meal sales were estimated at $28.46 billion. Those are two distinct but increasingly competitive food solutions.

Meal-kit companies must compete with the entire dinner marketplace, not just other subscription companies.

3. They allowed price to become a barrier to repeat purchases.

The Harris Poll's 73% luxury perception and Technomic's 39% usage reduction due to expense demonstrate the problem.

Consumers may enjoy the experience but still decide the price is too high for routine use.

The Price-Value-Service Equilibrium matters. Price alone does not establish value. Portion size, ingredient quality, preparation time, delivery fees, freshness and convenience all influence the consumer's calculation.

4. They made the customer do too much work.

Traditional meal kits still require planning, unpacking, refrigeration, preparation, cooking and cleanup.

For some consumers, that is precisely the experience they want.

For others, it is another chore.

The category must recognize that the consumer who wants a 35-minute cooking experience on Sunday may want a five-minute dinner on Wednesday.

5. They exposed the brand to serious supply-chain concentration risk.

This is where the 2026 FreshRealm bankruptcy becomes especially important.

FreshRealm's bankruptcy filing in April 2026 revealed that it had entered into a 10-year production and fulfillment agreement with Blue Apron. The bankruptcy declaration also described approximately 70,000 boxes per week being packed and shipped for Blue Apron and Marley Spoon combined.

A brand can own the customer relationship and still lose control of the customer experience when it depends too heavily on another company's manufacturing, inventory and distribution.

6. They did not always adapt quickly enough to customer migration.

Consumers have not stopped wanting convenient meals. They have more ways to get them.

They can purchase prepared food at a supermarket, pick up a restaurant meal, order delivery, buy a warehouse-club family dinner or heat a refrigerated entree.

The mistake is assuming that the customer who once purchased a meal kit will continue to do so simply because the brand has a recognizable name.

Brand recognition is not a substitute for relevance.

Four things meal-kit companies must do to survive

The future belongs to companies that understand consumers are dynamic, not static. Here are four strategic imperatives.

1. Sell meals, not subscriptions.

Subscription should be an option, not an obligation.

Give consumers the ability to purchase individual meals, family bundles, prepared entrees, meal kits and add-ons.

Blue Apron's 2025 relaunch was a step in this direction. The industry should take notice.

The winning formula is to make purchasing easier, not make canceling harder.

2. Embrace the full Grocerant Niche.

Stop thinking exclusively about meal kits.

Think about the entire spectrum of fresh prepared food:

· Ready-to-eat meals.

· Heat-and-eat entrees.

· Ready-to-cook meal kits.

· Partially prepared family meals.

· Protein-forward meals.

· Breakfast and lunch solutions.

· Snacks, sides and beverages.

The opportunity is to serve more eating occasions throughout the week.

Technomic's 2026 research identifies ready-to-heat meal kits as an opportunity for expansion. Its findings also indicate that grocery stores and wholesale clubs remain important sourcing channels, while restaurants show the highest expected growth in meal-kit usage.

That is customer migration across channels. Smart brands follow the consumer.

3. Protect the customer experience from the supply chain.

Food safety, ingredient quality, accurate fulfillment, temperature control and delivery reliability are not back-office issues.

They are brand promises.

Meal-kit companies should develop:

· Multiple qualified suppliers for critical ingredients.

· Backup manufacturing and fulfillment capacity.

· Real-time inventory visibility.

· Strong food-safety verification.

· Delivery recovery and customer communication systems.

FreshRealm's bankruptcy demonstrates why operational resilience must be part of brand strategy.

A missing ingredient is not simply an inventory problem. It is a missing part of someone's dinner.

4. Deliver measurable Price-Value-Service Equilibrium.

Consumers must believe that the meal is worth what they pay.

That means balancing:

· Price: Is it affordable enough for repeat purchases?

· Quality: Are the ingredients and finished meal worth the money?

· Convenience: Does it save meaningful time and effort?

· Service: Does the order arrive complete, fresh and when promised?

· Portability: Can the consumer easily take the meal wherever life takes them?

Meal-kit companies need to compete against the total cost and effort of alternative dinner solutions.

A $15 meal kit is not automatically a bargain because a restaurant entree costs $20. The consumer also considers delivery fees, additional ingredients, preparation time and cleanup.

Value must be demonstrated, not advertised.

Three Grocerant Guru® insights: Customer migration and brand relevance

Insight No. 1: Customers migrate to solutions, not industry categories.

A consumer does not wake up thinking, "Today I will purchase from the meal-kit industry."

They wake up thinking about what they want to eat, how much time they have and how much they want to spend.

One evening they purchase a restaurant meal. The next evening they buy a grocery deli dinner. Another night they prepare a meal kit.

The brands that understand this migration will capture more eating occasions.

Insight No. 2: Brand relevance is earned at the intersection of price, time and convenience.

Blue Apron built a recognizable brand around cooking at home. But the consumer's definition of convenience evolved.

Some consumers want to cook. Others want to assemble. Others want dinner ready in five minutes.

A brand that refuses to change its offerings risks becoming less relevant, regardless of its history.

Insight No. 3: Customer focus is the ultimate competitive advantage.

The most important question for every meal-kit executive is not, "How do we sell more boxes?"

It is, "How do we become the consumer's preferred solution for more meals, more often?"

That requires listening, measuring, innovating and delivering.

The consumer does not care whether dinner comes from a restaurant, grocery store, convenience store, warehouse club or meal-kit company. The consumer cares about the experience and the value received.

That is why there are no silos in the consumer's mind.

The Grocerant Guru® bottom line

Blue Apron is not a bankruptcy story. It is a brand evolution story occurring alongside a significant supplier bankruptcy that exposed the vulnerabilities of the meal-kit supply chain.

Blue Apron's 2025 transformation demonstrated an understanding that flexibility and convenience matter. FreshRealm's 2026 bankruptcy demonstrated that operational execution matters just as much.

The meal-kit category has a future, but the traditional subscription box cannot be its only future.

The next generation of winners will not be those companies that sell the most boxes. They will be those that become the most relevant food solution in the consumer's ever-changing daily life.

As I have said for years, consumers are dynamic, not static. Food companies that understand customer migration, rather than defend outdated business models, will be better positioned to grow.

Elevate Your Brand with Expert Insights

For corporate presentations, regional chain strategies, educational forums, or keynote speaking, Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru®, delivers actionable insights that fuel success.

With deep experience in restaurant operations, brand positioning, and strategic consulting, Steven provides valuable takeaways that inspire and drive results.

Visit GrocerantGuru.com or FoodserviceSolutions.US Call 1-253-759-7869

Building

Share of Stomach

POPEYES HAS A CHICKEN PROBLEM: SEVEN MISSTEPS, A PRICE-VALUE GAP, AND A BRAND THAT NEEDS TO REMEMBER WHO IT SERVES

2026-11-10T00:10:00.000-08:00

Popeyes built a powerful position in America's chicken QSR market by delivering something consumers could recognize, crave, talk about, and return to: bold Louisiana-inspired flavor, distinctive chicken, and a brand personality that was anything but ordinary.

But brand recognition is not the same as brand momentum. And a famous chicken sandwich cannot carry an entire restaurant company indefinitely according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Popeyes, owned by Restaurant Brands International (RBI), is learning that lesson the hard way.

The latest financial results tell an important story. For the third quarter of 2026, Popeyes U.S. comparable sales declined 2.2%. That marked seven consecutive quarters of declining U.S. comparable sales. The decline did moderate from negative 6.5% in Q1 and negative 5.2% in Q2, but the anticipated return to positive sales growth did not materialize.

Globally, Popeyes comparable sales declined 1.8%, while U.S. comparable sales declined 2.2%. That distinction matters when evaluating the brand's performance.

CEO Josh Kobza acknowledged that the turnaround would take longer than previously anticipated. Meanwhile, management is adjusting its menu, revisiting value promotions, simplifying operations, and putting renewed attention into marketing.

Here is the bigger problem: Popeyes appears to be working on the restaurant it wants to operate rather than consistently delivering the experience consumers want to purchase.

From the perspective of the Grocerant Guru®, that is a dangerous distinction.

SEVEN POPEYES MISSTEPS THAT NEED ATTENTION

1. Losing sight of the consumer while concentrating on internal operations

This is the biggest mistake.

Consumers do not organize their food decisions around corporate operating structures, menu complexity, labor models, or franchisee reporting systems. They organize decisions around appetite, convenience, price, quality, time, and perceived value.

Popeyes can simplify its kitchen, but consumers still expect choices, excitement, flavor, and a compelling reason to return.

Operational efficiency is important. Consumer relevance is essential.

The brand needs to start asking a different question: What does the consumer want next, rather than what is easiest for Popeyes to produce?

2. Allowing price to get out of line with perceived value

Price, Value, Service Equilibrium matters.

Consumers evaluate the entire transaction, not simply the price printed beside an individual chicken sandwich.

They consider portion size, food quality, taste, sides, beverages, service, convenience, and how the meal fits their budget.

Popeyes has allowed its price positioning to become vulnerable. When a consumer perceives that a competing chicken meal offers more food, better convenience, or a more attractive complete-meal proposition for the money, brand loyalty can quickly become conditional.

The recurring $6 Big Box demonstrates the challenge. Management said the September 2026 promotion delivered less incremental sales than anticipated.

A low advertised price does not automatically create incremental visits. The offer must be compelling enough to change a consumer's purchase decision.

Popeyes needs everyday value consumers can understand, not just occasional promotional pricing.

3. Treating menu simplification as a consumer benefit without adequately considering consumer demand

Popeyes is deliberately scaling back its wings offering because management believes wings create operational complexity.

There is a legitimate operational argument here. Too many ingredients, sauces, preparation procedures, and inventory requirements can complicate restaurant execution.

But there is another side.

Wings have demonstrated their ability to generate excitement, attract customers, encourage add-on purchases, and create reasons to visit outside traditional chicken sandwich occasions.

Popeyes previously reported strong results from its Ghost Pepper Wings and Sweet 'N Spicy Wings. The Sweet 'N Spicy launch was described by the company as its most popular menu item since the 2019 chicken sandwich launch.

That is not an insignificant achievement.

The lesson: Do not confuse an operationally complicated product with a product consumers do not want.

The answer may be a more focused wing platform, fewer sauces, better inventory management, or limited-time flavor rotations. Eliminating consumer excitement should not be the first solution.

4. Failing to build a sustainable value platform

The $6 Big Box has returned repeatedly, including in 2022, 2024, and 2025, with its earlier roots as the $5 Bonafide Big Box in 2014.

That history illustrates an important marketing problem: repeating a promotional price is not the same as building a value strategy.

Consumers need to understand what they get, why it is worth the money, and whether they can count on that value.

Popeyes should develop a clear good-better-best architecture, with accessible individual items, complete meals, family bundles, and add-on opportunities.

A value platform should encourage frequency and larger transactions without teaching consumers that the brand is only worth visiting when a discount appears.

5. Losing marketing continuity and accountability

Popeyes dismissed Chief Marketing Officer Matt Rubin after approximately one year in the role.

President Peter Perdue subsequently indicated that he would devote a significant amount of his attention to marketing.

Leadership involvement can be beneficial, but a brand cannot continually rebuild its marketing direction every time sales disappoint.

Popeyes need’s consistent consumer research, a recognizable brand voice, disciplined campaign measurement, and a marketing calendar that connects new products, everyday value, digital engagement, and restaurant execution.

Marketing is not simply advertising. It is the process of creating and sustaining reasons for consumers to choose the brand.

6. Depending too heavily on the chicken sandwich legacy

The 2019 chicken sandwich launch was a landmark moment for Popeyes. It generated enormous attention and helped establish the brand as a formidable competitor in the chicken sandwich conversation.

But a successful launch is not a permanent growth strategy.

Consumers evolve. Their appetites, budgets, schedules, dining occasions, and expectations change.

Popeyes needs to create more reasons to visit beyond one signature sandwich.

Bone-in chicken, tenders, wings, family meals, snacks, sides, beverages, and portable meal combinations all have roles to play.

The objective should be to increase occasions and frequency, not simply defend a product that already has substantial brand recognition.

7. Underestimating the importance of consistent execution across the entire experience

Popeyes has made improvements in service satisfaction, but there is still work to do.

A consumer's experience does not begin and end with the chicken. It includes ordering, accuracy, speed, temperature, packaging, pickup, delivery, and the condition of the meal when it reaches the table.

A great product delivered incorrectly, late, or at an inconvenient time is not a great experience.

The brand must make its restaurant operations support its marketing promises. A national campaign that generates trial but is not consistently delivered at the restaurant level can create disappointment rather than loyalty.

Popeyes needs to remember that consumers buy an experience, not an operating model.

THREE THINGS POPEYES STILL GETS RIGHT

Despite the problems, writing off Popeyes would be a mistake. The brand has meaningful assets that competitors would like to own.

1. Its core chicken remains a competitive advantage

Management reported that satisfaction with Popeyes' core chicken was at its highest level on record.

That matters. It suggests the brand has not lost its food identity. Its bone-in chicken, tenders, and sandwich remain important foundations.

Popeyes should build on those strengths rather than continually searching for another headline-grabbing product.

2. Service satisfaction is improving

There is encouraging evidence that operational improvements are beginning to reach consumers.

According to management's October 29 earnings-call comments, Popeyes was the only brand in the chicken category to deliver year-over-year improvements in overall service satisfaction in each of the first three quarters of 2026.

Management also cited meaningful gains in value-for-money perceptions and food quality.

That is progress worth protecting. Better service can help convert occasional trial into repeat business.

3. Popeyes has international growth potential and a recognizable brand platform

Popeyes is not simply a domestic chicken chain. Its international business has substantial scale and opportunity.

Management reported that Popeyes International had reached approximately $2 billion in systemwide sales across more than 2,000 restaurants.

The Louisiana-inspired positioning, recognizable flavor profile, and established brand identity provide a foundation for international expansion.

The opportunity is to translate that identity into locally relevant food experiences without losing what makes Popeyes distinctive.

PRICE, VALUE, SERVICE: THE EQUATION POPEYES MUST REBALANCE

The Grocerant Guru® has long emphasized that consumers make food decisions at the intersection of price, time, and flavor.

For Popeyes, the equation must include service as well.

· Price: Is the transaction affordable and competitive?

· Value: Does the consumer believe the food, portions, and experience justify the money?

· Service: Is the experience dependable, accurate, and convenient?

· Flavor: Does the food deliver the distinctive taste that created the brand's following?

· Time: Can consumers obtain the meal when and where they want it?

Price cannot be managed in isolation.

A $6 promotional meal may attract attention, but if it does not create incremental transactions, it has not solved the marketing problem. Conversely, raising prices without delivering a corresponding improvement in perceived value risks pushing consumers toward competitors.

Popeyes needs to think beyond individual menu prices. It needs to merchandise complete solutions: lunch, dinner, family meals, snacks, portable combinations, and take-home occasions.

That includes takeout, drive-thru, delivery, and digital ordering. These are not separate consumer markets in people's minds. They are different ways to solve the same food need.

The challenge is to make Popeyes relevant across those occasions.

THE BIGGER LESSON: A BRAND MUST BE DYNAMIC, NOT STATIC

Popeyes does not need to abandon its identity. It needs to evolve its relevance.

The 2019 chicken sandwich demonstrated what happens when product, cultural conversation, marketing, and consumer excitement intersect. But brands cannot live indefinitely on yesterday's success.

Burger King's recent performance inside the same parent company offers an interesting comparison. RBI reported U.S. comparable-sales growth of 8.4% at Burger King in Q3 2026, against Popeyes' 2.2% decline.

That does not mean the two brands have identical challenges. It does demonstrate that consumer-facing menu improvements, value positioning, marketing, and restaurant investments can produce very different outcomes within one corporate portfolio.

Securities and Exchange Commission+1

Popeyes needs to stop treating the turnaround primarily as an exercise in menu reduction and operational efficiency.

It needs to put the consumer back at the center of the business.

THREE INSIGHTS FROM THE GROCERANT GURU®

1. Consumers, not kitchens, determine the future of a restaurant brand.

Operational simplification is valuable only when it improves the consumer experience. Never eliminate a popular product simply because it is inconvenient to manage without first exploring ways to operate it more effectively. Consumer demand should inform operational decisions.

2. Price is not value, and discounts are not a marketing strategy.

Popeyes must rebuild its Price-Value-Service Equilibrium. Consumers want good food, generous portions, dependable service, convenience, and prices that make sense. A $6 box is an offer. A compelling everyday value proposition is a strategy.

3. Dynamic brands grow by creating new occasions, not protecting old successes.

The chicken sandwich created a tremendous opportunity for Popeyes. The next opportunity is to connect bone-in chicken, tenders, wings, wraps, sides, beverages, and complete meals to evolving consumer needs. Think takeout, drive-thru, delivery, snacks, lunch, dinner, and family meals. More relevant occasions create more opportunities for frequency, transactions, and average check growth.

The Grocerant Guru® bottom line: Popeyes still has the food, the brand recognition, and the international footprint to compete aggressively. What it needs now is sharper consumer focus, more disciplined price-value positioning, consistent marketing leadership, and a willingness to evolve with the customer.

Brands are dynamic, not static. Popeyes needs to prove it understands that before another seven quarters go by.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideas 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

The Grocery Deli Wake-Up Call: Stop Selling Cold Cuts and Start Winning Dinner!

2026-11-09T00:09:00.000-08:00

Why 2025 and 2026 consumer behavior demands a new approach to fresh food, meal solutions, pricing, and customer engagement according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Foodservice Solutions® based in Tacoma, Washington

The grocery store service deli is sitting on one of the biggest untapped food marketing opportunities in retail. Yet too many operators continue to manage their deli departments as though consumers are simply looking for sliced turkey, potato salad, a pound of ham, or a rotisserie chicken.

That thinking is outdated.

Today's consumers are looking for solutions to a much bigger question: What's for dinner, how much will it cost, and how quickly can I get it on the table?

The grocery service deli should be answering that question every day.

The opportunity is bigger than selling fresh food. It is about capturing meal occasions, increasing transaction value, building repeat visits, and competing directly with restaurants, takeout, delivery, convenience stores, and other retailers.

This is where the Grocerant Niche comes into play. Ready-2-Eat (RTE) and Heat-N-Eat (HnE) fresh-prepared foods are no longer peripheral grocery offerings. They are increasingly important components of how consumers assemble meals across channels.

The challenge for grocers is that consumer expectations have evolved faster than many service deli operating models.

The 2025–2026 Numbers: The Consumer Has Already Changed

Consider several findings that should be influencing every grocery deli executive's merchandising, pricing, and marketing decisions.

1. Grocery-prepared foods are taking restaurant occasions.

FMI's October 2025 Power of Foodservice at Retail research found that the share of consumers choosing deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals more than doubled, increasing from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. Furthermore, 53% of Americans reported combining deli-prepared foods with items from their own kitchens to create meals.

That is a significant change. Consumers are not necessarily choosing between cooking and buying a meal. They are combining the two.

2. In 2026, meal solutions are more important than individual products.

FMI's October 2026 research found that 56% of households combine home preparation with food prepared outside the home for dinner at least once a week. Grocery retailers have an opportunity to sell the protein, sides, vegetables, sauces, and accompaniments that complete a meal.

3. Shoppers are under pressure to manage food budgets.

FMI's 2026 shopper research reports that 70% of shoppers say their income has not kept pace with inflation. At the same time, 44% report having more family meals at home than a year earlier, and 35% say they are cooking more often.

This creates an opportunity for deli operators, but it also creates a pricing challenge. A prepared meal must demonstrate why its convenience, quality, and portion size justify its price.

4. Convenience is still a powerful purchase motivator.

Circana's 2026 Eating Patterns in America research found that 86% of food occasions are sourced from home. Consumers are increasingly balancing convenience, nutrition, cost, and connection. The report also identifies protein and convenience as important forces shaping eating behavior.

The takeaway is straightforward: grocery operators should stop thinking exclusively about deli department sales and start thinking about the share of stomach they can capture.

Four Disconnects Holding Grocery Service Delis Back

1. Service Failures Cost More Than a Single Transaction

A deli counter with inadequate staffing, long lines, inconsistent availability, and employees who cannot explain the menu is not delivering convenience.

Consumers may be willing to pay for someone else to prepare dinner, but they are not eager to spend 15 minutes waiting to purchase it.

Imagine a customer entering at 5:30 p.m. looking for a roasted chicken, two sides, and a dessert. If the chicken is sold out, the sides are poorly stocked, and nobody can provide an alternative, the retailer has lost more than a chicken sale. It may have lost the entire dinner occasion.

The answer is to schedule labor around actual purchasing patterns, not simply traditional department hours. FMI's 2026 research found that half of same-day dinner decisions occur between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. That is when the deli needs to be ready.

2. Confusing Pricing Destroys Perceived Value

Pricing is not simply a matter of matching the competition. It is about demonstrating value.

A $9.99 rotisserie chicken may appear attractive, but a family purchasing that chicken, two prepared sides, rolls, and dessert needs to understand the total cost of dinner.

Retailers should display complete meal prices, serving sizes, and individual component prices. Consumers need to see what they receive, not discover the final cost at checkout.

A deli that charges premium prices without communicating premium ingredients, preparation, freshness, portion size, or convenience risks losing the consumer.

Price without context creates resistance. Price accompanied by a clear value proposition creates an opportunity.

3. Poor Merchandising Makes Fresh Food Look Anything But Fresh

Fresh food sells with the eyes before it sells with the appetite.

Empty trays, dried-out sandwiches, unattractive salads, inconsistent labeling, and displays that look neglected undermine consumer confidence.

Consider the difference between displaying a container of pasta salad and merchandising a complete Mediterranean-inspired meal with grilled chicken, pasta salad, roasted vegetables, and a complementary sauce.

The ingredients may be identical. The consumer proposition is entirely different.

Merchandising should communicate freshness, flavor, meal possibilities, and convenience.

4. Generic Packaging Sacrifices Brand Equity

A clear plastic container is functional. It is not necessarily memorable.

Packaging should tell consumers what they are buying, why it tastes good, how much it serves, and how to enjoy it.

Imagine branded packaging for a store's signature Nashville hot chicken, Mediterranean grain bowl, Asian-inspired noodle salad, or smoked barbecue brisket.

Add a product name, preparation story, ingredient information, reheating instructions, and a recognizable visual identity.

A retailer should want customers to return specifically for its food, not merely because they happened to be shopping for milk.

The 2026 reputation challenge: FMI found that only about one-third of shoppers could identify a deli-prepared food item for which their primary grocery store was known. That is a major branding opportunity waiting to be captured.

Eight Strategies to Rebuild the Grocery Service Deli

The following strategies move the department away from a traditional counter-service mentality and toward a consumer-focused fresh-food business.

1. Sell Complete Meal Solutions, Not Isolated Products

Develop meal combinations for different household sizes, budgets, and occasions.

Examples include:

· Two-person dinner: Rotisserie chicken breast, roasted potatoes, and green beans.

· Family dinner: Whole roasted chicken, macaroni and cheese, salad, and rolls.

· Game-day gathering: Wings, sliders, potato skins, dips, and desserts.

· Quick weekday dinner: Heat-and-eat lasagna, garlic bread, and Caesar salad.

· Global flavors: Korean-style chicken, rice, vegetables, and sauces.

Offer individual components as well as bundled combinations. Consumers want choices, not mandatory packages.

2. Establish Transparent and Consistent Pricing

Display prices prominently. Offer good, better, and best meal combinations.

For example, a retailer might offer an entry-level meal for two, a larger family meal, and a premium specialty meal.

Use actual food costs and local competitive conditions to establish prices. Do not assume every customer wants the cheapest option. Many want the best combination of price, quality, portion size, and convenience.

This is where the Grocerant Guru's Price Value Service Equilibrium becomes important: price, quality, social relevance, and portability all contribute to perceived value.

3. Staff for the Consumer's Clock

The traditional 9-to-5 staffing mentality does not work when dinner demand peaks after work.

Use transaction data to identify lunch, afternoon, and evening demand. Cross-train employees to assist with packaging, replenishment, order fulfillment, and customer service.

Offer online ordering and scheduled pickup for larger orders.

Most importantly, keep popular items available during the hours consumers actually want them.

4. Create Signature Products Consumers Recognize

Every grocery retailer should have food worth talking about.

A signature fried chicken, regional barbecue, premium sandwich, specialty mac and cheese, or distinctive prepared salad can become a destination product.

Develop a product consumers can identify without looking at the store's name.

That is how a deli begins building its own brand equity.

5. Use Data Analytics to Improve Production and Reduce Waste

Track sales by daypart, item, location, weather, promotion, and season.

Measure:

· Sell-through rates.

· Out-of-stock frequency.

· Food waste and markdowns.

· Gross margin by item.

· Repeat purchases.

· Meal bundle attachment rates.

Use those findings to forecast production and adjust batch sizes.

A deli should not be producing 40 sandwiches simply because it produced 40 yesterday. Consumer demand is dynamic, not static.

6. Build Branded Packaging Around Freshness and Portability

Packaging should reinforce the product's identity and make it easy to transport, store, serve, and reheat.

Include clear preparation instructions, ingredient information, portion details, and appealing product descriptions.

Consider packaging that works for office lunches, family dinners, individual consumption, and on-the-go snacking.

The container is part of the product experience, not just an operating expense.

7. Make Freshness, Food Safety, and Quality Visible

Freshness is a promise that must be supported by operating discipline.

The FDA's September 2026 report on retail deli food safety identified improper holding time and temperature and poor personal hygiene as the two most common out-of-compliance risk factors in its 2019–2022 study.

The FDA also found that delis with a Certified Food Protection Manager present had significantly better food safety management system scores.

Invest in trained managers, temperature monitoring, proper sanitation, product rotation, and documented procedures.

Communicate freshness honestly. A marketing message cannot compensate for inconsistent food safety practices.

8. Turn the Deli Into an Interactive Food Marketing Destination

Sampling, seasonal menus, limited-time offerings, digital promotions, and customer feedback can make the deli more engaging.

Create weekly themes such as:

· Taco Tuesday meal solutions.

· Friday family pizza night.

· Saturday barbecue bundles.

· Sunday comfort-food dinners.

· Seasonal regional specialties.

Encourage customers to vote on upcoming flavors, suggest new sides, and share their favorite combinations.

Use loyalty programs to measure which promotions generate incremental purchases rather than simply discounting products customers would have purchased anyway.

The objective is participation, engagement, and repeat business.

The Bigger Opportunity: Break Down the Grocery Department Silos

One of the biggest mistakes grocery retailers make is managing the deli, bakery, produce, meat, seafood, and center store as separate businesses.

Consumers do not shop that way when deciding what to eat.

A shopper purchasing deli-prepared chicken may also need fresh vegetables, bakery rolls, refrigerated sauces, beverages, and dessert. The retailer should merchandise those products together around the meal occasion.

Consider these combinations:

Meal occasion	Grocery departments working together
Italian night	Deli lasagna, bakery garlic bread, produce salad
Backyard barbecue	Deli ribs, meat department steaks, produce sides
Healthy lunch	Deli grilled chicken, produce vegetables, refrigerated dressing
Family breakfast	Bakery pastries, deli breakfast sandwiches, dairy beverages
Game-day gathering	Deli wings, bakery sliders, produce vegetables and dips

This is cross-merchandising with a purpose. It increases convenience, exposes consumers to additional products, and creates opportunities to increase basket size.

The future belongs to retailers who understand that consumers have no artificial channel or departmental silos in their minds.

Think About This: The Deli Is Competing for Dinner, Not Just Deli Sales

The service deli has an opportunity to become one of the grocery store's most important customer acquisition and retention tools.

But that requires a different mindset.

Grocery retailers must compete with restaurant takeout, drive-thru, convenience stores, delivery services, and other sources of fresh-prepared foods. Consumers compare all of them based on their own expectations of price, quality, convenience, flavor, and service.

The retailer that makes dinner easier, more affordable, and more enjoyable has an opportunity to win.

The 2025 and 2026 FMI research reinforces an important point: consumers are increasingly comfortable combining food prepared by someone else with food prepared at home. That makes the grocery deli a meal-building resource, not simply another department.

The opportunity is to become the consumer's first stop when deciding what to eat.

Three New Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Stop measuring deli success exclusively by department sales.

Measure meal occasions captured, repeat purchases, basket attachment, and customer retention. A rotisserie chicken sale that generates purchases in produce, bakery, beverages, and prepared sides is worth more than the chicken transaction alone. Market the entire meal.

2. Price transparency is the new customer service.

Consumers under financial pressure do not want surprises at checkout. Build clearly priced meal solutions for one, two, and four or more people. Demonstrate the value of fresh preparation, portion size, quality, and convenience. Remember, the lowest price does not always deliver the best value.

3. Every grocery deli needs a signature food identity.

If consumers cannot identify a distinctive food item associated with your grocery brand, you are missing an opportunity to create destination traffic. Develop signature sandwiches, chicken, regional specialties, salads, and complete meals. Give customers something they cannot easily duplicate elsewhere.

The Grocerant Guru® bottom line: Consumers are dynamic, not static. Grocery retailers that continue operating their service delis as traditional sliced-meat counters will surrender meal occasions to competitors. Those that embrace RTE, HnE, foodservice-quality preparation, transparent pricing, and customer-focused merchandising can turn the deli into a genuine competitive advantage.

Steven Johnson is the Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, Washington-based Foodservice Solutions®. Foodservice Solutions® identified and championed the Grocerant Niche beginning in 1991 and coined the term in 1996.

For corporate presentations, regional grocery chain consulting, food marketing strategy, educational forums, and keynote engagements, contact Steven Johnson.

THE GAME IS ON, AND SO IS THE FOOD BUSINESS: Why Winning Game-Day Marketing Is About More Than Wings, Pizza and Nachos

2026-11-08T00:08:00.000-08:00

Sports viewing has become much more than an opportunity to watch a game. It is a food occasion, a social gathering, a retail opportunity and an increasingly important battleground for restaurants, grocery retailers and convenience stores according to Steven Johnson, The Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Whether consumers are watching professional football, basketball, hockey, college sports or international soccer, one thing remains remarkably consistent: food is part of the entertainment.

But the game-day food business is changing. Consumers are no longer satisfied with the same predictable assortment of wings, chips and pizza. They want flavor choices, portability, convenience, customization and, increasingly, an affordable way to feed a group without sacrificing quality.

The Grocerant Guru® has long recognized that consumers do not think in retail channels. They think about what they want to eat, when they want it, where they want it and how much they want to spend.

That creates an enormous opportunity for restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores and other food retailers willing to compete for the same consumer and the same eating occasion.

The 2025 and 2026 food industry data reinforce an important point: Game-day food marketing is no longer just about selling food. It is about owning the occasion.

The Numbers Behind the Game-Day Food Opportunity

Consider several recent industry findings.

· 2026 Chicken Wings: The National Chicken Council projected Americans would consume 1.48 billion chicken wings during Super Bowl LX, approximately 10 million more than the previous year.

· 2025 Restaurant Orders: DoorDash reported more than 639,000 chicken-wing orders and more than 637,000 pizza orders on championship Sunday. Wing orders were nearly 25% higher than on any other day of the year.

· 2026 Grocery Shopping: Instacart reported that Big Game shoppers purchased tortilla chips 106% more often, salsa 96% more often and shelf-stable dips 227% more often than their respective yearly averages.

· 2026 Hosting: Circana reported increased unit sales during the global soccer tournament viewing period, including fresh produce party trays (+1.9%), deli entrees (+1.3%), pretzels (+1.5%) and ready-to-eat popcorn (+1.6%).

· 2025 Grocery Foodservice: FMI reported that consumers choosing grocery deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals increased from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. Additionally, 53% of Americans reported taking a hybrid approach to meals, combining deli-prepared foods with items from their own kitchens.

These numbers tell a compelling story. Consumers are assembling their own food experiences across channels. The retailer or restaurant that makes the occasion easier, tastier and more affordable has an opportunity to win the transaction.

Five Game-Day Food Categories That Deserve Attention

1. Sliders: Small Format, Big Opportunity

Sliders deliver something consumers increasingly appreciate: variety without requiring a full-sized meal.

Think beyond traditional beef and cheddar. Consider:

· Korean barbecue beef sliders with pickled vegetables.

· Nashville hot chicken sliders with creamy slaw.

· Pulled pork sliders with sweet barbecue sauce.

· Crispy fish sliders with spicy tartar sauce.

· Plant-forward mushroom and cheese sliders.

Sliders allow consumers to sample several flavors without committing to one large sandwich.

For grocery retailers, sliders can be sold in ready-to-heat party packs. Restaurants can offer six-, twelve- or twenty-four-piece assortments. Convenience stores can merchandise smaller individual portions alongside beverages and snacks.

The marketing opportunity is not simply the slider. It is the ability to sell variety, convenience and shareability in one package.

2. Chicken Wings: The Flavor Playground

Chicken wings remain a game-day heavyweight, but consumers increasingly have opportunities to explore different flavor profiles.

Buffalo, honey garlic, Korean gochujang, Nashville hot, lemon pepper, sweet chili and Caribbean jerk provide opportunities to create distinctive assortments.

The 2026 National Chicken Council projection of 1.48 billion wings demonstrates the enormous scale of the occasion.

However, operators should not assume that every customer wants the same wing experience.

Offer bone-in and boneless selections, tenders, chicken bites and sauce flights. Include a choice of dipping sauces and cooling accompaniments.

Grocery deli departments can compete with restaurants by offering hot wings, refrigerated prepared wings and heat-and-eat assortments. Restaurants can differentiate themselves through signature sauces and consistent preparation.

The winning strategy is to sell a flavor experience rather than simply selling a dozen wings.

3. Nachos: Build Your Own Food Experience

Nachos are an ideal game-day platform because they allow consumers to customize their food.

Traditional tortilla chips, queso, jalapeños and salsa remain relevant. But the opportunity expands considerably when operators add:

· Barbecue pulled pork.

· Birria beef.

· Buffalo chicken.

· Street corn.

· Black beans and roasted vegetables.

· Fresh pico de gallo.

· Guacamole and specialty cheeses.

Consider a nacho flight featuring three smaller flavor combinations instead of one enormous platter.

This creates opportunities for incremental purchases and gives consumers something to discuss and share.

For food retailers, ingredient merchandising can make nachos a cross-category opportunity. Chips, deli proteins, cheese, salsa, guacamole and beverages can all become part of one game-day purchase.

4. Pizza: The Reliable Crowd Pleaser Needs Reinvention

Pizza remains a natural choice for sports viewing because it is familiar, portable, shareable and easy to order.

But pizza operators should not confuse familiarity with consumer loyalty.

Consumers have choices ranging from national pizza chains and independent restaurants to supermarket take-and-bake products and refrigerated prepared pizzas.

Consider expanding beyond traditional pepperoni:

· Hot honey pepperoni.

· Buffalo chicken and blue cheese.

· Barbecue brisket.

· Mediterranean vegetable.

· Spicy sausage and roasted peppers.

· Korean barbecue chicken.

Smaller specialty pizzas, half-and-half combinations and pizza bundles provide additional opportunities.

DoorDash's 2025 championship Sunday data, showing more than 637,000 pizza orders, demonstrates how significant the occasion can be for delivery operators.

The lesson is straightforward: consumers want pizza, but operators still need to earn the order through price, quality, convenience and differentiation.

5. Dips, Chips and Snack Boards: The Incremental Sales Engine

Never underestimate the power of the dip.

Instacart's 2026 Big Game research found that shelf-stable dip purchasing was 227% above its yearly average. Tortilla chips were 106% higher, while salsa purchases increased 96%.

These are substantial occasion-driven purchasing differences.

Traditional guacamole, queso, French onion and salsa remain important. However, food retailers should also consider:

· Buffalo chicken dip.

· Smoked jalapeño queso.

· Whipped feta.

· Roasted red pepper hummus.

· Street corn dip.

· Spinach artichoke dip.

· Specialty dessert dips with pretzels and fruit.

The opportunity extends beyond individual products.

Create complete snack boards combining cheeses, charcuterie, crackers, vegetables, dips, nuts and sweet treats.

Grocery stores can assemble ready-to-serve boards. Convenience stores can offer smaller snack combinations. Restaurants can create appetizer packages designed specifically for delivery and pickup.

The objective is to turn several small purchases into one larger, more satisfying food occasion.

The Next Generation of Game-Day Food Marketing

The traditional game-day menu is evolving. Successful operators need to recognize that consumers want different combinations of food depending on the game, the gathering and the time available.

Here are four strategies worth implementing.

1. Sell the Occasion, Not Just the Individual Menu Item

A dozen wings is a product. A complete game-day package is a solution.

Create packages that combine:

· Wings and sliders.

· Pizza and salad.

· Nachos and specialty dips.

· Chicken tenders and multiple sauces.

· Snack boards and desserts.

Offer packages for two, four, six and ten people.

The objective is to simplify purchasing while increasing the overall transaction.

A consumer who might purchase one pizza could be persuaded to purchase a complete food package when the value is clear.

2. Make Price, Value and Convenience Work Together

Affordability matters.

Wells Fargo's 2026 Super Bowl food report estimated that hosting ten people would cost approximately $140, compared with $138 in 2025.

That is approximately $14 per person.

This demonstrates the importance of giving consumers an affordable way to entertain without making the food experience feel inexpensive.

Restaurants should communicate what a package feeds, what is included and how much consumers save compared with ordering individually.

Grocery retailers should compare ready-to-eat, heat-and-eat and assemble-at-home options.

Convenience stores should emphasize smaller packages and immediate consumption.

Remember the Grocerant Guru's Price Value Service Equilibrium: consumers evaluate price, quality, convenience and the overall experience together.

The lowest price does not automatically win.

3. Embrace Flavor Exploration and Customization

Consumers want familiar foods with interesting twists.

A traditional chicken wing can become a Korean barbecue experience. A pizza can become a hot honey specialty. A nacho platter can become a birria-inspired meal.

This is where limited-time offers become valuable.

Create seasonal and regional flavor combinations that give consumers a reason to purchase now rather than later.

For example, a football rivalry could inspire two competing wing flavors. A hockey promotion could feature a hat-trick sampler with three sauces. An international soccer tournament could introduce regional food combinations reflecting participating countries.

The key is to connect food innovation to consumer participation rather than relying exclusively on team logos and advertising.

4. Connect Grocery, Restaurants and Convenience Retail

One of the most important opportunities is the elimination of traditional food retail silos.

The 2025 FMI research showing that 28% of consumers had replaced restaurant meals with grocery deli-prepared foods illustrates the competitive shift.

A grocery retailer can compete with a restaurant through freshly prepared wings, pizza, sliders and party trays.

A convenience store can compete through hot sandwiches, chicken, pizza, snack combinations and prepared beverages.

A restaurant can compete through family packs, delivery bundles and pickup promotions.

Consumers are not necessarily loyal to a channel. They are loyal to the solution that best meets their needs.

The Grocerant Niche is particularly relevant here. Fresh-prepared, ready-to-eat and heat-and-eat foods allow retailers and restaurants to compete for the same consumer occasions.

Beverages and Desserts: Don't Leave Money on the Table

Game-day food marketing should not stop with the main course.

Beverages and desserts provide important opportunities to increase the average transaction.

Consider pairing:

· Buffalo wings with lemonade, iced tea or flavored sparkling water.

· Spicy sliders with citrus beverages.

· Pizza with specialty sodas.

· Nachos with fresh fruit beverages.

· Snack boards with cookies, brownies and bite-sized desserts.

Nonalcoholic beverage choices deserve particular attention. Flavored lemonades, sparkling waters, mocktails and specialty iced teas can broaden the appeal of a game-day package.

Desserts should also be designed for sharing. Mini cheesecakes, cookie assortments, brownie bites and chocolate-dipped treats can complete a party package.

The point is simple: consumers purchasing food for a gathering are often purchasing more than one eating occasion.

Three New Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Own the Occasion, Not the Channel.

The consumer does not care whether the wings come from a restaurant, the grocery deli or a convenience store. They care about flavor, quality, price and convenience. Retailers that compete across channels for the same eating occasion will discover new customer acquisition opportunities.

2. Customization Creates Incremental Revenue.

One flavor of wings is a transaction. Four flavors, three dipping sauces and a shareable side create an experience. Consumers appreciate choices, and operators can use customization to differentiate their offerings, increase average checks and encourage repeat purchases.

3. Convenience Without Value Is a Losing Proposition.

Consumers will pay for convenience, but they expect something in return. Quality, portion size, flavor, portability and price must work together. The brands that understand the intersection of price, time and flavor will be better positioned to attract and retain customers.

The Bottom Line

Sports viewing is not simply a television audience opportunity. It is a recurring food marketing opportunity that crosses restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores and other retail formats.

Consumers are dynamic, not static. Their expectations, eating habits and purchasing decisions continue to evolve.

Brands that continue selling yesterday's game-day menu without understanding today's consumer risk losing tomorrow's transaction.

The game may be decided on the field, but the food business is decided by the consumer.

Steven Johnson, The Grocerant Guru®, is the founder of Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, Washington, recognized for identifying the Grocerant Niche in 1996. Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development, identifying, quantifying and qualifying additional food retail segment opportunities, new menu product segments, and brand and menu integration strategies.

Amazon’s $25 Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner: A Customer Acquisition Masterstroke or a Warning Shot Across the Food Industry?

2026-11-07T00:07:00.000-08:00

The Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson examines customer migration, food marketing, price-value positioning, and why winning the first purchase is only half the battle.

Amazon isn't just selling Thanksgiving dinner for $25. It is selling convenience, affordability, familiarity, and an opportunity to change where consumers shop for food.

That distinction matters.

Amazon's November 2, 2026 announcement of a $25 Thanksgiving meal through Amazon Grocery deserves considerably more attention than another holiday discount promotion. It represents something much bigger: an aggressive attempt to capture food dollars, introduce new grocery customers to its ecosystem, and encourage existing customers to migrate more of their food purchases to Amazon.

The offer includes an 8-pound Butterball frozen turkey, familiar national food brands, Amazon Grocery private-label staples, traditional side dishes, and ingredients for dessert. Customers in more than 2,300 U.S. cities and towns with eligible fresh-grocery same-day delivery can receive the order within hours.

The promotion runs through November 26, while supplies last.

There is a clear marketing message here: Amazon wants consumers to think of it not simply as a place to buy household goods, electronics, or everyday essentials, but as a legitimate destination for putting dinner on the table.

And that is where the Grocerant Niche becomes relevant.

Customer migration: The real prize behind the $25 meal

Consumers do not organize their food purchases according to the traditional industry divisions of restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores, or online retailers.

They organize purchases around their needs.

What's for dinner? How much time do I have? What will it cost? What tastes good? How easily can I get it?

Amazon understands that the consumer doesn't care which retail channel supplies the meal. The consumer cares about the meal itself and the experience of obtaining it.

That is the foundation of the Grocerant Niche, identified by Foodservice Solutions® in 1996.

Amazon is using a traditional Thanksgiving meal to encourage customer migration from conventional grocery shopping toward an integrated digital purchasing and delivery experience.

Consider the components of the offer:

· Price: A $25 complete meal proposition creates an exceptionally accessible entry point.

· Convenience: Same-day delivery eliminates a separate grocery shopping trip for eligible customers.

· Familiarity: Butterball, Kraft, Ocean Spray, Stove Top, Campbell's, McCormick, French's, and Nestlé reduce the perceived risk of trying an unfamiliar grocery platform.

· Choice: Customers can combine their Thanksgiving groceries with millions of other products in one cart.

· Private label: Amazon Grocery gets its own products into the consumer's pantry, refrigerator, and holiday meal.

This is not simply a Thanksgiving promotion. It is a customer acquisition strategy built around a meal occasion.

The smartest part may be the opportunity to turn a one-time holiday shopper into a recurring grocery customer.

The food marketing numbers tell an important story

Amazon is entering a marketplace where consumers have already demonstrated that they are willing to move between shopping channels.

According to FMI and NielsenIQ's 2026 Digital Engagement Transforms Grocery Shopping research:

· Nearly 94% of grocery shoppers purchased both online and in-store during 2025.

· Online grocery sales accounted for approximately one-fifth of total grocery spending.

· Online sales contributed close to 75% of total grocery dollar growth in 2025.

· Online food sales increased nearly 19% in 2025.

These are significant indicators of customer migration. Digital grocery shopping is no longer a separate or experimental channel. It is part of mainstream food shopping behavior.

Amazon is positioning itself to benefit from that migration.

Another important indicator comes from Circana. Its November 2024 analysis of grocery shopping behavior reported that consumers were making 8.7% more quick grocery trips while purchasing 11% fewer items per trip.

That is a meaningful behavioral shift. Consumers are shopping more frequently for immediate needs while managing the size of their baskets.

Amazon's Thanksgiving bundle offers an alternative: consolidate a significant meal occasion into one transaction.

Price is the hook. Value is the acquisition strategy.

Let's be clear: $25 is an attention-getting price.

But price alone does not create lasting customer relationships.

The 2025 American Farm Bureau Federation Thanksgiving survey put the average cost of a traditional Thanksgiving meal for 10 at $55.18, approximately $5.52 per person. That was 5% below the previous year's estimate, although still 13% above 2019.

Amazon's $25 offer is not an identical basket, so a direct price comparison would be misleading. The turkey size, quantities, recipes, and serving assumptions differ.

Nevertheless, the promotional message is unmistakable: Amazon wants to own the consumer's perception of holiday affordability.

And competitors should pay attention.

Thanksgiving has become an important competitive battleground for customer acquisition. Grocery retailers have increasingly used complete meal bundles, discounted turkeys, private-label ingredients, and promotional pricing to bring consumers through their doors or onto their digital platforms.

Amazon is taking that same strategy and connecting it to an existing digital shopping ecosystem.

The hidden economics: What does it really cost to acquire a food customer?

This is where Amazon's strategy becomes particularly interesting to foodservice operators and grocery executives.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the amount a business spends in marketing and sales to bring in a new customer.

The calculation is straightforward:

Customer acquisition cost = Total acquisition marketing and sales expense ÷ Number of new customers acquired.

However, the true economics are more complicated.

A retailer can spend heavily to acquire a customer, offer a deeply discounted meal, and still lose that customer immediately after Thanksgiving.

The question isn't how many people redeem the $25 promotion. The question is how many return to purchase groceries in December, January, and throughout the year.

Research from Upside's 2025 Consumer Spend Report, drawing on transaction data from 7.7 million consumers across grocery, restaurants, and fuel retailers, offers a warning:

· 50% of new grocery customers shopping in a given month did not return during the following year.

· 64% of new restaurant customers did not return during the following year.

· 31% of grocery customers shopping in a given month did not return during the following year.

The same research found that regular grocery customers were 46 percentage points more likely than new customers to remain active after a year.

These findings illustrate why customer retention matters so much. Acquiring a customer is an expense. Developing a repeat customer creates an opportunity for cumulative revenue.

Amazon's potential customer acquisition advantage

Amazon has something that traditional grocery retailers and independent restaurants often lack: an established customer relationship across multiple purchasing categories.

A new Thanksgiving grocery customer may already be an Amazon customer for household products, clothing, electronics, or other merchandise.

That means Amazon may not need to acquire an entirely new customer relationship. It may need to acquire a new food-shopping behavior.

There is an important distinction.

The cost of acquiring a brand-new Amazon account is different from the incremental cost of converting an existing account holder into a grocery customer.

The $25 meal can serve as a low-friction trial offer. Amazon can potentially introduce consumers to grocery ordering, private-label products, delivery convenience, and repeat purchasing.

However, Amazon has not disclosed the acquisition cost, promotional subsidy, or incremental lifetime value associated with this particular Thanksgiving promotion. It would be irresponsible to assign a dollar figure to those measures without company data.

The strategic opportunity is clear, but the financial return still needs to be measured.

Food brands are doing some of Amazon's marketing for it

There is another smart element to this promotion.

Amazon didn't build its Thanksgiving meal around unfamiliar products.

It assembled a recognizable collection of national brands alongside Amazon Grocery private-label products.

That is important because familiar brands help reduce trial barriers.

Butterball brings turkey recognition. Kraft brings mac and cheese familiarity. Ocean Spray brings cranberry credibility. Stove Top brings stuffing familiarity. Campbell's and French's contribute to recognizable holiday recipes.

Amazon is effectively borrowing the accumulated consumer recognition of established food manufacturers while introducing its own private-label products into the same basket.

This is a powerful food marketing combination.

It also demonstrates why manufacturers should pay attention to how their brands are positioned in bundled meal solutions.

The consumer may enter the transaction because of the $25 price, but the individual products help deliver confidence in the meal.

The private-label products, meanwhile, create an opportunity for Amazon to establish another purchase habit.

The lesson: Food brands should not evaluate marketing solely by individual product sales. They should evaluate their role in meal solutions, occasions, and the consumer's overall purchasing journey.

The Grocerant Niche connection: Consumers are migrating toward meal solutions

Amazon's Thanksgiving offer also reinforces a larger food industry trend: consumers increasingly want solutions rather than individual ingredients or isolated menu items.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 Off-Premises Restaurant Trends research found:

· Nearly 75% of restaurant traffic occurred off-premises.

· 67% of consumers expressed interest in bundled meals.

· 70% expressed interest in meal kits.

· More than 80% of consumers used value deals such as combination meals, buy-one-get-one offers, or real-time specials.

· 94% said speed was critical to their off-premises experience.

These findings cross traditional channel boundaries.

A grocery retailer can sell a meal solution. A restaurant can sell a family meal kit. A convenience store can offer a complete dinner. An online retailer can deliver the ingredients for a holiday gathering.

The consumer sees food and convenience, not industry categories.

This is precisely why the Grocerant Niche remains relevant.

The winning business will be the one that understands the consumer's immediate food needs and delivers the right combination of price, quality, convenience, portability, and service.

What Amazon gets right — and what food retailers should learn

There are five particularly important marketing lessons in this promotion.

1. Sell the occasion, not just the products.

Amazon isn't advertising 16 individual grocery products. It is advertising Thanksgiving dinner. Consumers understand the benefit immediately.

2. Make the entry price easy to understand.

A single $25 price communicates value faster than a long list of individual discounts.

3. Reduce friction in the purchasing process.

One cart, one checkout, and same-day delivery simplify the shopping experience.

4. Combine national brands and private label.

Recognizable national brands provide reassurance while private-label products create additional exposure and potential future sales.

5. Build a reason to return.

The holiday promotion is the opening transaction. Amazon needs to follow it with relevant weekly grocery offers, meal inspiration, personalized recommendations, and dependable fulfillment.

But there is a sixth lesson worth emphasizing: don't confuse promotional traffic with customer loyalty.

A consumer who purchases a $25 Thanksgiving bundle may simply be taking advantage of a good deal. That consumer has not necessarily become loyal to Amazon Grocery.

The retailer must earn the next transaction.

Price, Value, Service Equilibrium: The real competitive battleground

The Grocerant Guru® has long emphasized that consumers evaluate food purchases through more than price.

Price, quality, convenience, and service collectively establish value.

Amazon's Thanksgiving offer makes a strong play on price and convenience. Its established national brands help communicate product familiarity and expected quality.

But the delivery experience, product availability, accuracy, and condition of fresh and frozen products ultimately determine whether consumers return.

For restaurants, grocers, convenience stores, and other food retailers, this should be a wake-up call.

Amazon is not simply competing with grocery stores on the price of turkey. It is competing for the consumer's next food-shopping decision.

And customer migration rarely happens all at once. It happens one occasion, one meal, one transaction, and one successful experience at a time.

The retailers that understand that will be better positioned to grow.

Grocerant Guru® insights on customer acquisition

1. The first transaction is not the victory; the second transaction is.

A $25 Thanksgiving meal can generate tremendous trial, but the real marketing success is converting that trial into repeat grocery purchases. Measure customer acquisition by retention and lifetime value, not simply promotional redemptions.

2. Acquire customers through food occasions, not advertising impressions.

Consumers have reasons to purchase food every day. Dinner tonight, lunch tomorrow, snacks for the weekend, and Thanksgiving next month are all acquisition opportunities. Complete meal solutions create a compelling reason to try a new retailer, restaurant, or foodservice brand.

3. Stop paying repeatedly to reacquire customers you already have.

Use first-party purchasing data, relevant personalized offers, meal bundles, and dependable service to create purchasing habits. The smartest customer acquisition strategy is one that makes the next purchase easier, more valuable, and more relevant than the first.

The Grocerant Guru® bottom line: Amazon's $25 Thanksgiving meal isn't just about selling turkey. It is about changing consumer shopping behavior, capturing food dollars, and making Amazon Grocery part of the consumer's everyday meal solution. The food industry should recognize the strategy for what it is: a customer acquisition campaign disguised as Thanksgiving dinner.

For international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions. His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit www.GrocerantGuru.com , www.FoodserviceSolutions.us or call 1-253-759-7869

McRib, McMarketing and the Meat of the Matter: Why McDonald’s Should Not Have to Apologize for a Brand Name

2026-11-06T00:06:00.000-08:00

The Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson examines the McRib lawsuit, the value of product differentiation, trademarked food identities, and why familiar food concepts with a twist are what keep brands relevant.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding about food marketing at the center of the lawsuit against McDonald’s over its McRib sandwich: A branded food product is not necessarily a literal description of the ingredients or the specific cut of meat used to make it.

That distinction matters.

McDonald’s did not introduce a menu item called the Premium Pork Rib Sandwich. It introduced the McRib®. A distinctive, trademarked product name that has become part of the company's food marketing vocabulary and consumer recognition.

The McRib is not being sold as a rack of barbecue ribs placed between two pieces of bread. It is a seasoned, boneless pork sandwich with barbecue sauce, onions and pickles, presented in a familiar rib-like shape.

That is product development. That is branding. That is differentiation.

And, from the perspective of the Grocerant Guru®, that is precisely what successful food marketers should be doing.

The lawsuit deserves scrutiny, but so does the larger question: Should food companies be penalized because consumers recognize a branded product name and associate it with a familiar food experience, even when the product is a creative interpretation rather than a literal version of that food?

The McRib has been around since 1981. Its trademark was registered in 1985 for a sandwich. That is more than four decades of product identity, consumer exposure and brand development.

On October 30, 2026, a federal judge in Chicago declined to dismiss the central consumer deception claims in a proposed class action. That ruling allows litigation to continue; it does not establish that McDonald's deceived consumers or that the company is liable.

McDonald's has maintained that the allegations distort the facts and that it has been transparent about the sandwich's ingredients.

I agree with the underlying marketing principle McDonald's is defending: A brand name is an asset, a product identity is a promise of an experience, and differentiation should not be confused with deception.

First, understand what the McRib actually is

McDonald's describes the McRib as seasoned boneless pork dipped in tangy barbecue sauce, topped with slivered onions and pickles, and served on a toasted homestyle bun.

Its own product FAQ explains that the company starts with ground pork and uses a press to form the patty into a shape resembling a rack of ribs.

McDonald's even explains why it does this: It's fun.

Let's be clear about the distinction.

· It is pork.

· It is real meat.

· It is boneless.

· It is ground and formed into a distinctive shape.

· It is not represented on the product page as a serving of whole pork ribs.

The distinction between ground pork and a whole-muscle pork rib cut is important. Consumers should be able to understand what they are purchasing. But a shaped pork product does not become something other than pork simply because it is pressed into a recognizable form.

The plaintiffs allege that the product's name, shape and advertising lead consumers to expect actual rib meat. McDonald's disputes the allegations, including claims about the use of heart, tripe and stomach. Those ingredient allegations should not be treated as established facts.

The real food marketing question is whether the name McRib, in its total branding and disclosure context, constitutes a promise about the specific anatomical cut of pork.

That is a very different question from whether McDonald's has a recognizable branded pork sandwich.

Six strong food marketing reasons this lawsuit should be dropped

1. McRib is a registered product identity, not a promise of a particular pork cut

McDonald's registered the MCRIB trademark in 1985, with first commercial use dating to 1981. The registration identifies the goods as a sandwich for consumption on or off the premises.

That history matters.

McRib is not simply a generic menu description. It is a branded product identity developed, marketed and recognized over decades.

Consider Burger King's WHOPPER®. The company protects the Whopper name as a trademark. Consumers recognize a branded sandwich, not a technical specification of every ingredient or its dimensions.

The McRib deserves the same fundamental recognition as a branded food product.

A trademark does not excuse false advertising, but neither should a trademarked name automatically be interpreted as a literal ingredient declaration.

2. McDonald's tells consumers it is boneless pork

This is one of the strongest points in McDonald's defense.

Its official product description uses the words "seasoned boneless pork." Its FAQ explains that the pork is ground and pressed into a rib-like shape.

Those are meaningful disclosures.

The company is not advertising a bone-in rack of ribs. It is selling a boneless pork sandwich with a distinctive shape and barbecue flavor profile.

Food marketers have an obligation to communicate accurately. But consumers also have a responsibility to consider the actual product description rather than assigning an ingredient list to a brand name.

There is a difference between creating an appealing product identity and making a false factual statement.

3. Food marketing has always used familiar language with creative twists

Let's look beyond the McDonald's drive-thru.

Consider the Seattle Seahawks and the famous 12th Man.

The Seahawks used the 12th Man identity to describe their fans and the powerful atmosphere those fans create. But the expression is not a literal count of players on the field.

More importantly, the 12th Man is a registered Texas A&M trademark. The Seahawks negotiated licensing agreements to use it. They subsequently shifted toward the expression 12s.

The marketing lesson is that a name can represent an experience, an identity and an emotional connection rather than a literal physical description.

Other examples reinforce the point:

The brand promises wings through its famous marketing slogan, not actual wings. It sells an energy drink, not a zoological product.

Its 2025 company-reported figures show 13.969 billion cans sold in 178 countries, an increase of 10.2% over 2024. That is a powerful example of a distinctive brand identity becoming a global commercial asset.

The product uses the familiar language, appearance and eating experience of meat while being made from plants. Impossible Foods reported in its 2024 marketing materials that 90% of its consumers identified as meat eaters.

Impossible Foods

That is familiarity with a twist: consumers recognize the food experience, even though the underlying product is different.

Burger King used its established Whopper identity to introduce a plant-based alternative. The familiar sandwich format made a different protein proposition easier for consumers to understand.

These examples are not identical legal situations. They illustrate an important commercial principle: successful food marketing frequently builds on familiar consumer language while introducing something different.

Why should McDonald's be denied that same creative latitude?

4. Product differentiation is essential to surviving in a crowded food marketplace

Think about the competitive landscape.

McDonald's competes with burger chains, barbecue restaurants, convenience stores, grocery delis, prepared-food departments, delivery kitchens and an expanding selection of ready-to-eat meals.

A pork sandwich that looks like a rack of ribs, carries a distinctive name and delivers a recognizable barbecue flavor creates separation.

That separation is valuable.

If every restaurant had to market products using only literal descriptions of their ingredients, much of the creative language that helps consumers navigate food choices would disappear.

Brands need recognizable names. They need distinctive shapes. They need signature sauces, flavor profiles, packaging and memorable product experiences.

The McRib combines several of those elements.

It is not just pork on a bun. It is a recognizable McDonald's product with its own identity.

5. Familiarity reduces the work consumers must do when making food decisions

Food purchasing is often a low-involvement decision. Consumers are hungry, busy, price-conscious and looking for something familiar that offers a little excitement.

A recognized product name helps simplify that decision.

The McRib's periodic return is part of its marketing proposition. Scarcity, anticipation and familiarity work together.

McDonald's has been selling the sandwich periodically since 1981. That is a remarkable product lifecycle in an industry where menu items are constantly introduced, modified and discontinued.

The product has become more than a sandwich. It has become an occasion.

Consumers discuss its return, anticipate its availability and share their experiences. That creates earned attention and gives McDonald's a reason to reconnect with customers.

The McRib's recognizable identity does marketing work before the customer even reaches the counter.

6. The lawsuit risks confusing a consumer's preferred ingredient with a legally required product specification

This is where the argument deserves particular attention.

Some consumers may prefer pork rib meat. Others may prefer pork shoulder. Still others may care most about the sauce, texture, convenience, price or overall taste.

Those preferences are legitimate.

But the fact that one pork cut commands a different wholesale price than another does not automatically establish that a branded pork sandwich is deceptively marketed.

The plaintiffs argue that customers expected premium rib meat and paid more because of that expectation. That is an allegation, not a proven economic injury or established finding.

McDonald's defense should focus on the complete consumer-facing message: the trademarked product name, the description of seasoned boneless pork, the ingredient disclosures, the FAQ explanation and the actual sandwich.

If the company has disclosed the relevant facts and has not falsely claimed to sell a whole-muscle rib cut, the lawsuit should not turn a creative product design into consumer fraud.

The food marketing distinction is simple: A brand can promise a recognizable experience without promising that every component is identical to the traditional food that inspired it.

The bigger issue: Don't punish food innovation

7. There is another issue that deserves attention.

Food companies are being asked to innovate, differentiate, deliver value and give consumers reasons to return.

Yet when they create something recognizable but different, they can find themselves defending the very marketing creativity that made the product successful.

That is a troubling direction.

The food industry has always evolved through reinterpretation.

Hamburgers have been reinvented countless times. Chicken sandwiches have become a competitive category of their own. Plant-based burgers borrow the appearance and language of traditional beef burgers. Grocery delis create restaurant-inspired meals. Convenience stores turn familiar restaurant flavors into handheld, portable products.

That is how food marketing works.

The McRib is another example of taking a familiar food concept, applying a different production technique and building a distinctive branded product around it.

I would argue that McDonald's should defend that principle vigorously.

There is one important legal qualification: the October 30 ruling means the case is allowed to proceed, not that McDonald's has lost on the merits. The judge found the plaintiffs' interpretation of the name and advertising sufficiently plausible at this early stage. The ultimate question of deception remains unresolved.

My position is that the complete product disclosures and the longstanding branded identity provide a strong basis for McDonald's to prevail. If discovery confirms those disclosures and the absence of misleading factual claims, the case should be dismissed.

Three Grocerant Guru® insights: Familiarity with a twist wins

Insight 1: Consumers buy experiences, not ingredient dictionaries.

Consumers want recognizable flavors, convenient formats, satisfying portions and products that fit their lifestyles. Brands must communicate what they are selling, but they should not be forced to abandon creative product development because a familiar name inspires a particular food association.

Insight 2: Differentiation is a competitive necessity, not a marketing luxury.

If your product looks, tastes, feels and is named exactly like everyone else's, why should consumers choose you? McDonald's created a recognizable pork sandwich with a distinctive shape, barbecue flavor and trademarked identity. That is differentiation. Brands that fail to differentiate eventually compete primarily on price.

Insight 3: The future belongs to brands that are familiar but never static.

Consumers are dynamic, not static. Their expectations, eating occasions, budgets and food preferences evolve. Successful brands retain the familiar elements consumers appreciate while introducing new twists that encourage trial, repeat purchases and customer migration.

The Grocerant Niche has demonstrated for decades that consumers move between restaurants, grocery stores and convenience stores looking for food that delivers on price, time, flavor and convenience.

McDonald's understands something important: Sometimes the best way to introduce something new is to make it feel familiar.

The Grocerant Guru® bottom line

McDonald's did not call its product a rack of pork ribs. It created the McRib®, a trademarked, boneless pork sandwich made from real pork, formed into a distinctive shape and marketed with a familiar barbecue flavor profile.

There is a difference between misleading consumers and giving consumers a new interpretation of a familiar food.

Food marketers should be held accountable for truthful product communication. They should not be punished simply for being creative.

My position: Defend the McRib, defend product differentiation and defend the ability of food brands to create familiar experiences with a twist.

At Foodservice Solutions®, we identify, quantify, and qualify new retail food segment opportunities—from menu innovation to brand integration strategies. We help you stay ahead of industry shifts with fresh insights and consumer-driven solutions. Connect with us on social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

Ready to Find Your Next Success Clue? We specialize in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations—helping brands seize opportunities in food retail, technology, and menu innovation.

Reach out today: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us

Burger King Is Finally Remembering the Kids: Why the King Jr. Meal Could Be Bigger Than the Whopper

2026-11-05T00:05:00.000-08:00

The Grocerant Guru® Perspective: Kids Want a Meal, Parents Want Value, and Adults Want Smaller Portions. Burger King Is Discovering That Relevance Begins When You Sell More Than a Sandwich.

For decades, McDonald's understood something that much of the restaurant industry continues to underestimate: children don't simply want something to eat. They want a meal, an experience, a little excitement, and a treat.

Millions of children have grown up with McDonald's Happy Meals. The formula became more than a combination of a burger or chicken nuggets, fries, a drink, and a toy. It became a recognizable foodservice ritual. Children anticipated it, parents understood its value, and the brand created an emotional connection that extended well beyond the food.

Now Burger King appears to be rediscovering that lesson.

The recent performance of its King Jr. meals, upgraded chicken nuggets, and Dragon Ball Super promotional partnership suggests that Burger King is beginning to understand the importance of family occasions, smaller portions, and experiential food marketing.

But let's be clear: one successful promotion does not erase decades of strategic missteps. Burger King's history offers a valuable lesson in what happens when ownership changes, corporate priorities shift, and franchisees are repeatedly asked to execute another new vision.

The fast-food business is not simply about selling hamburgers. It is about remaining relevant to evolving consumers. And that requires consistency, investment, operational discipline, and a willingness to recognize that consumers are dynamic, not static.

McDonald's Didn't Just Sell Kids Food. It Created a Generation of Customers.

THE COMPETITIVE BENCHMARK BURGER KING SHOULD HAVE TAKEN MORE SERIOUSLY

McDonald's introduced its Happy Meal nationally in 1979. That decision helped change how the restaurant industry marketed food to children. The combination of food, packaging, a collectible toy, and a recognizable experience gave children something to anticipate and parents an easy purchasing decision.

Think about the marketing implications.

A child who grows up associating McDonald's with a Happy Meal may continue to associate the brand with family outings, childhood memories, convenience, and an affordable treat long after becoming an adult.

That is brand equity built over generations.

Burger King has had a children's meal offering for years, but it has never established the same enduring emotional ownership of the occasion that McDonald's has built around the Happy Meal.

That distinction matters.

Children want more than chicken nuggets in a box. They want a meal. They want the fries, the beverage, the recognizable packaging, the surprise, and the little reward that makes the purchase feel special.

Parents, meanwhile, want a predictable price, convenience, and something their children will actually eat.

The strongest children's meal proposition satisfies both.

Burger King's reported 40% increase in King Jr. meal sales suggests that the opportunity remains substantial. Its chicken nugget sales have increased 35%, according to the company's latest reported results. These are meaningful signals that improving a familiar product and giving families a reason to return can generate results.

And there is another interesting development: the adult customer.

According to the figures cited in the supplied report, Technomic found that six in ten kids' meal orders occurred during visits without children. Circana reported a 28% increase in adult purchases of kids' meals since 2019.

That changes the competitive equation. A children's meal is no longer exclusively a children's foodservice proposition. It is also a portion-controlled, value-oriented meal for adults.

GLP-1 medications may be contributing to interest in smaller portions, but it would be premature to attribute the entire trend to those medications. Burger King itself has acknowledged that it sees the behavior without claiming a definitive causal relationship.

The opportunity is bigger than medication trends. Consumers are looking for choices that fit their appetites, budgets, and schedules.

Burger King's Three Big Strategic Mistakes

Burger King's problem has never been a lack of recognizable products. The Whopper is one of the best-known hamburger sandwiches in the world. The problem has been the inconsistent execution of the brand promise.

Here are three strategic mistakes worth examining.

1. Allowing marketing stunts to substitute for sustained brand building.

Burger King has historically been willing to take marketing risks. Some campaigns generated attention, but attention is not the same as repeat purchasing.

The brand has frequently leaned on provocative advertising, competitive comparisons, and short-lived promotions. Those tactics can generate conversation, but they do not automatically improve restaurant execution, product consistency, family appeal, or customer loyalty.

A consumer may remember an advertisement without remembering why they should return for dinner.

2. Failing to maintain consistent operational and restaurant relevance.

A restaurant brand cannot advertise a superior experience if customers encounter inconsistent food quality, service, cleanliness, or speed.

Burger King has spent years addressing restaurant standards and the customer experience. The company's current emphasis on kitchen improvements, restaurant modernization, and franchisee investment demonstrates how much work remains when operational consistency becomes a strategic priority.

The lesson is simple: advertising creates an expectation; restaurant execution determines whether customers return.

3. Losing strategic continuity through repeated ownership and leadership changes.

Burger King's ownership history is particularly instructive.

The company moved from founder-led ownership to Pillsbury, Grand Metropolitan, Diageo, a private-equity consortium, 3G Capital, and ultimately Restaurant Brands International.

Each ownership structure brought different financial objectives, operating philosophies, and growth priorities.

That history does not prove that every change damaged the business. But it illustrates a persistent challenge: restaurant brands need long-term customer strategies, while corporate owners may be managing portfolios, capital structures, returns, and transactions.

Franchisees have to live with the consequences of those decisions in their restaurants.

When corporate priorities change, franchisees can be asked to remodel, retrain, purchase equipment, introduce products, change marketing execution, and invest capital all over again.

The customer sees one Burger King. The franchisee sees the accumulated cost of multiple corporate strategies.

That disconnect can frustrate operators and make consistent execution harder.

Ownership Changes: The Cost of Starting Over

Burger King's corporate chronology helps explain why continuity has been such a challenge.

Period	Ownership or corporate structure	Strategic significance
1954–1967	Founders	Brand creation and early expansion
1967–1988	Pillsbury	Corporate ownership and national growth
1988–2002	Grand Metropolitan/Diageo	Part of a larger food and beverage portfolio
2002–2010	TPG, Bain and Goldman Sachs	Private-equity ownership followed by public listing
2010–2014	3G Capital	Restructuring and a renewed franchise-focused model
2014–present	Restaurant Brands International	Multi-brand global restaurant portfolio

The 2014 combination with Tim Hortons created Restaurant Brands International, with 3G Capital retaining approximately 51% ownership at launch. This gave Burger King access to a larger global platform, but it also placed the brand inside a multi-brand corporate organization.

There is an important distinction here: ownership changes do not automatically mean bad management. They do, however, create the potential for changing priorities and inconsistent execution.

Franchisees need a strategy they can build around, not another corporate reset every few years.

A successful restaurant system requires more than a corporate presentation. It requires franchisees to believe that the next investment will generate sustainable customer demand and a reasonable return.

That is where Burger King must continue to earn credibility.

Three Times Burger King Found a Better Direction

Burger King has demonstrated that it can make smart strategic decisions. The problem has been maintaining momentum.

1. Simplifying the menu and returning to core products.

After adding too many products in a relatively short period, Burger King shifted toward a more focused menu strategy.

In 2012, the chain introduced ten new products in April alone, followed by additional limited-time offerings. By 2013, sales were declining. The company subsequently moved toward fewer, more impactful innovations, emphasizing products that could be produced with fewer new ingredients and less operational complexity.

The results improved: Burger King reported nearly 7% same-store sales growth in the first quarter of 2015.

That was an important lesson: menu innovation should improve the customer proposition without making restaurant execution unnecessarily difficult.

2. Introducing the Impossible Whopper and stronger value platforms.

The 2019 introduction of the Impossible Whopper gave Burger King a way to address consumers interested in plant-based alternatives without abandoning its flame-grilled identity.

The company also used bundled offers, including 2-for-$6 promotions, 5-for-$4 bundles, and a $2-for-$10 meal promotion, to give customers more reasons to visit.

These were smart moves because they addressed different consumer motivations: novelty, choice, affordability, and meal value.

But Burger King still needed to make those initiatives part of a more consistent customer strategy rather than a succession of individual promotions.

3. Reclaim the Flame: Investing in restaurants and franchisee profitability.

In September 2022, Burger King announced its Reclaim the Flame program, committing $400 million over two years.

The plan allocated:

· $150 million to advertising and digital investments.

· $250 million to restaurant technology, kitchen equipment, building improvements, remodels, and relocations.

Importantly, the initiative was developed with franchisee leaders and endorsed by more than 93% of U.S. restaurants.

That was a meaningful step toward rebuilding the relationship between the franchisor and franchisees.

The company recognized that it could not advertise its way to success without improving the restaurants delivering the food.

Where the Progress Started to Flatten

Here is the difficult part.

A corporate investment announcement does not automatically translate into improved franchisee economics.

Restaurant remodeling is expensive. A Carrols Corporation SEC filing reported that the average cost of its Burger King remodels in 2023 was approximately $1.3 million per restaurant. Historical improvement costs generally ranged from $500,000 to $1.3 million, excluding major rebuilds.

That is a significant financial commitment for operators already managing labor, food, occupancy, equipment, and financing costs.

Burger King also established a finite period for its major corporate remodel contributions, with the company indicating that it expected to return to more normalized capital contributions after the program.

The danger is that the brand gets a short-term lift, franchisees shoulder substantial investment requirements, and the system eventually loses momentum before the next generation of customer-focused initiatives is fully established.

There is another warning in Burger King's history: Satisfries.

Introduced in 2013 as a lower-calorie alternative, the product was discontinued in approximately two-thirds of North American restaurants less than a year later. Franchisees were allowed to decide whether to retain it, and only about 2,500 locations elected to continue selling it.

The mistake was not necessarily trying to provide a better-for-you option. It was failing to establish a compelling enough combination of taste, price, and perceived value to sustain demand.

That is the Price Value Service Equilibrium in action. Consumers do not purchase a nutritional claim alone. They purchase an eating experience.

Burger King now appears to be applying a more disciplined approach: improve recognizable products, make them more appealing, build family occasions, and support the operators responsible for execution.

The latest numbers suggest that approach is working. The challenge is to sustain it.

Chicken: The Global Foodservice Opportunity Burger King Should Not Underestimate

Chicken is not simply another menu category. It is one of the most adaptable food platforms in the global restaurant business.

It crosses national borders, cultural preferences, eating occasions, and price points.

Consider the global landscape:

· KFC built an international business around fried chicken, localized flavors, and shareable meals.

· McDonald's made Chicken McNuggets a familiar menu staple and incorporated them into its children's meal platform.

· Popeyes has demonstrated how chicken sandwiches can generate substantial consumer attention.

· Jollibee has built international relevance around fried chicken, family meals, and distinctive flavor profiles.

The underlying market fundamentals are compelling.

The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2025–2034 projects global poultry consumption will increase approximately 21% by 2034. That compares with projected growth of 13% for beef, 16% for sheep meat, and 5% for pork. The report also identifies a shift toward poultry as consumers substitute it for other meats in many markets.

In the United States, Datassential research reported that restaurant chicken sales increased 4.2% in 2025 to $55.24 billion. The chicken restaurant segment also recorded 4.4% annual unit growth, the highest rate among the segments it tracked.

Those are not numbers a restaurant marketer should ignore.

Chicken works because it can be sold in multiple formats:

1. Nuggets for children, snacking, and smaller appetites.

2. Tenders for individual meals and shareable occasions.

3. Sandwiches for portable lunches and dinners.

4. Bone-in chicken for family meals.

5. Wraps and bowls for consumers seeking variety.

6. Prepared chicken components for takeout, delivery, and grocery meal solutions.

This is where the Grocerant Niche becomes particularly relevant.

Consumers do not think in corporate foodservice silos. They think about what they want to eat, how much they want to spend, how quickly they can get it, and where they can conveniently purchase it.

Chicken fits that behavior exceptionally well.

A family can buy a chicken nugget meal at Burger King, a bucket of chicken at KFC, a chicken sandwich at Popeyes, or prepared chicken from a grocery deli.

Different channels, different brands, but the same fundamental consumer demand.

Burger King's chicken nugget improvement is strategically important because it gives the brand another reason to enter the consideration set beyond the Whopper.

The latest U.S. results reinforce that point. Restaurant Business reported on October 29, 2026, that Burger King's U.S. comparable sales rose 8.4% in the third quarter, while its international comparable sales increased 3.8%. The Whopper recorded double-digit sales growth, nuggets increased 35%, and King Jr. meals increased 40%.

The brand is finally demonstrating that it can build growth around multiple consumer occasions instead of depending on one iconic hamburger.

Dragon Ball Super: Selling an Experience, Not Just a Chicken Nugget

Burger King's Dragon Ball Super partnership is another important piece of the strategy.

It recognizes that children and families respond to entertainment, characters, collectibles, and shared experiences.

This is participatory food marketing. The food becomes part of a larger experience that gives customers a reason to visit now rather than sometime later.

But Burger King needs to think beyond the promotional window.

A successful licensing partnership should accomplish three things:

· Bring new families into the restaurant.

· Increase the perceived value of the entire meal.

· Create a reason for customers to return after the promotion ends.

The third objective is where many restaurant promotions fall short.

A collectible can generate a visit. A good meal, good service, and an enjoyable experience generate repeat business.

Burger King should also consider how to extend its King Jr. platform to adults without confusing its identity.

An adult-oriented smaller meal could include nuggets, a side, and a beverage at an attractive price. It should be a complete meal, not simply a smaller sandwich or a reduced portion of fries.

The brand must be careful not to take the fun away from the children's offering while pursuing adult customers.

There is room for both.

The Bigger Opportunity: Own More Eating Occasions

The Grocerant Guru sees an opportunity for Burger King to build a more comprehensive food marketing strategy around chicken, burgers, family meals, and smaller portions.

Consider what the company could do next:

Family meal solutions: Build affordable combinations of nuggets, burgers, sides, and beverages that make feeding multiple people easier.

Chicken-led meal innovation: Use nuggets and tenders as the foundation for limited-time flavors, dipping sauces, wraps, and shareable offerings.

Adult mini-meals: Develop a clearly identified smaller meal platform that provides value without being confused with a children's promotion.

Cross-generational marketing: Use entertainment partnerships that appeal to children while giving parents and adult collectors a reason to participate.

Franchisee-centered execution: Ensure promotional calendars, food costs, labor requirements, and equipment needs are realistic before asking operators to implement another initiative.

The last point is essential.

Burger King cannot build lasting customer loyalty if franchisees are continually asked to finance changing corporate priorities without seeing sustainable returns.

And the company should remember that the competition is not limited to McDonald's. KFC, Popeyes, Chick-fil-A, grocery delis, convenience stores, and other prepared-food retailers are all competing for chicken occasions.

The consumer has choices. The brand must earn the visit.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Kids don't want just a food item; they want a meal and a memory.

McDonald's understood this with the Happy Meal decades ago. Burger King must create a King Jr. experience that children anticipate, parents appreciate, and families want to repeat. A toy may generate the first visit, but food quality and value generate the next one.

2. Chicken is a global growth platform, not simply a menu extension.

With global poultry consumption projected to grow 21% by 2034, chicken provides restaurant brands with opportunities across cultures, price points, and eating occasions. Burger King's improved nuggets are a start, but the opportunity extends to family meals, portability, snacking, and takeout.

3. Brand relevance requires consistency, franchisee profitability, and consumer evolution.

Burger King's ownership history demonstrates the danger of continually changing priorities. Corporate leadership must establish a customer-focused direction, support franchisees, and maintain operational discipline. Consumers are dynamic, not static. Brands that fail to evolve with them eventually surrender relevance.

The bottom line: Burger King is finally demonstrating that the Whopper does not have to carry the entire brand. King Jr. meals, chicken nuggets, family occasions, and smaller adult portions can all contribute to growth.

But the real test is not whether Burger King can generate an impressive quarter. It is whether it can turn that momentum into a sustainable, multi-generational customer relationship.

That is how brands grow. That is how franchisees prosper. And that is how foodservice relevance is earned.

Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru®, Foodservice Solutions®, Tacoma, Washington. Tap into the Foodservice Solutions® team for greater understanding of New Electricity or for a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®. Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

RUTTER’S: FROM 1747 TO WHAT’S NEXT — 279 YEARS OF EVOLVING WITH THE CONSUMER

2026-11-04T00:04:00.000-08:00

Why honoring your heritage is important, but staying relevant to the next generation of customers is what keeps a food brand growing according to Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, Washington-based Foodservice Solutions®.

Some food brands sell products. Others build traditions. A select few manage to do both while continually reinventing how consumers experience their brand. Rutter’s is an interesting example of the latter.

With roots dating back to 1747, Rutter’s has something most food retailers can only dream about: nearly three centuries of family heritage. But longevity alone does not guarantee relevance. What makes Rutter’s particularly interesting is how the company has repeatedly recognized that consumers, shopping habits, food preferences, and expectations change.

Rutter’s understands an important business principle: Respect the past, but never allow the past to dictate the future.

That is a lesson every restaurant operator, convenience store retailer, grocery chain, and foodservice brand should consider.

1747: A family farm becomes the foundation of a food legacy

Rutter’s story began in 1747, when the Rutter family established agricultural operations on farmland in York County, Pennsylvania. According to company history, the original farm remains in operation today.

That is an extraordinary foundation.

However, the Rutter’s business consumers recognize today did not emerge overnight. It evolved through several important stages.

In 1921, brothers George and Bud Rutter started a dairy business, initially known as Crystal Spring Dairy. Their first day of business involved selling milk from a horse-drawn wagon. They started with 15 quarts of milk, selling it door-to-door for eight cents per quart.

Think about that transformation.

A family agricultural operation became a dairy business, creating a direct connection between production and the consumer's kitchen.

By 1939, the dairy was producing approximately 4,000 quarts of milk daily. By 1946, production had reached 12,000 quarts per day.

In 1938, Rutter’s also opened its first ice cream parlor, another early indication that the company was willing to move beyond its original business model.

These were not simply additional products. They were new ways to connect with customers.

1968: Recognizing that consumer shopping habits were changing

One of the most important strategic decisions in Rutter’s history came in 1968, when the company opened its first convenience store.

This was more than a retail expansion.

It represented recognition that consumers were changing how they purchased everyday food and beverages.

The traditional home milk delivery model was no longer the only way to reach customers. Convenience retail offered another opportunity to serve consumers where and when they wanted to shop.

By the 1980s, Rutter’s had approximately 50 convenience stores.

By the 1990s, the business had made a major transition away from home delivery toward retail and wholesale customers.

That evolution is worth remembering. Rutter’s did not abandon its dairy heritage. It found additional ways to monetize its capabilities, products, distribution, and customer relationships.

This is what smart food retailing looks like.

2018: A name change that reflected a changing consumer perception

Another significant milestone occurred in 2018, when Rutter’s celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first convenience store.

The company dropped "Farm Stores" from its retail trade name, choosing to market the business simply as Rutter’s.

Why does that matter?

Because brand names and brand positioning must reflect what consumers actually experience.

Consumers were no longer simply visiting a farm store to purchase dairy products. They were visiting a convenience retailer for fuel, beverages, prepared foods, snacks, and other immediate consumption needs.

The brand recognized that its identity had expanded beyond its original agricultural roots.

This is an important distinction for legacy retailers. Heritage creates recognition, but contemporary customer experiences create relevance.

The evolution of convenience: From transaction to destination

Fast-forward to today's Rutter’s.

The company has continued to push beyond the traditional convenience store model.

Larger stores, expanded foodservice offerings, digital technology, customer engagement, and experiential retailing have become important components of its strategy.

Perhaps one of its most interesting developments is the 1747 Bar & Lounge concept.

Named after the year the Rutter family established its agricultural roots, these locations introduce a different consumer experience.

Instead of simply stopping to purchase gasoline, a beverage, or something to eat, customers have opportunities to sit down, enjoy food and beverages, watch sports, and socialize.

That is a meaningful shift.

The traditional convenience store was largely built around speed and immediate needs. The 1747 concept introduces another dimension: destination appeal.

Rutter’s is effectively expanding its definition of convenience.

Consumers do not always want to eat in their cars, take their food home, or rush through a transaction. Sometimes they want an experience, a place to watch a game, meet friends, or enjoy a meal.

Rutter’s is recognizing those occasions.

November: Rutter’s and Hershey demonstrate the power of participatory food marketing

The latest Rutter’s and The Hershey Co. partnership offers another excellent example of how legacy brands can remain culturally and commercially relevant.

Throughout November, Rutter’s is bringing a Hershey-inspired game-day experience to its 1747 Bar & Lounge locations.

The monthlong promotion includes themed décor, exclusive drink specials, college football watch parties, and a sweepstakes offering guests a chance to win $10,000.

But the partnership goes beyond decorations and promotional signage.

It brings recognizable Hershey-owned food brands directly into the Rutter’s menu.

Consider the menu innovation:

Dot’s Pretzels-inspired offerings:

Pretzel Crunch Chicken Melt — $6.99
Pretzel Crunch Burger Melt — $6.99
Pretzel Crunch Mac & Cheese — $5.99
Pretzel Crunch Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese — $7.99

Reese’s-inspired offerings:

Peanut Butter Burger — $6.59
Peanut Butter Pickle Dog — $3.49

There is a food marketing lesson here.

Rutter’s is taking familiar menu platforms and adding recognizable flavor identities. Chicken melts, burgers, mac and cheese, and hot dogs are not unfamiliar food choices. What changes is the flavor experience and the reason to try them.

Dot’s brings its recognizable seasoning and crunch to familiar comfort-food favorites. Reese’s peanut butter sauce creates an unexpected flavor extension into burgers and hot dogs.

That combination of familiarity and novelty can encourage trial.

Consumers recognize the brands, understand the products, and have an immediate reason to explore something new.

The partnership also connects food to an occasion: college football.

This is important because consumers do not make food decisions in isolation. They make them around activities, social gatherings, convenience, entertainment, and time.

Rutter’s is connecting the menu, the venue, the entertainment, and the promotional opportunity into one customer experience.

That is more than a food promotion. It is participatory food marketing.

The Grocerant perspective: Consumers are dynamic, not static

At Foodservice Solutions®, we have long championed the importance of understanding the evolving consumer and the Grocerant Niche.

Consumers do not organize their food decisions according to traditional industry classifications.

They are not thinking exclusively about whether a meal comes from a restaurant, grocery store, or convenience store.

They are thinking about what they want, when they want it, how much they want to spend, and how much time they have.

That is why prepared foods, restaurant-quality convenience, takeout, delivery, and fresh-prepared meals continue to create opportunities across traditional retail channels.

Rutter’s evolution demonstrates several important principles.

First, heritage should be an asset, not an operating restriction.

The 1747 identity gives Rutter’s a distinctive story. But the company is not asking consumers to shop there simply because the business has been around for generations. It is giving them contemporary reasons to visit.

Second, foodservice is a competitive differentiator.

Fuel, packaged beverages, and traditional convenience merchandise can attract traffic. But prepared food, customization, flavor innovation, and eating occasions can give consumers additional reasons to choose a particular retailer.

Third, experience can expand the definition of convenience.

The 1747 Bar & Lounge concept recognizes that convenience is not always about getting in and getting out. Sometimes convenience means finding a place where food, entertainment, and social interaction come together.

Fourth, partnerships can introduce new customers and new occasions.

The Hershey collaboration connects two recognizable Pennsylvania-rooted brands while bringing new flavors, menu ideas, and game-day experiences into the same retail environment.

The larger lesson is that consumers are constantly evolving. Brands that remain static risk becoming less relevant, regardless of how recognizable their names might be.

Rutter’s has moved from a family farm to dairy production, from home delivery to convenience retail, and from traditional convenience stores to larger foodservice and entertainment destinations.

Each transition reflects a willingness to reconsider what the customer wants.

And that is precisely what successful food retailers must do.

Three Grocerant Guru® Insights

1. Heritage opens the door; relevance keeps customers coming back.

Rutter’s 1747 heritage is a remarkable marketing asset. But the company's ability to evolve its food offerings, store formats, and customer experiences is what gives that heritage contemporary value. Never confuse brand recognition with consumer relevance.

2. Foodservice is no longer just an add-on to convenience retail.

Prepared food, flavor innovation, meal solutions, and social dining occasions can become reasons to choose one retailer over another. Rutter’s Hershey partnership demonstrates how recognizable flavors and familiar food platforms can create new reasons to visit and purchase.

3. Dynamic brands grow with consumers; static brands expect consumers to stay the same.

The consumer who purchased milk from a horse-drawn delivery wagon in 1921 had different expectations from today's customer walking into a 1747 Bar & Lounge. The food business has changed, the consumer has changed, and the definition of convenience has changed. Every food retailer must change with them.

The Grocerant Guru® Bottom Line: Rutter’s 279-year story is not simply about surviving. It is about evolving. The brands that will thrive tomorrow are those that respect where they came from while remaining willing to challenge what they do today. Consumers are dynamic, not static. Your brand strategy should be, too.

Success Leaves Clues—Are You Ready to Find Yours?

Want to strengthen your brand’s connection with today’s consumers? Let’s talk. Call 253-759-7869 for more information.

Stay Ahead of the Competition with Fresh Ideas

Is your food marketing keeping up with tomorrow’s trends—or stuck in yesterday’s playbook? If you're ready for fresh ideations that set your brand apart, we’re here to help.

At Foodservice Solutions®, we specialize in consumer-driven retail food strategies that enhance convenience, differentiation, and individualization—key factors in driving growth.

Email us at Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Connect with us on social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

Chickahhhn! When Chicken, Hip-Hop and Culture Become Ingredients in a Winning Food Marketing Strategy

2026-11-03T00:03:00.000-08:00

What happens when a restaurant brand stops simply advertising its food and starts becoming part of the culture its customers enjoy? Well here is what Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® thinks.

You get something a little different from a traditional chicken commercial. You get music, nostalgia, social conversation, community participation and, hopefully, a reason for consumers to choose your restaurant.

Church’s Texas Chicken is taking that approach with its new original Southern hip-hop song and music video, “Chickahhhn,” featuring Memphis rapper Project Pat and Lil’ Lucky.

From the perspective of the Grocerant Guru®, this is more than a clever promotional campaign. It is an example of customer-focused, interactive and participatory food marketing. Church’s is attempting to connect its food with something consumers already enjoy: music, cultural identity, shared memories and entertainment.

That distinction matters.

Consumers do not spend their entire day thinking about restaurant brands. They spend time listening to music, watching videos, sharing social content, talking with friends and participating in cultural experiences. Food marketers who understand those behaviors have an opportunity to make their brands part of the conversation rather than interrupt it.

The objective is no longer simply to get consumers to see an advertisement. It is to give them something they want to experience, share and talk about.

The smartest ingredient: Church’s listened to its customers

One of the most interesting aspects of “Chickahhhn” is how the idea originated.

This was not simply a marketing department deciding that hip-hop might appeal to chicken customers. The campaign began with Lil’ Lucky creating his own Church’s-inspired version of Project Pat’s 2001 hit, “Chickenhead,” featuring Three 6 Mafia and La Chat.

That social media moment attracted the attention of Project Pat and Church’s creative agency, Brunner. Rather than ignore the organic conversation, Church’s recognized an opportunity and helped turn it into an official collaboration.

Fried Chicken, Biscuits & Sides+1

That is an important marketing lesson.

Listen first. Participate second. Promote third.

Consumers are increasingly capable of creating brand-related entertainment themselves. They remix, review, parody, photograph, record and share their experiences. When a retailer or restaurant recognizes that participation and responds authentically, it can turn a customer-created moment into a much larger brand experience.

Church’s also made several smart creative decisions:

· Cultural relevance: Project Pat brings an established Memphis and Southern hip-hop identity to the campaign.

· Nostalgia: The vintage Church’s logo, classic cars and throwback styling connect with consumers who remember earlier eras of the brand.

· New talent: Lil’ Lucky represents the emerging creator who helped spark the original conversation.

· Food identity: The campaign keeps chicken at the center rather than allowing the entertainment to completely overshadow the product.

· Community connection: The brand positions music as a way to bring people together, extending its relationship with customers beyond the transaction.

This is what I call participatory food marketing: creating an experience in which customers can become part of the brand conversation instead of remaining passive advertising audiences.

Proven examples: Food brands are becoming entertainment brands

Church’s is not alone. Several restaurant brands are recognizing that entertainment can create additional opportunities for consumer engagement.

1. KFC: Finger Lickin' Machine

2026

KFC released an original track, “Finger Lickin’ Machine,” with a music video featuring Colonel Sanders. Importantly, the campaign connected entertainment to its Value Feast offerings, including $7, $9 and $11 meal options.

This is a useful example because the music does not exist in isolation. It supports a specific value proposition and gives consumers something entertaining to associate with the food offer.

Restaurant Business Online+1

2. Wendy’s: Songs to Listen to in a Wendy’s Parking Lot

2026

Wendy’s released an original emo-style album with songs built around recognizable restaurant and relationship experiences.

The strategy is interesting because Wendy’s is not simply placing its logo beside popular music. It is creating branded entertainment with a personality of its own. Consumers can discover and share the content without first being interested in a traditional restaurant advertisement.

EMARKETER+1

3. Chipotle: From Ground to Sound

2026

Chipotle partnered with the London Vegetable Orchestra to record an original composition using instruments made from vegetables featured in its restaurants.

Corn, peppers, avocado pits, lettuce and onions became part of the musical experience. The idea connects food ingredients with creativity, sustainability storytelling and brand recognition.

It is an imaginative way to make ingredients themselves part of the entertainment.

PR Newswire+1

4. KFC and Spotify: Entertainment that can move customers into restaurants

There is also measurable evidence that music-related marketing can do more than generate views.

In a Spotify advertising case study, KFC promoted a free Cinnabon Dessert Biscuits offer with the purchase of a 10-piece meal. The campaign reportedly generated 85,000 store visits and a 17% lift in in-store visitation, 3.4 times the QSR benchmark cited in the case study.

That is an important distinction: this was an audio advertising and promotional offer campaign, not an original-song campaign. Nevertheless, it demonstrates how music environments, relevant food offers and convenient purchase opportunities can work together to encourage actual restaurant visits.

Spotify Advertising

The lesson is straightforward: entertainment can earn attention, but connecting that attention to an actionable food offer creates an opportunity to convert engagement into sales.

The Grocerant connection: Don't stop at the song

Here is where I believe Church’s and other restaurant operators can take this strategy further.

Food marketing should not end when the music video ends.

Consumers move between restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, delivery platforms and prepared-food departments without necessarily thinking about the traditional boundaries separating those channels.

They want food that fits their schedules, budgets, flavor preferences and social occasions.

That is the Grocerant Niche opportunity.

Imagine Church’s extending “Chickahhhn” into a complete consumer participation platform:

· Social media: Invite customers to create their own dance videos, food reactions and family chicken-meal moments using the campaign's original sound.

· In-store experiences: Host local Chickahhhn nights featuring regional DJs, community artists and customer-generated content.

· Meal bundles: Create family chicken meal deals that connect the campaign to a clear Price, Time and Flavor proposition.

· Hand-Held Marketing: Put QR codes on takeout packaging, receipts and promotional materials that lead directly to the music video, playlist or customer challenge.

· Community participation: Give emerging local artists opportunities to perform, collaborate and gain exposure through restaurant-based events.

· Cross-channel engagement: Make the campaign relevant to dine-in, takeout, drive-thru and delivery customers, not just those who visit a restaurant for the entertainment.

The important point is to give consumers a reason to participate and a reason to purchase.

A music video can generate awareness. A customer challenge can generate participation. A compelling meal deal can generate transactions. A memorable restaurant experience can generate repeat visits.

These are different marketing jobs, and the strongest campaigns connect them.

Measuring more than views and likes

Restaurant executives should resist the temptation to declare a campaign successful simply because a video attracts attention.

The real test is whether that attention creates measurable customer behavior.

Church’s should be evaluating:

1. Video views, completion rates and repeat listening.

2. Customer-created videos, shares and organic mentions.

3. QR-code scans and visits to campaign landing pages.

4. Redemption of campaign-related offers and meal bundles.

5. Incremental restaurant traffic and transaction counts.

6. Average check and repeat purchase behavior.

7. Participation and engagement in local communities.

There is also an important distinction between organic engagement and paid media exposure. A million impressions purchased through advertising are not necessarily equivalent to a million consumers choosing to share something because they genuinely enjoy it.

The objective should be to earn attention, encourage participation and connect both to a profitable food purchase.

Three Grocerant Guru® insights

1. Stop interrupting culture. Start participating in it.

Consumers don't need another restaurant advertisement telling them how good the chicken is. They need reasons to connect with a brand emotionally, socially and experientially. Church’s recognized a consumer-created social media moment and turned it into an opportunity. That is customer listening translated into marketing action.

2. Entertainment earns attention; food delivers the transaction.

A catchy song may get consumers talking, but the food, price, convenience and overall experience must close the deal. Connect cultural marketing to meal bundles, takeout, delivery and family occasions. Remember the Grocerant Guru's Price + Quality + Social + Portability = Value equation.

3. The next competitive advantage is consumer participation across channels.

Restaurants, grocery retailers and convenience stores should all be thinking about how customers can participate in their brands. Music, creators, social challenges, local events and interactive packaging can connect consumers to prepared meals wherever they shop. Don't think in channels. Think in consumer occasions.

The bottom line: Church’s Texas Chicken has an interesting opportunity with “Chickahhhn.” It has taken chicken, Southern hip-hop, nostalgia and a consumer-created social media moment and combined them into something bigger than a conventional food advertisement.

The Grocerant Guru® sees this as a reminder that successful food marketing is evolving. Consumers don't simply want to be marketed to. They want to be included, entertained, recognized and invited to participate.

The brands that understand that distinction will have an opportunity to earn more than a moment of attention. They can earn a place in consumers' conversations, purchasing decisions and everyday food experiences.

That's food marketing with a cultural beat and a commercial purpose.

Steven Johnson is the Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, Washington-based Foodservice Solutions®. Foodservice Solutions® identified and coined the Grocerant Niche in 1996 and continues to champion the intersection of retail foodservice, prepared foods and evolving consumer behavior.

DIG INN: The Restaurant Brand That Understands the Power of Real Food — and Has Room to Think Bigger

2026-11-02T00:02:00.000-08:00

The next competitive advantage in foodservice may not come from another new restaurant, another limited-time offer, or another celebrity chef partnership. It may come from a brand's ability to make fresh-prepared food more relevant to more consumers, across more occasions, with less friction between deciding what to eat and actually eating it.

That is where Dig Inn, now returning to its original name and identity, deserves a closer look.

From the perspective of Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson of Tacoma, WA-based Foodservice Solutions®, DIG occupies an interesting position at the intersection of restaurant food, fresh-prepared meals, customization, convenience, and the consumer's continuing desire to balance flavor, perceived quality, price, and time.

But a strong starting position is not the same as fully realizing a brand's potential.

The question is not simply whether DIG can sell another grain bowl or roasted vegetable plate. The more important question is whether DIG can become a more frequent answer to the consumer's everyday question: What's for dinner — and why should I get it from you?

To answer that question, we need to examine what the brand appears to be doing well, where its customer proposition could be stronger, and how it could extend its relevance beyond the traditional fast-casual restaurant occasion.

The Brand Story: From Dig Inn to DIG — and Back Again

DIG's recent history provides an important lesson in brand management: consumers do not always embrace the changes marketers believe they need.

The company shortened its name from Dig Inn to DIG in 2019. In June 2025, it announced a return to Dig Inn, responding to customer feedback and the emotional familiarity associated with the original name. Marketing Brew reported that customers continued asking what happened to “Inn,” sometimes questioning whether DIG was the same restaurant they remembered. The company also acknowledged the difficulty of distinguishing a generic word such as “dig” in online searches.

From the Grocerant Guru's perspective, that reversal is more than a naming decision. It is a reminder that brand equity lives in the consumer's memory, not exclusively in the marketer's brand guidelines.

The name Dig Inn communicates warmth, hospitality and a place to gather. Those qualities fit a restaurant built around scratch cooking and the familiar pleasures of a home-prepared meal. A shorter name might have created room for other business concepts, but expanding a brand's theoretical possibilities does not necessarily improve its everyday connection with customers.

The lesson for other restaurant operators is straightforward: listen when consumers tell you what your brand means to them.

The Website, Menu and Marketing: What DIG Is Doing

Research reviewed October 29, 2026, examined DIG's official website, published menu announcements, ordering and catering offerings, and reported marketing campaigns. This is a review of public-facing brand strategy, not an audit of private advertising expenditures or campaign performance.

DIG's website presents a clear promise: scratch-made food, seasonal ingredients, easy ordering and restaurant meals that can fit into everyday life. The brand promotes customizable bowls, delivery, catering, loyalty rewards and family dining occasions. Its seasonal messaging includes squash paired with maple tahini, while its website also promotes Thanksgiving preorders.

Several aspects of DIG's public-facing strategy deserve attention.

1. Seasonal food with recognizable ingredients

The fall 2026 menu, announced September 28, includes autumn farro with butternut squash, delicata squash with maple tahini, Brussels sprouts and cabbage with sweet chili crisp, and a lentil-and-chickpea salad with feta. These dishes make vegetables central to the eating experience rather than a token side dish.

2. Food that works beyond the individual lunch

The company offers family meals and catering alongside individual plates and bowls. Its catering site provides packages for small groups of approximately 8–10 people, medium groups of 18–20 and large groups of 28–30, with customizable combinations of proteins, bases and vegetable sides.

3. A digital convenience proposition

The brand advertises app ordering, delivery, line-skipping, introductory discounts, rewards and early access to menu items. Its published rewards program awards 10 points per dollar spent, with tier-based perks.

4. Comfort food that broadens the appeal

The 2025 summer menu included barbecue brisket, a Nashville hot crispy sandwich and family-style meal kits. This demonstrated that a scratch-cooked, vegetable-forward brand need not be confined to salads and wellness-oriented bowls.

5. Marketing with a recognizable story

The 2025 “Always Inn” campaign used nostalgia, restaurant-window murals, throwback pricing and references to the brand's earlier identity. Separately, the company has worked with food and lifestyle creators, including Persian-American creator Cyrus Veyssi on a sumac-yogurt chicken plate. These approaches give the brand more to talk about than product photography alone.

The common thread is important: DIG is not simply selling ingredients. It is selling the experience of getting a thoughtfully prepared meal without having to shop, prep, cook and clean up at home.

That is a compelling foundation for a grocerant strategy.

Five Things DIG Is Doing Right

1. Making Vegetables a Reason to Visit

Many restaurant menus treat vegetables as supporting cast. DIG gives produce, grains, sauces and contrasting textures a starring role. Seasonal offerings such as maple-tahini squash and herb-forward farro provide flavor cues that can make vegetable-rich meals feel satisfying, not obligatory.

Grocerant Guru verdict: Fresh-prepared vegetables can be an identity, not merely a side dish.

2. Connecting Lunch, Dinner and Family Meals

DIG's family meals and catering recognize that food decisions happen at different scales. One customer may need a quick individual lunch; another needs to feed a household of four; an office manager may need to feed 30 colleagues.

Grocerant Guru verdict: The customer is the same person, but the meal occasion, party size and purchase decision change.

3. Treating Scratch Cooking as a Differentiator

DIG's published messaging emphasizes preparation in its restaurant kitchens, house-made sauces and seasonal ingredients. Its 2026 fall menu reinforces that proposition with prepared grains and vegetables rather than relying entirely on generic menu language.

Grocerant Guru verdict: A food story becomes more valuable when the menu makes the promise tangible.

4. Using Digital Tools to Encourage Repeat Business

App ordering and a tiered loyalty program can reduce ordering friction and reward repeat purchases. Offering points on spending creates an opportunity to turn an occasional lunch customer into a regular dinner, takeout or catering customer.

Grocerant Guru verdict: Loyalty should be measured by how often customers return and how many occasions they entrust to the brand, not just how many people download an app.

5. Listening to Consumers and Evolving the Brand

Restoring the Dig Inn name after customer feedback shows a willingness to reconsider a strategic decision. Seasonal menus, cultural food collaborations and nostalgic promotions also provide different reasons for customers to re-engage.

Grocerant Guru verdict: Brand consistency matters, but so does recognizing when the consumer is telling you something the brand team missed.

Five Things DIG Could Do Better

These are strategic opportunities, not claims that DIG is failing in these areas. Public-facing materials provide evidence of its current offerings, but they do not establish actual customer retention, profitability, advertising return or store-level sales performance.

1. Make Everyday Value Easier to Understand

DIG's published menu lists a Classic DIG at $13.75 and a Vegan DIG Classic at $12.49 on the menu pages reviewed. Its fall family meal is listed at $48, and the Steak & Mash Family Meal at $60. Prices and availability can vary by location.

Those offerings provide a useful starting point, but consumers need help understanding the value proposition relative to cooking at home, buying a grocery deli meal or ordering from another restaurant.

The National Restaurant Association reported in 2025 that value offers resonate with eight in ten off-premises customers. Its research also highlighted consumer interest in bundled meals, loyalty rewards and flexible portion options.

What DIG could do: Introduce clearly priced weekday dinner bundles, smaller individual meals, and family bundles with a transparent per-person price. Make the savings and convenience easy to compare without relying on a discount for every purchase.

2. Own the Entire “What's for Dinner?” Decision

DIG already offers family meals, catering and individual dishes. The opportunity is to connect those products into a single, recognizable dinner solution.

What DIG could do: Launch a recurring Dinner Solved by DIG program with three choices: dinner for one, dinner for two, and dinner for four. Include a main dish, complementary vegetables or grains, and sauces in one convenient package.

Add optional snacks, beverages and a small dessert. Offer advance ordering for specific pickup times, and test subscriptions or prepaid dinner credits with no complicated commitment.

The goal is not to add menu items indiscriminately. It is to make DIG an easier answer to a question consumers ask every day.

3. Make the Home Dining Occasion as Important as the Restaurant Visit

DIG has expanded its proposition beyond lunch, but the next step is to market dinner as a complete occasion rather than an oversized lunch order.

What DIG could do: Create dinner-specific campaigns showing how its prepared foods fit into actual household routines: a parent arriving home late, a couple needing a quick meal, or a family with different preferences.

Test packaging designed to preserve temperature and texture, clear reheating instructions where needed, and optional separate packaging for sauces and crisp vegetables.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 research found that nearly 75% of restaurant traffic occurred off-premises. It also identified food quality, packaging, convenience and price as important elements of the off-premises value equation.

DIG should ensure that the food experience travels as well as the brand story.

4. Turn Seasonal Menu Innovation into Repeatable Customer Habits

DIG's seasonal menus generate reasons to return, but a succession of new dishes does not automatically create habitual visits.

What DIG could do: Establish a few recognizable menu platforms that customers can anticipate throughout the year: a signature vegetable side, a seasonal family dinner, a rotating global-flavor bowl, and a limited-time comfort-food feature.

Pair each new offering with a clear reason to try it, an easy way to add it to a regular order, and a follow-up reward that encourages another visit.

Measure whether seasonal items attract new customers, bring lapsed customers back, increase add-on purchases or simply replace another item the customer would have bought anyway.

The goal is profitable incremental demand, not novelty for novelty's sake.

5. Make Its Marketing More Explicit About the Problem It Solves

DIG's public messaging features scratch-made food, seasonal dishes, app rewards, family meals and catering. Its brand campaigns have also used nostalgia and creator partnerships. Those are useful assets, but the brand has an opportunity to unify them around one customer promise.

What DIG could do: Build campaigns around three simple propositions: Lunch Made Better. Dinner Made Easier. Groups Fed Well.

Use short videos, local advertising, app messaging and creator partnerships to demonstrate actual meals, prices, portions and occasions. Track customer acquisition cost, repeat purchase rate, dinner-order frequency, catering conversion and incremental sales rather than treating social engagement as the ultimate measure of success.

The strongest creative idea is not necessarily another close-up of a beautifully roasted vegetable. It is a credible demonstration of how DIG makes a consumer's day easier and the meal more satisfying.

The Grocerant Guru's Strategic Assessment

DIG has a useful foundation: scratch-made food, vegetable-forward menu development, customization, digital ordering, loyalty, family meals and catering. Its website already shows several components of a broader fresh-prepared food strategy.

The opportunity is to connect those components into one more powerful consumer proposition.

From the Grocerant Guru's perspective, restaurants should not think only in terms of lunch traffic, dinner traffic, catering sales or app orders. Those are operational categories. Consumers think in terms of hunger, schedules, budgets, preferences and the people they need to feed.

DIG can compete more effectively by solving more of those needs with the same culinary capabilities.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

Insight 1: Stop Competing Only with Restaurants. Compete for the Entire Meal Occasion.

The consumer does not wake up deciding whether to buy from a fast-casual restaurant, a supermarket deli or a convenience store. The consumer decides what to eat, how much time is available, what it should cost and who will be eating.

DIG could create a DIG Dinner Market proposition featuring prepared proteins, vegetables, grains, sauces and complete family meals in flexible quantities. The strategy would be to make DIG relevant to the same consumer who might otherwise assemble dinner from several grocery deli items.

The outside-the-box opportunity: Test take-home meal components, family bundles and advance-order dinner packages that extend DIG's relevance without requiring a new restaurant format.

Insight 2: Manage the Price + Quality + Social + Portability Equation.

The Grocerant Guru's Price Value Service Equilibrium is a useful way to think about DIG's growth. Price matters, but consumers also assess the quality of the food, how it fits the occasion, whether it can be shared, and how easily it travels.

A $48 family meal may be attractive to one household and too expensive for another. An individual meal may be convenient but insufficient for a customer who wants dinner and leftovers.

The outside-the-box opportunity: Offer a deliberate range of portion sizes and meal formats, and test each against customer willingness to pay. Measure total meal value and repeat purchasing rather than simply lowering entrée prices.

Insight 3: Turn One Transaction into Multiple Weekly Occasions.

DIG's app, rewards program, seasonal menus, catering and family meals can become a coordinated system rather than separate marketing initiatives.

Imagine a customer who orders a weekday lunch, receives a relevant offer for a family dinner, earns a reward for a second visit, and later uses the same account to order office catering. Each interaction can build familiarity and increase the number of occasions when DIG comes to mind.

The outside-the-box opportunity: Develop a cross-occasion customer strategy that rewards frequency and broader usage, while measuring incremental visits, household penetration and customer lifetime value.

The Final Word

DIG's return to its original name offers a lesson that extends beyond branding: customers ultimately decide what a company means to them. Its seasonal menu, scratch cooking, digital ordering and family-meal offerings give it a platform for growth, but the bigger opportunity is to become more deeply embedded in everyday food decisions.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 research reinforces the importance of off-premises convenience, value and broader meal options.

DIG should build on that environment by connecting restaurant quality with household convenience, making the value of complete meals clearer, and creating reasons to return across more than one daypart.

The Grocerant Guru's challenge to DIG: Don't settle for being the place consumers choose when they want a good bowl. Become the brand they think of when they want good food, less hassle and a meal that fits the moment — whether that moment is lunch at work, dinner at home or feeding a crowd.

That's how a restaurant brand can move beyond the menu and earn a bigger share of the consumer's stomach.

Holiday Menus Are No Longer Just Seasonal Specials: They’re an AUV Growth Strategy

2026-11-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Grocerant Guru®: Why restaurants must connect price, time, and flavor across dine-in, takeout, delivery, and in-store meal components to win more holiday food dollars.

The holiday menu battle has already begun. But here is the question every restaurant operator, foodservice executive, and retail foodservice leader should be asking: Are your holiday menus simply creating seasonal excitement, or are they giving consumers more reasons to spend with your brand?

In its October 26, 2026, menu roundup, Restaurant Business highlighted an early wave of Thanksgiving and Christmas offerings, from Cracker Barrel’s Country Fried Turkey and Popeyes’ Cajun-Style Turkey to PDQ’s Thanksgiving Sandwich, Sonic’s seasonal beverages, and customizable hibachi bowls at Benihana.

The message is bigger than turkey, peppermint, cranberry, or pumpkin spice. Restaurants are using familiar holiday flavors, limited-time offers, handheld meals, customizable bowls, beverages, and family bundles to attract different consumers and occasions.

From the perspective of the Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson, these developments point to a more important opportunity: Holiday menu innovation should be designed to grow the entire food occasion, not simply sell another entrée.

That means understanding the relationship between meals and meal components, and how consumers move between in-store dining, takeout, delivery, grocery prepared foods, and other convenient foodservice options.

The winners will be the brands that meet consumers at the intersection of price, time, and flavor.

The Food Facts: Consumers Still Want Restaurant Food, but Value Matters

The restaurant industry enters the 2026 holiday season with a compelling challenge. Consumers continue to seek restaurant experiences, yet affordability and convenience increasingly influence where, when, and how much they spend.

Consider these recent industry findings:

· $1.55 trillion: The National Restaurant Association projected U.S. restaurant industry sales would reach $1.55 trillion in 2026. That is a measure of the industry's enormous opportunity, not a guarantee that every restaurant will grow its sales or profitability.

· 61%: In the National Restaurant Association's 2026 industry reporting, 61% of consumers said restaurants remain an essential part of their lifestyle despite tighter budgets.

· 75%: Nearly three-quarters of restaurant traffic now occurs off-premises, according to the National Restaurant Association's 2025 Off-Premises Restaurant Trends report.

· 51%: In the association's 2025 industry report, 51% of consumers said ordering restaurant takeout was essential to their lifestyle.

· 41%: The same report found that 41% considered restaurant delivery essential to their lifestyle.

· 8 in 10: Approximately eight in ten off-premises customers said value deals, including limited-time offers, buy-one-get-one promotions, and discounts for ordering at less busy times, appealed to them.

Sources: National Restaurant Association's 2026 State of the Restaurant Industry and 2025 Off-Premises Restaurant Trends.

These findings reinforce a critical distinction: consumers are not necessarily abandoning restaurant food. They are evaluating how restaurant food fits their budgets, schedules, and eating occasions.

That creates a holiday opportunity. Rather than relying on a single expensive holiday dinner, operators can offer multiple ways to participate in the season.

A consumer might purchase a complete Thanksgiving meal on one occasion, a turkey sandwich for lunch on another, a seasonal coffee during a shopping trip, and a family bundle for a busy evening at home.

In a Battle for SHARE OF STOMACH

The holiday opportunity is not one transaction. It is a series of connected food occasions.

Why Now? Holiday Planning Must Start Before the Holiday Rush

Halloween has barely passed, yet consumers and operators are already looking toward Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the winter entertaining season.

There is a reason this timing matters. Holiday meal planning involves more than deciding what to eat. Consumers must coordinate shopping, work schedules, school activities, travel, family gatherings, budgets, and the amount of time available for food preparation.

Restaurants that wait until the last minute to introduce holiday solutions risk missing consumers who are already deciding where to buy their meals and components.

The opportunity is to make holiday planning easier before schedules become crowded.

Consider the strategies already appearing in restaurant menus:

· Popeyes offers a fully cooked Cajun-style turkey that consumers can thaw, heat, and serve.

· Cowboy Chicken provides a take-home turkey feast, a smaller family meal, and an individual turkey plate.

· Cracker Barrel extends turkey into both a traditional dinner and a handheld sandwich.

· PDQ translates Thanksgiving flavors into a sandwich, while Polly's Pies uses sliders and other portable formats.

· Caribou Coffee and Sonic use seasonal beverages to create additional reasons to visit during the holiday period.

These examples illustrate several distinct purchase occasions: the family gathering, the individual meal, the quick lunch, the shopping break, and the seasonal treat.

The strategic lesson is straightforward: One holiday flavor profile can support several products, price points, portion sizes, and occasions.

That is how operators can increase the number of relevant consumer touchpoints without treating every item as an entirely separate innovation project.

The Grocerant Niche: Meals and Meal Components Are Connected

For years, food companies have tended to organize their strategies around channels. Restaurants compete with restaurants. Grocery stores compete with grocery stores. Convenience stores compete with convenience stores.

Consumers do not necessarily think that way.

When someone needs dinner, the competition is among the available solutions to that need. Those solutions might include a restaurant family meal, grocery deli turkey and sides, a convenience-store hot sandwich, a delivered entrée, or a combination of prepared and ready-to-eat foods assembled at home.

This is the consumer reality at the heart of the Grocerant Niche.

Consumers are not shopping in silos. They are assembling solutions to eating occasions.

A holiday menu becomes more powerful when it recognizes that a complete meal and a meal component can serve the same consumer at different times.

A family may purchase a full turkey dinner for Thanksgiving but choose prepared mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegetables, rolls, and dessert from different providers for another gathering. A consumer who does not want a full dinner may still purchase a turkey sandwich, a seasonal soup, a side dish, or a festive beverage.

Each purchase addresses a different combination of appetite, budget, convenience, and occasion.

The practical implication for restaurant operators is to develop a holiday menu architecture, not merely a holiday entrée.

That architecture could include:

· Individual meals for solo diners.

· Handheld sandwiches and wraps for consumers on the move.

· Family bundles that simplify dinner planning.

· Shareable sides and add-ons for gatherings.

· Prepared proteins that complement food already at home.

· Desserts and seasonal beverages that create an additional purchase occasion.

· Take-home feasts for consumers who want the holiday experience without doing all the cooking.

These products should complement one another rather than simply compete for the same transaction.

The AUV Equation: Price + Time + Flavor = A Stronger Value Proposition

Average unit volume, or AUV, measures the average sales generated by an individual restaurant location over a defined period. It is an important performance measure, although the definition and calculation period can vary by company.

If an operator wants to increase AUV, adding a seasonal menu item is not enough. The item must generate incremental demand, increase purchase frequency, encourage add-on sales, or attract spending that might otherwise go to another provider.

From the Grocerant Guru's perspective, three forces shape that opportunity.

1. Price: Give Consumers a Reason to Say Yes

Holiday meals can become expensive quickly. Consumers may want festive food but still need to manage household budgets.

That makes price architecture essential.

A restaurant could offer an individual turkey plate, a two-person meal, a family bundle, and a larger take-home feast. Each format serves a different need and establishes a clear entry point.

The objective is not to make every meal the cheapest option. It is to make the value understandable.

A clearly priced bundle can help consumers calculate what they are receiving. An entrée-and-side combination can simplify ordering. A smaller portion can give a budget-conscious consumer access to a seasonal favorite without requiring the purchase of a full meal.

The opportunity extends to add-ons. Cranberry relish, extra gravy, seasonal vegetables, rolls, and dessert may provide useful incremental sales when they are priced and presented appropriately.

The food fact to remember: The National Restaurant Association reported in 2025 that value deals appealed to roughly eight in ten off-premises customers. Value is not just a discount; it is the customer's assessment of what the price delivers.

2. Time: Sell Back a Piece of the Consumer's Day

During the holidays, time becomes a scarce resource.

Consumers are shopping, traveling, working, entertaining, and managing family obligations. A convenient meal can be valuable because it reduces preparation, cleanup, planning, or waiting.

This is why a fully cooked turkey, a ready-to-heat side dish, a family meal bundle, and a quick seasonal sandwich can all be relevant within the same holiday strategy.

They address different levels of time pressure.

A fully prepared feast solves a larger hosting problem. A takeout family meal solves dinner tonight. A handheld sandwich addresses a lunch break. A seasonal beverage fits into a shopping trip.

The operator's challenge is to make the purchase and fulfillment experience as convenient as the menu promises.

That means accurate digital menus, clear pickup instructions, dependable preparation times, appropriate packaging, and a straightforward way to order additional components.

The food fact to remember: The National Restaurant Association's 2025 research found that 47% of adults picked up restaurant, coffee-shop, snack-shop, or deli takeout at least weekly, while 37% ordered delivery weekly. These are different behaviors, but both demonstrate the importance of making restaurant food accessible beyond the dining room.

3. Flavor: Familiar Holiday Favorites Need Fresh Formats

Seasonal flavors provide a reason to try something new while maintaining a connection to familiar traditions.

Turkey, cranberry, stuffing, gravy, cinnamon, peppermint, chocolate, apple, and pumpkin can evoke the holiday season. But their commercial value depends on how they are used.

Cracker Barrel's turkey sandwich, PDQ's Thanksgiving Sandwich, and Polly's Pies' Turkey Day Sliders illustrate how familiar holiday components can be adapted to portable formats.

Caribou Coffee's seasonal beverages and Sonic's holiday drinks show how a flavor story can extend beyond traditional meals.

Other operators can build on the same principle by adapting seasonal flavors into bowls, wraps, snacks, sauces, sides, desserts, and beverages.

The goal is not to put every holiday ingredient into every product. It is to give consumers a recognizable flavor cue in a format that fits their occasion.

The food fact to remember: A limited-time offer creates a defined reason to consider a purchase, but novelty alone does not guarantee sales. Flavor relevance, product quality, price, availability, and execution determine whether trial turns into repeat business.

Takeout, Delivery, and In-Store Dining Must Work Together

Here is where holiday menu planning becomes a broader growth strategy.

A restaurant should not design its in-store menu, takeout menu, and delivery menu as unrelated businesses. Each is a different way to serve the consumer, and each can contribute to the same brand relationship.

The products may need different packaging, portioning, pricing, or preparation methods. Delivery economics may require different promotions than pickup. Some items may be better suited to the dining room than to a 20-minute trip home.

But the overall food proposition should remain connected.

Consider a holiday turkey platform:

In-store: A traditional turkey dinner with sides, seasonal dessert, and a beverage.

Takeout: A family bundle with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, and rolls.

Delivery: A carefully designed meal package that maintains food quality during transport and makes portions and add-ons easy to understand.

Meal components: Individual sides, extra gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls, desserts, and other items that can supplement a meal already being prepared at home.

Handheld options: A turkey sandwich or slider that uses familiar holiday ingredients in a more portable format.

This approach allows the same underlying menu platform to serve different occasions. It also gives consumers several entry points into the brand.

However, operators must protect product quality. Crisp items should not become soggy in transit, hot and cold components may require separate packaging, and instructions for reheating should be clear. A bundle that looks appealing on a menu but arrives poorly prepared can damage the very value proposition it was designed to strengthen.

The objective is consistent food value across different purchase occasions, not identical execution across every channel.

Holiday Menu Ideations: Six Ways to Create More Purchase Occasions

The following are strategic menu concepts, not claims about products already offered by the named restaurant brands.

1. The Holiday Flavor Flight

Offer a selection of small seasonal items, such as a turkey slider, a savory side, and a miniature dessert.

This format could appeal to consumers who want to sample holiday flavors without committing to a full dinner. It could also serve as a lunch, snack, or shareable appetizer.

The AUV opportunity comes from creating an additional occasion and potentially encouraging consumers to add a beverage or another item.

2. The Build-Your-Own Holiday Dinner

Let consumers select a protein, two or three sides, and an optional dessert from a clearly priced menu.

Possible proteins include turkey, chicken, ham, or a plant-forward entrée. Sides might include mashed potatoes, stuffing, roasted vegetables, cranberry relish, or macaroni and cheese.

This structure offers choice without forcing consumers to purchase a one-size-fits-all package.

It can also accommodate smaller households that do not need a large feast.

3. The Holiday Meal Rescue Kit

Create a take-home combination of a prepared protein, two sides, gravy or sauce, and simple finishing instructions.

The message is simple: Let the operator handle the most time-consuming parts of dinner while the consumer supplies the remaining elements.

A smaller kit could serve two people, while larger formats could address family dinners or informal gatherings.

The concept is particularly suited to takeout and advance ordering.

4. The Handheld Holiday Collection

Translate seasonal meals into sandwiches, wraps, sliders, or other portable formats.

Turkey and cranberry, chicken with savory stuffing-inspired toppings, or a roasted vegetable sandwich with a seasonal sauce could create options for consumers who want holiday flavors without a traditional plated meal.

These items may fit lunch, shopping breaks, quick dinners, and other occasions when a full meal is impractical.

5. The Holiday Side-Dish Exchange

Offer individual prepared sides in portions that consumers can purchase separately or combine into a multi-side package.

This strategy recognizes that consumers may already have a main dish at home but need help completing the meal.

It also offers an alternative for people who want one or two restaurant-quality components rather than a full catering order.

The opportunity is to capture food spending that a traditional entrée-centered menu might overlook.

6. The Seasonal Finish

Build a deliberate attachment strategy around beverages, desserts, sauces, and shareable treats.

A cinnamon beverage, peppermint dessert, seasonal cookie, cranberry drink, or limited-time dipping sauce can give consumers a reason to add one more item to an order.

Operators should track attachment rates, incremental sales, product costs, and waste to determine which additions genuinely improve performance.

The important distinction is between an add-on that increases the check and an add-on that merely replaces another purchase. Only the former necessarily creates incremental sales.

How to Turn Holiday Innovation Into Higher AUV

Menu creativity matters, but the numbers must work.

Operators should measure holiday performance by channel, daypart, item, and occasion rather than relying exclusively on total seasonal sales.

Five measures deserve particular attention:

1. Average check: Are customers spending more per transaction, and is the increase incremental?

2. Purchase frequency: Are seasonal offerings bringing customers back for another occasion?

3. Attachment rate: Are customers adding sides, beverages, desserts, or other components?

4. Channel mix: Are takeout, delivery, and in-store purchases contributing additional sales without unnecessarily cannibalizing one another?

5. Contribution margin: After food, packaging, labor, discounts, and applicable delivery costs, which offers contribute most effectively to profitability?

AUV can rise while profitability deteriorates if operators rely too heavily on discounting or fail to account for fulfillment costs. Sales growth and profit growth must be evaluated together.

Advance-order promotions can help forecast demand. Bundles can simplify ordering and production. Limited-time offers can encourage trial. Loyalty communications can remind existing customers about relevant products and ordering deadlines.

Yet the execution must be disciplined. Restaurants need accurate inventory forecasts, sensible menu complexity, clear digital merchandising, and products that travel well.

The strongest holiday menu is not necessarily the one with the most items. It is the one that creates the right reasons to buy, makes ordering easy, and produces profitable sales.

The Bottom Line: Follow the Consumer, Not the Channel

The early arrival of Thanksgiving and Christmas menus offers an important lesson for the restaurant industry.

The opportunity is not limited to selling a holiday turkey dinner or a peppermint beverage. It is about recognizing that consumers experience food through multiple occasions and purchase formats.

A customer who buys a family meal today may purchase a sandwich tomorrow, a side dish next week, and a seasonal beverage during a shopping trip. The brand that understands those occasions has more opportunities to earn the next purchase.

From the Grocerant Guru's perspective, the lines separating restaurant meals, grocery prepared foods, convenience-store foodservice, takeout, delivery, and in-store dining matter less to consumers than the solution each provides.

If you want AUVs to go up, meet consumers at the intersection of price, time, and flavor.

Make the price make sense. Make the meal fit the schedule. Make the flavor worth coming back for.

Then make it available wherever and however the consumer wants to purchase it.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Stop marketing only the holiday entrée; market the entire eating occasion.

A turkey dinner, a turkey sandwich, a side-dish bundle, and a seasonal beverage can serve different needs while reinforcing one seasonal platform. The opportunity is to build more purchase occasions around a consistent flavor story.

2. Convenience is not a channel strategy; it is a consumer value proposition.

Takeout, delivery, in-store dining, and individual meal components are connected expressions of the same need. Design each to work operationally, but manage them as parts of a broader consumer relationship.

3. AUV growth begins when consumers see more reasons to buy, not simply more items to choose from.

Price, time, and flavor must work together. Use holiday innovation to increase relevant occasions, encourage profitable add-ons, and bring customers back. Measure incremental sales and contribution margin, not just promotional excitement.

The Grocerant Guru® perspective is clear: The holiday winners will be the brands that make great food easier to buy, easier to enjoy, and easier to fit into real life.

Tap into the Foodservice Solutions® team for greater understanding of New Electricity or for a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®. Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Trick-or-Treat, Then Eat! Four Grocerant Meal Ideas That Keep Halloween Fun for the Whole Family

2026-10-31T00:31:00.000-07:00

Halloween presents a familiar family challenge: How do you let kids enjoy the excitement of Trick-or-Treating while making sure everyone gets a satisfying meal? The answer may be hiding in plain sight at your favorite restaurant, grocery deli, or convenience store according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

On October 31, time is precious. Costumes need adjusting, candy bags need filling, neighbors are waiting at the door, and parents still need to get dinner on the table. Who wants to spend an hour cooking when the neighborhood is calling?

That is where the Grocerant Niche comes into play. Restaurants, grocery stores, and convenience stores give families more ways to combine ready-to-eat (RTE) and heat-and-eat (HnE) foods into convenient meals that fit their schedules, budgets, and appetites.

The consumer takeaway is simple: Dinner does not have to compete with Halloween. With a little planning and a mix-and-match mindset, families can eat well, enjoy more time together, and get the kids out the door for Trick-or-Treating.

Four Family-Fun Ideas for Halloween Night

1. Build a Spooky Pizza Party Before Trick-or-Treating

Pizza is a natural family meal solution because it is easy to share, simple to customize, and readily available from restaurants and grocery retailers.

Pick up a cheese pizza, a pepperoni pie, or a combination of both. Add a grocery deli salad, fresh-cut fruit, and a few vegetable sticks to round out the meal. Let children help arrange olives, peppers, or other toppings into spooky faces before the pizza goes into the oven—or order a prepared pizza and make the presentation part of the fun.

The family fun: Hold a five-minute Halloween pizza-face contest. Everyone votes for the funniest, scariest, or silliest creation.

The Grocerant advantage: One meal can combine restaurant-prepared pizza, grocery deli sides, and fresh produce without requiring parents to prepare everything from scratch.

Serve dinner early enough to allow kids to eat before heading out. Families with younger children can then enjoy a shorter Trick-or-Treat route, while older kids can head out with an agreed-upon plan.

2. Create a Monster Mix-and-Match Meal

Why insist that every family member eat the same entrée when a few complementary components can make everyone happy?

Visit the grocery deli or a convenience store with a substantial prepared-food selection. Mix and match items such as rotisserie chicken, baked potato wedges, mac and cheese, prepared vegetables, fruit cups, or sandwiches.

Let each family member build a plate around a favorite item. Younger children might prefer chicken and fruit, while adults can add vegetables and a more substantial side.

The family fun: Give every family member a monster-themed plate. Use cucumber slices for eyes, carrot sticks for monster hair, and fruit to create silly faces.

The Grocerant advantage: Families can combine different foods from different retail channels, helping accommodate individual preferences without preparing multiple meals at home.

The lesson for food retailers is worth remembering: Consumers do not necessarily shop by channel when they are hungry. They shop for the food, flavor, convenience, and value that solve the occasion.

3. Host a Halloween Hand-Held Food Feast

Halloween is a natural occasion for portable food. Families need something satisfying that can be eaten quickly before the costumes go on and the candy hunt begins.

Consider restaurant chicken tenders, sliders, wraps, handheld tacos, or prepared sandwiches. Pair them with grocery deli pasta salad, apple slices, grapes, or a simple green salad.

Arrange everything on a family platter and let everyone choose their own combination.

The family fun: Hold a costume runway while dinner is served. Each family member gets a turn to show off a costume, tell a Halloween joke, or invent a character name.

The Grocerant advantage: Hand-held foods are easy to portion and customize. They also make it practical to offer different combinations without buying an entirely separate meal for each person.

One important reminder: Have children sit down to eat before heading out. Food should not become a distraction while they are crossing streets or walking between houses. Packaged snacks can wait until the family returns home.

4. Turn the Post-Trick-or-Treat Return Into a Family Supper Celebration

Not every family wants to eat before Trick-or-Treating. For those who prefer an early outing, a planned meal waiting at home can make the evening easier.

Pick up a heat-and-eat entrée, such as prepared lasagna, enchiladas, baked pasta, or a family-size casserole. Add a bagged salad, prepared vegetables, or whole-grain rolls. Refrigerate the food promptly and reheat it according to package instructions when everyone returns.

For families who want a lighter meal, soup and sandwiches or prepared grain bowls offer another option.

The family fun: After returning home, let each child share a favorite costume sighting, the funniest thing that happened, or the most memorable house on the route. Parents can join in before the family settles down to dinner.

The Grocerant advantage: Heat-and-eat meals reduce last-minute kitchen work and let families control when dinner happens. A planned meal also gives parents an opportunity to serve something more balanced than candy and snacks alone.

Food safety matters, too. Keep perishable foods refrigerated until serving, avoid leaving prepared food at room temperature for extended periods, and reheat leftovers properly.

The Bigger Halloween Lesson: Convenience Can Bring Families Together

Halloween is more than a candy holiday. It is a time when families create traditions, spend time with neighbors, and make memories that children may carry into adulthood.

Food retailers have an opportunity to help make those traditions easier. Restaurants can offer family bundles and customizable entrées. Grocery delis can supply ready-to-eat sides and complete meal components. Convenience stores can provide quick solutions for families who need food close to home or along the way.

The most effective strategy is not necessarily to sell a complete meal in one package. It is to give consumers the flexibility to assemble a meal that works for their household, their schedule, and their budget.

That is the power of the Grocerant Niche: Fresh-prepared foods, ready-to-eat selections, and heat-and-eat meal components that meet consumers where they are.

Consumers are dynamic, not static. On Halloween, they may want pizza before Trick-or-Treating, hand-held foods for a quick dinner, or a prepared entrée after the kids return home. Retailers that recognize the occasion—and make meal planning easier—can earn a place in the family's routine.

The question for families is not whether dinner should happen on Halloween. It is how to make dinner work around the fun.

And the question for retailers is whether their food solutions are convenient enough to become part of the celebration.

Retailers: Stop Selling Ingredients. Start Selling Meal Solutions.

Halloween is not just a seasonal event. It is a test of how well food retailers understand the consumer's real-life needs. Families do not wake up on October 31 thinking about retail channels. They think about costumes, candy, neighborhood traditions, hungry children, time constraints, and what is for dinner.

That is your opportunity—and your call to action.

Restaurants, grocery retailers, and convenience stores must stop expecting consumers to assemble every meal solution on their own. Instead, make the decision easier. Bundle the entrée, sides, beverages, and appropriate add-ons. Merchandise ready-to-eat (RTE) and heat-and-eat (HnE) foods together. Offer family-size and individual portions, transparent pricing, and combinations that accommodate different tastes and schedules.

Do not simply promote pizza, chicken, sandwiches, salads, or prepared entrées as separate products. Market the occasion. Sell the solution. Make the meal easy to buy.

For Halloween, that means a Trick-or-Treat Dinner Bundle. For November, it means Thanksgiving Flavor Combos, Leftover Remix Meal Kits, and Family Game-Night Feasts. Each should be designed around a specific consumer need, with convenient pickup, clear value, and minimal preparation.

Retailers should also measure what matters: bundle attachment rates, average transaction value, repeat purchases, food waste, and the incremental sales generated by cross-merchandising meal components. Test the offers, track the results, and refine the combinations using actual shopper behavior—not assumptions about what consumers should want.

Most importantly, stop protecting channel boundaries that consumers have already moved beyond. A family may purchase its entrée at a restaurant, its sides at a grocery deli, and its beverages or snacks at a convenience store. The winning retailer is the one that earns a larger share of that meal occasion by delivering the right combination of price, quality, convenience, portability, and value.

The Grocerant Niche is not simply about prepared food. It is about recognizing that consumers increasingly want flexible solutions that fit their lives.

Retailer challenge: Before the next major food occasion, identify three consumer problems your current assortment does not solve. Build three meal bundles to address them. Promote them where shoppers make decisions, make the value obvious, and measure the incremental business.

Halloween offers the immediate test. November offers the next opportunity. The retailers that act now can make convenience a competitive advantage, turn complementary products into larger baskets, and give consumers another reason to return.

The Grocerant Guru® bottom line: Do not wait for consumers to figure out how your products fit together. Show them. Bundle the solution, own the occasion, and earn your share of stomach.

Three Grocerant Guru® Ideations for November

1. November's Mix-and-Match Comfort Meal

Combine grocery deli roasted turkey or rotisserie chicken with prepared mashed potatoes, vegetables, and dinner rolls. Add cranberry sauce and let family members build their own plates. It is a simple way to bring Thanksgiving flavors to the table without preparing a full holiday feast.

Retailer opportunity: Merchandise the components together, offer a clear bundle price, and give shoppers an easy path to a complete comfort-food meal.

2. The Ultimate Leftover Remix

Turn leftover turkey or chicken into restaurant-inspired wraps, grocery deli sandwiches, grain bowls, or convenient soup-and-sandwich combinations. Add fresh vegetables and a flavorful sauce to make familiar ingredients feel new.

Retailer opportunity: Promote complementary meal components that help shoppers stretch their food dollars, refresh leftovers, and reduce food waste.

3. The November Family Game-Night Feast

Combine restaurant pizza or sliders with grocery deli salads, prepared vegetables, fruit, and a warm heat-and-eat appetizer. Put the food in the middle of the table, choose a family game, and let everyone assemble a plate.

Retailer opportunity: Build and promote complete game-night solutions instead of relying on shoppers to discover complementary products on their own.

The Grocerant Guru® takeaway: November is a month of gatherings, changing schedules, and comfort-food cravings. Retailers that make it easy to mix, match, and share fresh-prepared foods can help families spend less time preparing meals and more time enjoying one another.

That is not simply convenience. It is value delivered when consumers need it most.

The winning strategy is clear: Understand the occasion. Make the meal easier. Give consumers a reason to buy more than one item—and a reason to come back.

Success Leaves Clues—Are You Ready to Find Yours?

Want to strengthen your brand’s connection with today’s consumers? Let’s talk. Call 253-759-7869 for more information.

Kroger vs. Albertsons: One Has a Growth Plan, the Other Needs a Turnaround. Will Either Win Tomorrow’s Food Customer?

2026-10-30T00:30:00.000-07:00

The supermarket wars are no longer just about price, purchasing power, or store count. Kroger is trying to build its next growth engine. Albertsons is trying to reverse weakening sales. Both must prove that legacy supermarket brands can remain relevant to consumers who increasingly find food solutions everywhere according the Grocerant Guru®.

For decades, traditional supermarkets built their businesses around weekly shopping trips, stocked pantries, fresh produce, meat departments, center-store aisles, and loyalty programs. That model helped make supermarkets central to American food shopping.

But the consumer has changed.

Today, dinner might come from a grocery deli, a restaurant drive-through, a convenience store, a warehouse club, a meal kit, or a combination of food purchased across several channels. Consumers increasingly choose the solution that best fits the occasion, budget, schedule, and appetite.

That creates a difficult question for Kroger and Albertsons: Are they transforming themselves into more relevant food businesses, or are they still fighting yesterday’s supermarket battles while competitors capture tomorrow’s eating occasions?

According to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, Washington-based Foodservice Solutions®, the real competitive threat is not simply another supermarket. It is the retailer, restaurant, or foodservice operator that makes satisfying the next meal easier.

Kroger vs. Albertsons: The Performance Gap Is Becoming More Important

The failed $24.6 billion merger between Kroger and Albertsons was supposed to create a larger supermarket competitor with greater purchasing power and the ability to compete more effectively against Walmart, Costco, Amazon, and other retailers.

Federal and state courts blocked the proposed transaction in December 2024, and Kroger terminated the merger agreement. The companies were left to pursue their futures independently.

Now the comparison is more revealing than the merger debate itself.

Their latest reported second-quarter results for fiscal 2026 show two different operating situations. Kroger reported modest positive identical sales and substantial adjusted e-commerce growth. Albertsons reported declining identical sales, slower overall revenue, and a need to accelerate its turnaround.

The latest numbers tell a different story

Performance measure	Kroger	Albertsons
Latest reported fiscal Q2	Ended Aug. 15, 2026	Ended Sept. 12, 2026
Identical sales	+0.2%	−0.8%
Digital/e-commerce sales growth	+20% adjusted e-commerce	+11% digital
Strategic direction	Multi-year growth and modernization plan	Accelerated turnaround and cost reduction
Immediate challenge	Reignite comparable sales growth	Reverse sales weakness while improving profitability

Sources: Kroger's second-quarter results and Albertsons' second-quarter results. The fiscal quarters ended on different dates, and the companies' digital-sales measures are not identical, so these figures are directional comparisons rather than perfectly like-for-like measures.

The contrast matters.

Kroger's 0.2% identical-sales growth is positive, but it is hardly evidence of a powerful sales engine. The company also lowered its full-year 2026 identical-sales outlook. Its 20% adjusted e-commerce growth is encouraging, although digital growth must ultimately translate into profitable customer relationships and stronger overall sales.

Albertsons faces a more immediate problem. Its 0.8% identical-sales decline suggests that its existing business is not generating the sales momentum management needs. Digital sales increased 11%, but that growth was not sufficient to prevent the decline in identical sales.

Albertsons also announced a comprehensive business review, accelerated cost-saving efforts, and the withdrawal of its fiscal 2026 financial outlook.

The key distinction: Kroger is trying to accelerate a growth strategy. Albertsons is trying to repair its operating performance while building its next strategy.

Neither position guarantees success. But the companies are not starting from the same place.

Kroger: A Defined Plan, but Execution Is the Test

On October 20, 2026, Kroger outlined a multi-year strategy to build what it calls America's Favorite Grocer.

Its stated priorities include investing in fresh food and meals, strengthening private brands, expanding its Boost membership program, improving digital profitability, modernizing operations, and using technology and artificial intelligence to improve execution.

Kroger also established long-term financial targets, including approximately 3% comparable-sales growth in 2029, excluding fuel and pharmacy, alongside targeted annualized adjusted EBITDA growth of 3% to 6% and adjusted net earnings-per-share growth of 7% to 11% for fiscal 2027 through fiscal 2029.

Source: Kroger's October 20, 2026 investor strategy announcement.

This is a more explicit growth roadmap than a strategy centered primarily on defensive consolidation.

But a financial target is not a consumer strategy by itself.

Kroger must demonstrate that investments in fresh food, prepared meals, digital shopping, private brands, and loyalty programs give consumers more reasons to choose its stores. The company needs to turn those initiatives into better meal solutions, more compelling value, and stronger shopping occasions.

Consider the practical opportunity. A customer shopping for dinner should be able to find an appealing combination of a prepared entrée, fresh produce, a side dish, and a dessert at a clearly communicated price. A customer seeking lunch should find satisfying hand-held foods and portable fresh options without navigating an entire supermarket.

Kroger's scale provides a platform for making these offerings available across many stores. Its challenge is to make that scale work at the individual meal occasion.

Kroger's risk is that it executes a sophisticated operational plan without making the consumer's food choices sufficiently easier, more relevant, or more valuable.

Albertsons: The Turnaround Must Reach the Customer's Shopping Basket

Albertsons' position is more urgent.

On October 13, 2026, the company reported second-quarter fiscal 2026 identical-sales growth of negative 0.8%. Net sales and other revenue declined 0.1% to approximately $18.9 billion. Digital sales rose 11%, but the company announced an accelerated business review aimed at simplifying its organization, reducing costs, reinvesting in customer value, and improving long-term performance.

Albertsons also withdrew its full-year fiscal 2026 financial forecasts as it undertook the review.

Source: Albertsons' second-quarter fiscal 2026 results.

The company has meaningful assets. As of September 12, 2026, Albertsons operated 2,240 stores across 35 states and the District of Columbia, using 22 supermarket banners that include Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, and ACME. Its business also includes pharmacies, in-store coffee shops, fuel centers, and digital platforms.

That footprint gives Albertsons opportunities to build regional food relevance. But a large portfolio of established banners can also make organizational simplification, consistent execution, and brand differentiation more complicated.

The company's immediate challenge is to reduce unnecessary costs without reducing the quality, availability, or convenience that customers expect.

Cost savings can create money to reinvest in lower prices and better stores. But cutting expenses does not automatically create a compelling food proposition.

Albertsons must determine where its banners have distinctive customer advantages, which stores and markets offer the best growth opportunities, and how prepared food and meal solutions can improve the frequency and value of customer visits.

It also needs to make its value proposition unmistakable. Shoppers under financial pressure should not have to work hard to understand which meals are affordable, which products deliver better value, and which promotions genuinely save them money.

Albertsons' risk is that the turnaround becomes an exercise in organizational restructuring and cost control while consumers continue taking their food dollars elsewhere.

The Digital Growth Paradox: More Online Sales Do Not Automatically Mean More Food Relevance

Kroger's adjusted e-commerce sales increased 20% in its latest reported quarter, while Albertsons' digital sales increased 11%.

Those are meaningful growth rates, but they should not be confused with overall comparable-sales growth. Nor should the companies' different digital metrics be treated as directly interchangeable.

Digital shopping can improve convenience, help customers plan purchases, support personalized promotions, and make pickup or delivery easier. But digital tools are most valuable when they strengthen the underlying food offering.

An app cannot rescue a weak meal assortment. Personalized promotions cannot permanently compensate for an unconvincing value proposition. Faster delivery cannot guarantee that customers will return if the food itself disappoints.

The opportunity is to connect digital capabilities with the entire food experience.

Can customers quickly identify a complete dinner for two? Can parents assemble an affordable family meal without making several stops? Can shoppers find fresh, portable breakfasts and lunches that fit their schedules? Can retailers recommend complementary meal components that save customers time and money?

These are not simply technology questions. They are questions about food merchandising, menu development, customer behavior, and the consumer's total eating experience.

Kroger has an opportunity to use its growth investments to create a more integrated food platform. Albertsons needs to ensure its turnaround produces visible improvements in the everyday shopping experience.

Both companies must move beyond measuring digital adoption and demonstrate how digital convenience improves customer retention, basket value, and profitability.

The Grocerant Niche: Where Both Supermarkets Must Compete Differently

The Grocerant Niche sits at the intersection of grocery retail and foodservice. It encompasses fresh, convenient, ready-to-eat, heat-and-eat, and easy-to-assemble food solutions.

The consumer does not necessarily care which department or channel provides the solution. The consumer cares whether the food satisfies the need.

A grocery deli may offer rotisserie chicken, prepared macaroni and cheese, and salad. A convenience store may sell a breakfast sandwich, fresh fruit, and a beverage. A restaurant may offer a takeout family meal. All can compete for the same eating occasion.

This is the battle for share of stomach.

For Kroger, the opportunity is to use its scale, fresh departments, private brands, and digital capabilities to make meal solutions more accessible and attractive.

For Albertsons, the opportunity is to use its regional banners and existing customer relationships to identify local preferences, sharpen value, and improve the relevance of prepared foods and meal components.

Both should examine more than conventional grocery transactions. They should evaluate the occasions they serve, the occasions they lose, and the reasons consumers choose competing solutions.

A shopper who buys ingredients for a weekend dinner may buy a prepared meal on a busy weekday and a hand-held breakfast on the way to work. Retailers that can serve those different needs have more opportunities to earn repeat visits and capture a larger share of food spending.

The strategic goal is not to turn every supermarket into a restaurant. It is to make the supermarket more useful when customers decide what to eat.

The Consumer Is the Judge, Not the Corporate Strategy

Inflation and food-price sensitivity make value essential. But value does not mean price alone.

Consumers evaluate what they receive in exchange for the money, time, and effort they invest. Food quality, flavor, convenience, portability, portion size, and the social experience all contribute to perceived value.

That is why meal bundles, ready-to-eat foods, heat-and-eat entrées, and mix-and-match meal components can be important. They help customers solve a practical problem while giving retailers opportunities to sell complementary products.

A clear dinner bundle can reduce decision-making. A prepared lunch can save time. A combination of fresh fruit, a sandwich, and a beverage can satisfy an immediate need without requiring a full shopping trip.

These are tangible benefits customers can recognize.

Kroger's challenge is to turn its strategic investments into more reasons to shop. Albertsons' challenge is to make its turnaround visible in the prices, products, and experiences customers encounter.

Neither company can assume that consumers will remain loyal simply because a store has served their families for decades.

Legacy creates familiarity. Relevance must be earned repeatedly.

Can Kroger and Albertsons Both Survive?

Both companies have substantial assets, established customers, recognizable brands, and opportunities to adapt. It is premature to declare either company destined to fail.

But the near-term outlooks differ.

Kroger appears better positioned strategically today. Its latest comparable-sales result was positive, its adjusted e-commerce business is growing rapidly, and its October 2026 plan establishes a multi-year framework for sales, earnings, and operational improvement. It still must deliver stronger sales momentum and prove that its investments create meaningful customer value.

Albertsons faces the more immediate challenge. Declining identical sales, a withdrawn financial outlook, and an accelerated business review indicate that management must address performance problems while deciding how to simplify and reinvigorate the business. Its store network and regional banners remain important assets, but those assets must translate into stronger customer demand.

This is a comparison of current strategic positions, not a prediction that one company will survive and the other will not.

The larger competitive threat to both is that customers are increasingly willing to divide their food spending among supermarkets, mass merchants, restaurants, convenience stores, and digital channels.

The next era of grocery competition will reward retailers that make food shopping and meal decisions easier, more affordable, and more relevant to individual occasions.

The old question was, "Where do consumers buy groceries?"

The new question is, "Where do consumers choose to satisfy their next food need?"

Kroger has articulated a plan to grow. Albertsons is working to restore its momentum. Both must prove they understand that the customer—not the corporate legacy—is the ultimate measure of relevance.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Kroger has the clearer growth roadmap, but the customer must see the difference. Digital growth, private brands, and operational modernization matter only when they translate into better food, stronger value, and easier meal decisions. A strategic plan earns its value at the point of purchase.

2. Albertsons must make its turnaround tangible. Cost reduction and organizational simplification can help, but customers need to experience the benefits through sharper pricing, compelling fresh food, convenient meal bundles, and improved execution. A turnaround that customers cannot see is unlikely to rebuild loyalty on its own.

3. Both companies must compete for the next eating occasion. The competition is not confined to supermarket aisles. It includes restaurant takeout, convenience-store meals, ready-to-eat snacks, and mix-and-match components. The grocer that solves more consumer food needs has more opportunities to capture share of stomach.

The Grocerant Guru® bottom line: Kroger currently has the more clearly articulated growth strategy; Albertsons has the more urgent turnaround challenge. Neither can rely on legacy brand recognition alone. In today's food marketplace, consumers are dynamic, not static—and the retailer that makes the next meal easier, more flavorful, and more affordable has the best opportunity to win.

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Inflation Is the Enemy of Retail: How Meal Deals and Meal Kits Win the Battle for Price, Time, and Family Mealtime

2026-10-29T00:29:00.000-07:00

Here is the consumer challenge every food retailer must answer: When the cost of feeding a family keeps climbing, why should a consumer spend more money, more time, or more effort buying a meal from your brand?

Consumers are making that calculation every day. They are weighing restaurant takeout against grocery-prepared meals, convenience-store food against drive-thru combinations, and meal kits against the time and cost of cooking from scratch. They are not loyal to retail channels simply because those channels have always served them. They are looking for the best combination of price, flavor, convenience, quality, and time according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Foodservice Solutions®.

Inflation may be the enemy of retailers, but irrelevance is the enemy of brands. When a meal feels overpriced, takes too long, or fails to deliver on expectations, consumers have alternatives—and increasingly, those alternatives cross traditional retail boundaries.

That is where meal deals and meal kits enter the fight for share of stomach.

A restaurant meal deal can make the total cost of dinner more predictable. A convenience store can turn a quick stop into a satisfying meal occasion. A grocery retailer can combine fresh ingredients, prepared entrées, and ready-to-heat components to help a family put dinner on the table with less planning and preparation.

Each sector has a different advantage, but all face the same challenge: make the consumer's money go further without making the consumer work harder.

At Foodservice Solutions®, we view this through the intersection of Price and Time. Price is what consumers pay at checkout; time includes the effort required to decide, shop, prepare, serve, and clean up. A low-priced meal that consumes an hour of a busy evening may not represent the best value. A convenient meal that strains the household budget may not win the next purchase.

The brands that succeed will understand that consumers are not simply buying food. They are buying solutions to everyday eating occasions.

Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson, based in Tacoma, Washington, has long championed the principle that consumers do not think in retail-channel silos. They think about what they want to eat, how much they want to spend, and how much time they have available.

The question is no longer simply, “Who has the lowest price?” It is, “Who delivers the meal solution consumers believe is worth their money and their time?” That is where meal deals, meal kits, and the Grocerant Niche can help brands build relevance, encourage repeat purchases, and compete for a greater share of stomach.

Inflation Changes the Consumer Equation

According to the USDA Economic Research Service, food-at-home prices increased 2.3% in 2025 compared with 2024, while food-away-from-home prices increased 3.8%. The difference matters because restaurants and grocery retailers are competing for consumers whose food budgets remain under pressure.

These annual increases followed years of substantial food-price inflation. Even when inflation slows, consumers do not automatically return to their former spending habits. The higher price level remains, and households continue to make trade-offs.

The challenge for food retailers is to demonstrate value without teaching customers that their brand is worth buying only when it is discounted.

That is where meal deals and meal kits become strategic tools.

A meal deal provides a defined combination of products at a bundled price. A meal kit packages ingredients or components that help consumers prepare a meal with less planning and shopping effort. Depending on the retailer, a kit may be ready to heat, ready to assemble, or ready to cook.

Both formats can reduce decision friction. Both can showcase multiple products under one brand umbrella. And both can give customers a clearer understanding of what their money buys.

The winning equation is not simply lower prices. It is better perceived value for the money and time invested.

The Intersection of Price and Time

Consumers evaluate meals through two interconnected resources: money and time.

A low-priced meal that requires extensive preparation may not fit a busy household. A convenient restaurant meal that exceeds the family's budget may lose to a grocery solution. A supermarket meal kit that eliminates the need to plan several ingredients can compete with both.

Retailers should consider four questions when developing a meal offer:

· Price: Is the total cost clear, credible, and appropriate for the target household?

· Time: How much planning, shopping, preparation, and cleanup does the offer require?

· Choice: Can consumers adapt the meal to different tastes, appetites, and dietary preferences?

· Experience: Does the meal deliver flavor, freshness, satisfaction, and a reason to buy again?

The answers help explain why meal deals and meal kits should not be treated as interchangeable promotions. They solve different consumer problems, and the strongest retailers can use both.

Restaurants: Turn Meal Deals Into Brand-Building Platforms

Restaurants have a natural advantage in flavor, menu development, and prepared-to-order food. But consumers increasingly expect a clear explanation of what a meal costs and what they receive in return.

A well-designed meal deal can make that decision easier.

Family bundles, combination meals, limited-time menu pairings, and meals built around a recognizable entrée can communicate value before the customer reaches checkout. Restaurants can also use bundled offers to introduce appetizers, sides, beverages, desserts, and new menu items.

Consider a restaurant that pairs a signature entrée with a side and beverage at a clearly stated price. The bundle can encourage trial of products that customers might otherwise skip. It can also increase the number of menu components purchased in a transaction, provided the bundle remains profitable.

Meal kits offer another opportunity. Restaurant-developed kits can extend a signature flavor profile into the home through ready-to-cook ingredients, sauces, seasoning blends, or partially prepared components. These offerings can bridge the gap between restaurant-quality inspiration and the consumer's desire to eat at home.

The strategy is not to make every restaurant a grocery store. It is to make the restaurant brand relevant across more eating occasions.

Restaurants should measure bundle profitability, repeat purchases, add-on sales, waste, and customer retention—not just the number of discounted meals sold.

C-Stores: Win the Meal Occasion, Not Just the Snack Purchase

Convenience stores have spent years expanding beyond traditional packaged snacks, beverages, and fuel-related purchases. Prepared food, hot foodservice, grab-and-go meals, and fresh components create opportunities to compete for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and between-meal occasions.

For time-pressed consumers, the C-store proposition can be compelling: a nearby location, quick access, and a meal that requires little or no preparation.

Meal deals can combine a sandwich or hot entrée with a side and beverage. Other offers might pair breakfast items, fresh snacks, or shareable foods into an affordable combination.

Meal kits can take a different form in this channel. Smaller ready-to-heat or ready-to-assemble meal components may appeal to shoppers who need dinner for one, a quick lunch, or an additional item to complete a meal at home.

The opportunity is to match the package to the occasion.

A single-person dinner should not automatically be priced or packaged like a family bundle. A commuter seeking lunch has different needs from a parent stopping for an easy dinner solution.

C-stores can also use branded sauces, signature proteins, recognizable flavor combinations, and seasonal menu items to build differentiation. The goal is to give customers a reason to choose the same store for food—not simply because it is nearby, but because the food is worth returning for.

Grocery: Make Meal Kits and Prepared Components Easier to Discover

Grocery retailers already possess a significant advantage: access to ingredients, fresh departments, private-label products, and established shopping relationships.

Yet having the right products in the store is not enough. Consumers must recognize that those products solve a meal problem.

A 2025 Progressive Grocer report on its 76th Consumer Expenditures Study found that price and value were the leading consideration when shoppers purchased supermarket-prepared foods, selected by 61% of respondents. Quality followed at 57%, taste at 57%, and freshness at 50%. The study also reported that 22% had ordered meal kits.

These findings reinforce a fundamental point: value is multidimensional. A low price may attract attention, but quality, taste, freshness, and convenience help determine whether the purchase feels worthwhile.

Grocery retailers can respond with several complementary strategies.

1. Build meal kits around recognizable occasions.

Offer solutions for family taco night, pasta night, grilled chicken dinners, quick lunches, or weekend entertaining. Use clear preparation times and show what is included.

2. Combine fresh and prepared components.

A prepared entrée, fresh vegetable side, bakery item, and sauce can create a flexible meal without requiring the shopper to purchase a conventional meal kit.

3. Make the total meal price visible.

Display the cost of the complete solution rather than forcing shoppers to calculate the cost of each component independently.

4. Use private-label products strategically.

A retailer can combine private-label sauces, seasonings, sides, and proteins into a coherent meal proposition that encourages customers to buy several products from the same banner.

5. Cross-merchandise with purpose.

Position complementary products together, provide simple recipe suggestions, and make it easy for shoppers to move from inspiration to purchase.

The objective is to help consumers answer the familiar question, “What's for dinner?” before they leave the store.

What the Latest Meal-Kit Data Tell Us

The meal-kit opportunity has evolved considerably since the 2018 growth figures cited in the original version of this article. Those figures were historically important, but they should not be mistaken for current market conditions.

More recent research provides a useful picture of how meal kits fit into today's food landscape.

A 2024 market analysis published by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, using Euromonitor International data, reported U.S. meal-kit retail sales of approximately $7.9 billion in 2023. The analysis projected slower growth through 2028 than the category experienced during the 2019–2023 period, illustrating how post-pandemic shopping patterns and inflation have changed the market. These figures are estimates for the defined meal-kit category, not a measure of all supermarket prepared foods.

More importantly, newer research points toward the opportunity for store-based meal solutions.

A 2026 KPMG Consumer Pulse Survey, conducted from February 27 to March 18, 2026, found that 22% of all respondents had used meal-kit services in the preceding three months. Among respondents who had used meal-kit services, 34% reported using grocery-store meal kits, while 36% reported using HelloFresh.

These percentages have different denominators: the 22% measures meal-kit usage across all respondents, whereas the 34% and 36% measure reported usage of specific providers among meal-kit users. Because respondents could select multiple providers, the latter figures are not market shares and are not mutually exclusive.

That is an important signal for food retailers: the grocery store can be both an ingredient destination and a source of meal solutions.

The broader lesson is that retailers do not need to depend on one delivery model, one subscription service, or one format. They can combine meal kits, prepared entrées, fresh sides, take-home components, and value bundles to serve different consumer needs.

The New Electricity: Brand Relevance Across Retail Channels

At Foodservice Solutions®, we have long described New Electricity as the energy generated when innovation, relevant products, and new avenues of distribution work together.

For food retailers, that means connecting the right product to the right consumer and eating occasion, then making the purchase easy to understand and complete.

A restaurant can introduce a signature flavor through a meal deal and extend it into a take-home kit. A convenience store can transform a snack stop into a dinner occasion. A grocery retailer can use fresh ingredients and prepared components to create a meal solution that competes with restaurant takeout.

The channels may differ, but the consumer need is often the same.

This is why brand protectionism and rigid channel thinking can become obstacles to growth. Consumers do not necessarily care which department or retail format supplies every component of their meal. They care whether the combination works for them.

Retailers that make it easier to assemble, purchase, carry, prepare, and enjoy a meal can build stronger relationships with their customers.

Artificial intelligence, digital ordering, personalized offers, and better inventory planning may help retailers improve execution. But technology cannot compensate for a poorly designed meal, confusing pricing, inconsistent quality, or an offer that does not fit the consumer's day.

The food itself still matters.

So does the value proposition.

The Bottom Line: Sell a Better Meal Solution

Inflation puts pressure on every food retailer, but competing exclusively on price can damage margins and weaken brand differentiation.

Meal deals and meal kits offer a more productive approach when they are designed around the complete consumer experience.

Restaurants can leverage flavor and menu expertise. C-stores can leverage access, speed, and immediate consumption. Grocery retailers can leverage fresh ingredients, prepared foods, private label, and the ability to build complete meals from individual components.

The opportunity is to connect these strengths rather than treat them as isolated businesses.

Consumers are dynamic, not static. Their needs change by daypart, household size, schedule, budget, and occasion. Retailers that recognize those changes can develop meal solutions that earn both attention and repeat purchases.

At the intersection of price and time, the most relevant brand is not necessarily the cheapest. It is the brand that makes a satisfying meal easier to obtain, easier to afford, and easier to enjoy.

Three Grocerant Guru® Insights

1. Price gets attention; total meal value earns loyalty.

A compelling meal deal must balance price, portion, taste, quality, and convenience. Retailers that protect the customer experience while controlling costs have a better opportunity to build repeat business than those relying on discounts alone.

2. Meal kits and meal deals are distribution strategies, not just promotions.

Each format can introduce products, connect complementary categories, and create new eating occasions. The strongest opportunities emerge when brands extend their relevance beyond their traditional retail channel.

3. Time is part of the price consumers pay.

A meal that reduces planning, shopping, preparation, and cleanup can deliver value even when it is not the lowest-priced option. Retailers that understand the intersection of price and time can build more relevant food solutions for evolving consumers.

Steven Johnson is the Grocerant Guru® at Foodservice Solutions®, based in Tacoma, Washington. Foodservice Solutions® focuses on the Grocerant Niche, retail foodservice strategy, outsourced business development, and brand and menu integration.

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At Foodservice Solutions®, we specialize in consumer-driven retail food strategies that enhance convenience, differentiation, and individualization—key factors in driving growth.

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The Battle for Share of Stomach: Why Every Retailer Wants to Own Your Next Meal

2026-10-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

Restaurants, Grocery Stores, Convenience Stores, Dollar Stores, Costco, IKEA and even fashion retailers are competing for more than food dollars. They are competing for consumer occasions, loyalty and Share of Stomach according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

The food fight is underway, and the battleground is bigger than ever. The competition for food dollars has blurred traditional boundaries between restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, dollar stores, warehouse clubs and retailers once known primarily for selling nonfood merchandise.

Today, the competitive set can include a neighborhood restaurant, a supermarket deli, a convenience store selling freshly prepared food, a warehouse club offering ready-to-eat meals, or IKEA serving a meal that makes a shopping trip more appealing.

The question is no longer simply, “Where will consumers shop for food?”

The more important question is, “Who will earn the next meal occasion?”

That is the essence of Share of Stomach.

At Foodservice Solutions®, we have long championed the Grocerant Niche: the intersection of fresh-prepared food, retail and foodservice, where Ready-to-Eat (RTE) and Heat-and-Eat (HnE) offerings meet consumers' changing needs for convenience, flavor, portability and value.

Consumers do not necessarily organize their lives around industry classifications. They organize their lives around hunger, schedules, budgets, cravings, family needs and the time available to get a meal on the table.

Retailers that understand this distinction can create new growth opportunities. Those that remain trapped in traditional channel definitions risk losing occasions to competitors they may not even recognize as competitors.

The Numbers Behind the Food Fight

Recent industry research reinforces the importance of looking beyond traditional retail categories.

· 56.3% of U.S. food expenditures went to food away from home in 2025. The USDA Economic Research Service reported that food-away-from-home spending exceeded food-at-home spending, illustrating the substantial role of restaurants and other foodservice occasions in the American food economy.

· 28% of consumers substituted grocery deli-prepared foods for restaurant meals in 2025, up from 12% in 2017. FMI's The Power of Foodservice at Retail 2025 also found that 53% of Americans use a hybrid approach, combining deli-prepared foods with items prepared in their own kitchens. Grocery retailers are not merely selling ingredients; they are increasingly competing to help complete the meal.

· Nearly 75% of restaurant traffic occurred off-premises in 2025. Takeout, drive-thru and delivery have become central to the restaurant business, making portability, packaging, ordering technology and speed critical parts of the consumer experience.

· Convenience-store foodservice continues to matter. NACS reported that foodservice and merchandise sales inside U.S. convenience stores reached $341.2 billion in 2025. Foodservice accounted for 28.5% of in-store sales and 38.9% of in-store gross profit dollars. Those figures show why convenience retailers increasingly compete on prepared food, not simply fuel and packaged snacks.

· Consumers continue to redefine value. Circana reported that U.S. retail food and beverage prices had risen a cumulative 34% over five years in its 2025–2026 outlook. For 2026, Circana forecast continued dollar-sales growth but limited volume growth. That environment makes it more important for brands to demonstrate why their food is worth the price, rather than relying on price increases or promotional discounts alone.

These figures represent different parts of the food economy and should not be added together as if they measure one market. Collectively, however, they demonstrate a powerful competitive reality: consumers have more ways to satisfy the same eating occasion, and retailers must continually earn their consideration.

Ten Clues to Building a Contemporized Food Brand

Legacy food retailers and emerging fresh-food businesses share a common challenge: remain relevant while consumer expectations evolve. A recognizable logo or a long operating history is not enough. A brand must consistently give people a reason to choose it again.

Here are ten clues to building a contemporized food brand and winning a larger share of stomach.

1. Purpose: Give Consumers a Reason to Choose You

Why does your brand exist beyond selling food?

The strongest food brands connect their products to a meaningful consumer need, whether that means saving time, creating a family moment, delivering an indulgent treat, providing dependable quality or making an ordinary day easier.

Purpose must translate into the actual experience. A retailer cannot claim to simplify dinner if the consumer must navigate a confusing ordering process, wait too long or assemble a meal that fails to satisfy.

For a grocer, purpose might mean making dinner easier to complete. For a restaurant, it could mean delivering a dependable flavor experience. For a convenience retailer, it might mean providing a fresh, satisfying meal when time is limited.

The test: Can consumers explain why your brand deserves a place in their daily lives?

2. A Story: Make Your Brand Mean Something

Every strong brand has a story, but food brands need more than a founder's biography or an origin tale.

Their story must connect with what consumers experience today.

A brand story might center on a signature flavor, a regional food tradition, an innovative preparation method, a commitment to convenience or a product that solves a recurring meal problem.

Consider the difference between telling consumers that a store sells sandwiches and demonstrating how its freshly prepared sandwiches help people enjoy a satisfying lunch without sacrificing their limited break time.

The product becomes part of the story.

In the Grocerant Niche, the story can be especially powerful because food crosses channels. A recognizable flavor, meal solution or preparation style can create continuity across grocery, restaurant, convenience and take-home occasions.

The test: Is your story memorable enough that consumers will tell it for you?

3. Consumer Interaction: Let the Experience Build the Brand

Advertising can create awareness, but repeated consumer experiences determine whether that awareness becomes preference and loyalty.

Every interaction matters: the first product image seen online, the accuracy of a digital menu, the ease of placing an order, the appearance of the food, the packaging, the temperature, the flavor and the way a complaint is resolved.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 off-premises research identified speed, customer service, intuitive ordering and payment technology, value offers and loyalty programs as important elements of the takeout, drive-thru and delivery experience.

For retailers, this means the customer journey is part of the product.

A great meal surrounded by a frustrating experience may lose to a competitor offering a comparable meal with less friction.

Invite feedback, monitor repeat purchases and study what consumers actually buy. Do not assume that social media engagement, advertising impressions or a crowded store automatically translate into lasting brand preference.

The test: Does every touchpoint make the next purchase more likely?

4. Trust: Deliver on the Promise

Trust is earned through repeated performance.

Consumers want confidence that a familiar product will taste right, the price will be clear, the food will be handled appropriately and the promised service will be delivered.

Food retailers face a particular challenge because the product is experiential. A picture may attract the first purchase, but taste, freshness, consistency and perceived value influence whether the customer returns.

Trust also requires transparency. If a product is marketed as freshly prepared, the description should accurately reflect the product and its preparation. If a meal is designed for heating at home, the instructions should be clear and practical.

A promotion that creates confusion or a product that repeatedly disappoints can undermine years of brand-building investment.

The test: Can consumers purchase with confidence without needing to second-guess your promise?

5. Consistency: Meet Expectations Every Time

When consumers choose a brand, they buy an expectation.

That expectation may involve portion size, flavor, food quality, speed, availability or price. The brand earns its position when the actual experience repeatedly meets the expectation.

Consistency does not mean a brand must never change. It means changes should improve the experience without destroying the attributes that made consumers loyal in the first place.

For multi-unit operators, consistency requires disciplined execution across locations, employees, digital platforms and dayparts. For manufacturers and retailers, it requires reliable quality, product availability and accurate communication.

In a world of mobile ordering and off-premises dining, consistency must extend beyond the store. Food must remain appealing after packaging, transport and reheating when those are part of the intended experience.

The test: Would a customer receive the experience they expect regardless of when, where or how they purchase?

6. Differentiation: Give Consumers a Reason to Switch

Food is full of look-alike products, similar menus and competing promotions. Differentiation gives consumers a reason to choose one offering over another.

It can come from flavor, preparation, portion size, packaging, customization, speed, convenience, service or the way products are combined into a complete meal.

The important distinction is that differentiation must matter to the consumer.

A new label or an unfamiliar product name is not necessarily meaningful differentiation. A portable breakfast that is easy to eat on the way to work, a family meal bundle that reduces preparation time, or a fresh-prepared side dish that complements a home-cooked entrée can solve a real problem.

The 2025 FMI finding that 53% of Americans combine deli-prepared foods with items from their own kitchens illustrates an opportunity: consumers do not always need an entirely prepared meal. They may need one or two components that make dinner easier to finish.

The test: What can consumers get from you that makes their day, meal or experience meaningfully better?

7. Imitators: Lead Your Niche Instead of Following

Imitation can be evidence that a concept has attracted attention, but being copied does not guarantee leadership.

When competitors introduce similar products, promotions or services, the original brand must continue to innovate and execute.

That is particularly important in the Grocerant Niche, where restaurant menu items can inspire grocery deli offerings, convenience stores can develop restaurant-style prepared foods, and branded packaged products can move into foodservice or retail-prepared meal programs.

The advantage belongs to businesses that understand the consumer problem behind the trend and solve it better, not merely those that launch first.

Build capabilities that are difficult to replicate: dependable sourcing, distinctive recipes, strong execution, consumer insights, convenient packaging, effective merchandising and trusted brand associations.

The test: If competitors copy your latest idea tomorrow, what will make consumers continue choosing you?

8. Market Leadership: Own a Meaningful Consumer Occasion

Market leadership is not simply about having the largest footprint, the most advertising or the most menu items.

A brand can lead by owning a specific need in the consumer's mind.

Think about breakfast on the go, afternoon snacks, a quick lunch, dinner for two, family meal components or a late-night food occasion. Each represents an opportunity to build a distinctive position.

The opportunity is to understand not only what consumers eat, but when, why and under what circumstances they make the choice.

A grocery retailer might own the occasion of completing dinner with fresh-prepared entrées and sides. A convenience store might become the preferred stop for a satisfying breakfast. A restaurant might build loyalty around a distinctive portable meal.

The strategic objective is to become an easy answer when a particular need arises.

The test: For which consumer occasion is your brand the first one people think of?

9. Growth: Evolve Because Consumers Are Not Static

Consumers change their routines, preferences, budgets and expectations. Brands must change with them.

A business that relies exclusively on yesterday's successful products can become less relevant even when its historical performance looks strong.

The challenge is to evolve without losing brand identity.

That may mean developing smaller portions, more flexible meal bundles, new flavor profiles, fresh-prepared options, Heat-and-Eat solutions or digital ordering. It may mean extending a successful product into another daypart or creating new ways for consumers to purchase it.

The data supports continued attention to flexibility. FMI's 2025 research found that consumers increasingly substitute deli-prepared food for restaurant meals and combine prepared food with home-prepared items. These behaviors suggest opportunities for retailers to serve consumers who want control over both the effort and composition of a meal.

Growth requires more than adding products. It requires identifying unmet needs, testing solutions and learning which changes encourage repeat purchasing.

The test: Is your brand evolving with consumers, or expecting consumers to remain loyal to the past?

10. Marketing Presence: Follow the Consumer, Not the Old Playbook

A strong marketing presence is not simply about spending more. It is about being visible, relevant and useful wherever consumers make decisions.

Today, those decisions may begin with a mobile search, a loyalty-app offer, a digital menu, a social post, an online grocery order or a product seen while shopping for something entirely different.

Marketing should connect discovery to purchase and purchase to repeat business.

That requires more than posting content. Retailers need clear product descriptions, appetizing and accurate imagery, easy ordering, understandable offers and a way to measure results.

Promotions should also reinforce the brand's positioning. A discount can generate trial, but constant discounting may teach consumers to wait for a lower price. A compelling meal bundle can communicate value more effectively when the combination itself solves a consumer problem.

The 2025 National Restaurant Association research found that value offers matter to many off-premises customers. Yet price is only one part of the decision: convenience, service and the quality of the experience also affect whether consumers return.

The test: Does your marketing move consumers from awareness to trial, from trial to satisfaction, and from satisfaction to loyalty?

The Grocerant Niche: Where the Battle for Share of Stomach Becomes Visible

The convergence of retail and foodservice is not simply a contest over which business sells the most meals. It is a contest over who can deliver the right food, at the right time, in the right format, at a price the consumer considers worthwhile.

Restaurants have strengths in flavor, menu development, culinary identity and foodservice execution. Grocery stores have strengths in assortment, shopping frequency, ingredients and the ability to combine prepared foods with products from across the store. Convenience stores compete on accessibility, speed and immediate consumption. Warehouse clubs compete through scale, assortment and perceived value.

Other retailers can also use food to enhance a broader shopping experience, extend visits or create additional reasons to return.

No single channel owns every occasion.

The consumer can purchase a prepared entrée from a restaurant, add a grocery deli side dish, pick up a beverage at a convenience store and finish the meal at home. Tomorrow, the same consumer may choose an entirely different combination.

This is why channel labels can obscure more than they reveal. Consumers are not necessarily choosing between a grocery store and a restaurant in the abstract. They are choosing between solutions to a specific need.

The winners will be those that understand the occasion, recognize their real competitive set and make the choice easy.

Three New Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Share of Stomach is earned one occasion at a time.

Stop measuring competition only by traditional industry categories. Map the consumer's breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner decisions. Identify where your brand wins, where it loses and which competitors are solving the same need. The next growth opportunity may come from a retailer you have never considered a direct competitor.

2. Convenience is not just speed; it is the removal of friction.

Consumers value solutions that reduce the effort required to decide, purchase, transport, assemble and enjoy a meal. A well-designed meal bundle, dependable ordering process or complementary RTE and HnE offering can create value without relying exclusively on a lower price. Make the entire eating occasion easier, not merely the transaction faster.

3. The strongest contemporary food brands own a promise, not a channel.

A brand that consistently delivers distinctive flavor, dependable quality, appropriate pricing and useful convenience can earn loyalty across changing consumer routines. Build around the needs your brand serves, then adapt the products, formats and distribution channels required to serve those needs.

The bottom line: The battle for food dollars will continue, but the more important contest is for Share of Stomach. Consumers are dynamic, not static. Retailers and foodservice operators that adapt to those consumers—and make every meal occasion count—will be better positioned to build relevance, loyalty and profitable growth.

For corporate presentations, confidential engagements, educational forums or keynote opportunities, contact Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, Washington-based Foodservice Solutions®.

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Mix-and-Match Meal Components Drive a Happier Home—and a Bigger Food Retail Opportunity

2026-10-27T00:27:00.000-07:00

The consumer has taken control of dinner. Restaurants, convenience stores, and grocery retailers that help shoppers mix, match, and personalize meal components are positioned to compete for more occasions, bigger baskets, and repeat business according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

“My mom made two dishes: Take it or Leave it.” Many of us grew up with that dinner-table ultimatum. Today, that approach feels increasingly out of step with consumers who expect choice, convenience, portability, flavor, and value.

Why should everyone in a household eat the same entrée, the same sides, or even eat at the same time?

They shouldn't have to.

Consumers can buy a pizza from a restaurant, a salad from a grocery deli, a beverage from a convenience store, and a dessert from a bakery. They can combine a restaurant burger with vegetables already in the refrigerator, or turn a grocery-store rotisserie chicken into several different meals.

The result is a new way of thinking about dinner: buy the components you want, assemble the meal you need, and let the consumer decide what belongs on the plate.

Once again according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, Washington-based Foodservice Solutions®, this is where the Grocerant Niche creates a compelling opportunity for food manufacturers, restaurant operators, convenience-store retailers, and grocery merchants.

Since 1991, Foodservice Solutions® has championed the evolution of fresh-prepared Ready-2-Eat (RTE) and Heat-N-Eat (HnE) food solutions. The underlying principle remains relevant: consumers do not organize their lives around retail channels. They organize their lives around eating occasions.

The consumer has replaced “Take It or Leave It” with “Mix It and Match It”

Today's dinner decision is rarely just about selecting an entrée. It involves managing time, budgets, appetite, individual preferences, portion sizes, preparation, cleanup, and the competing demands of everyday life.

Some consumers want a complete prepared meal. Others want one signature restaurant item to make dinner special. Some want a quick individual portion, while others need to feed a family with different tastes.

Mix-and-match meal components address those differences without requiring every household to start cooking from scratch.

Consider a simple weeknight dinner:

· A restaurant supplies pizza or grilled chicken.

· A convenience store supplies a cold beverage and a ready-to-eat snack.

· A grocery deli supplies a salad, prepared vegetables, or a side dish.

· The household adds fresh fruit, bread, or another item already on hand.

Each retailer contributes something different. The consumer combines those products into one occasion.

This is not merely a new way to merchandise food. It is a different way to compete for the consumer's time, attention, appetite, and spending.

The food marketing numbers tell an important story

The latest available industry data provides strong evidence that prepared food, off-premises dining, and food purchasing across channels are commercially significant.

1. Consumers spend more on food away from home than food at home.

The USDA Economic Research Service reported in June 2026 that total U.S. food expenditures reached an inflation-adjusted $2.51 trillion in 2025, measured in 2025 dollars. Of that total, $1.41 trillion went to food away from home and $1.10 trillion to food at home. Food away from home accounted for 56.3% of total food expenditures.

These are expenditure figures, not proof that every consumer prefers restaurant food. But they illustrate the enormous economic importance of foodservice and the opportunity to connect prepared food with meals consumed at home.

2. Convenience-store foodservice is delivering significant profitability.

According to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), U.S. convenience-store foodservice accounted for 28.5% of in-store sales and 38.9% of in-store gross profit dollars in 2025. Prepared food—including pizza, chicken, burgers, sandwiches, wraps, and salads—represented 73.9% of convenience-store foodservice sales. Total in-store foodservice and merchandise sales reached $341.2 billion in 2025.

Read those numbers carefully. Foodservice contributes a greater share of gross profit dollars than of sales. For convenience-store operators, prepared food is not simply an accessory to fuel purchases. It is a meaningful business in its own right.

That creates an opening for meal components that pair an entrée with a beverage, a snack, or another ready-to-eat item.

3. Restaurant takeout has become part of everyday consumer behavior.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 Off-Premises Restaurant Trends report found that 47% of adults picked up restaurant takeout at least once a week, 42% used the drive-thru weekly, and 37% ordered delivery weekly. The report also found that 67% of surveyed consumers expressed interest in bundled meals.

The takeaway is significant: restaurant food is already traveling beyond restaurant dining rooms. The next opportunity is to make those products even more relevant to consumers assembling meals at home, at work, or on the go.

These three data points tell a compelling story. Foodservice is economically important, convenience-store prepared food is profitable, and restaurant takeout is a recurring consumer behavior. Together, they make a strong case for thinking beyond the traditional boundaries of a complete meal.

Why mix-and-match meal components work

1. They give consumers control without adding more work

Consumers can choose the portions, flavors, sides, and beverages that suit their needs. They can purchase one component or several, depending on the occasion.

A household does not need to prepare a full dinner to create a satisfying meal. Nor does every family member need to accept the same combination.

For retailers, that flexibility expands the number of ways a product can be purchased and used.

2. They help households manage value

Value is not simply the lowest price on a menu or shelf. It is the relationship between price, quality, portion size, convenience, and satisfaction.

A shopper may buy a prepared entrée and use food already at home for the sides. Another shopper may choose a restaurant entrée, a grocery-store salad, and a beverage from a convenience store.

Consumers can adjust the basket to their budget without giving up every element of the meal they want.

Retailers should make those choices transparent with sensible portions, clear pricing, meal suggestions, and combinations at multiple price points.

3. They support different schedules and appetites

Household members increasingly have different schedules, preferences, and eating routines. Mix-and-match components allow one person to eat now and another later, or enable each person to select a different entrée while sharing sides.

Individually packaged products can also reduce the need to prepare a large meal when only one or two people are eating.

The commercial opportunity is to serve the household as it actually operates—not as a traditional family-dinner advertisement might portray it.

4. They expand food occasions

A prepared chicken breast can become lunch, a dinner entrée, a salad topping, or an ingredient in tomorrow's wrap. Pizza can serve as a meal, a party item, or a late-night bite.

Products that can participate in multiple occasions give brands more opportunities to earn repeat purchases.

The challenge is to design the right portion, packaging, flavor profile, and price for each use.

5. They make discovery and variety easier

Consumers can experiment with new flavors without committing to an entire unfamiliar meal. A signature sauce, a globally inspired side, a new wrap, or a different beverage can refresh a familiar dinner.

Retailers can use limited-time offerings and seasonal combinations to encourage trial while keeping the basic meal-building process familiar.

Where consumers shop for meal components

The Grocerant Niche is not owned by one retail format. Each channel can contribute a different strength to the same food occasion.

Restaurants: The source of signature flavor

Restaurants have an advantage when consumers crave a distinctive product they do not want to make themselves. Pizza, burgers, fried chicken, tacos, sandwiches, fries, and signature sauces can become the centerpiece of a mix-and-match meal.

The opportunity is to think beyond selling a complete menu order. Restaurants can develop products and portions that travel well, retain quality, and combine easily with foods purchased elsewhere.

A restaurant that becomes the preferred source for one memorable meal component may earn a place in more household occasions.

Convenience stores: The source of speed and accessibility

Convenience stores offer quick transactions, convenient locations, extended operating hours, and a growing range of prepared foods and beverages.

The NACS 2025 figures show why this matters financially: prepared food represents nearly three-quarters of convenience-store foodservice sales. Pizza, chicken, burgers, sandwiches, wraps, salads, and beverages can serve as individual meal components or complete quick meals.

For operators, the challenge is to merchandise these products as solutions rather than isolated SKUs. A shopper purchasing a sandwich might also need a side, fruit, or beverage. Clear displays and credible combinations can help shoppers recognize those possibilities.

Grocery stores: The source of breadth and flexibility

Grocery stores can combine deli entrées, rotisserie chicken, prepared sides, fresh-cut fruit, salads, soups, bakery items, beverages, and packaged ingredients.

That breadth allows consumers to mix prepared food with food they already have at home. It also gives retailers opportunities to build meal solutions for one, two, or an entire household.

Grocery merchants should merchandise around occasions—weeknight dinner, lunch, game day, family gatherings, and individual meals—not simply around the department where each item is located.

The key insight is that consumers can move among all three channels to assemble a meal. A restaurant, a convenience store, and a grocery retailer may each win part of the same occasion.

How retailers turn mix-and-match into measurable sales

A successful strategy requires more than placing prepared foods together. It requires thoughtful product development, merchandising, pricing, and measurement.

Build baskets around occasions. Pair entrées with sides, sauces, desserts, and beverages. Make suggested combinations visible and easy to understand.

Offer flexible portions. Serve solo diners, couples, and larger households with appropriate package sizes. Portion flexibility can reduce waste and make products more accessible to different budgets.

Make value easy to recognize. Test bundles and combination pricing, but measure profitability rather than relying on sales volume alone. A discount that increases transactions but erodes margins may not create lasting value.

Protect food quality during transport. Packaging should support temperature control, food safety, texture, and appearance. Keep reheating and storage instructions clear where applicable.

Make products easy to combine. Compatible flavors, complementary textures, and convenient packaging can help consumers see how items fit together. Clear allergen and ingredient information also helps shoppers make informed choices.

Measure the results. Track units per transaction, attachment rates, repeat purchases, average basket size, gross margin, food waste, and customer response to different combinations. Compare test locations or periods where practical to distinguish real improvement from normal fluctuations.

The objective is not simply to sell more items. It is to build profitable, repeatable consumer occasions.

The competitive threat: Brands that think in channels instead of consumers

Traditional food marketing often separates restaurant customers from grocery shoppers and convenience-store customers. Consumers routinely cross those boundaries.

A person can buy lunch at a restaurant, pick up a beverage at a convenience store, and purchase dinner components at a supermarket on the same day. The next day, the pattern may be entirely different.

This is why brand protectionism and channel-centric thinking can become liabilities. When brands focus too narrowly on defending a traditional channel, they risk overlooking how consumers actually build meals.

The relevant questions are:

· Which meal occasion is the consumer trying to solve?

· What role can our product play in that occasion?

· Does the product deliver the right flavor, portion, portability, quality, and price?

· Can we make it easier for consumers to combine our product with other foods they already enjoy?

Brands that answer these questions can expand their relevance beyond a single transaction or traditional sales channel.

The bottom line: The consumer builds the meal—and decides who wins

Mix-and-match meal components are a practical response to modern consumer behavior. They provide choice, help households manage time and budgets, support different appetites, and allow prepared food to participate in more eating occasions.

The market evidence reinforces the opportunity. USDA expenditure data shows the scale of food away from home. NACS data highlights the profitability of convenience-store foodservice. National Restaurant Association research demonstrates the frequency of off-premises restaurant use and consumer interest in bundled meals.

Together, these indicators point toward a larger strategic opportunity: restaurants, convenience stores, and grocery retailers can compete more effectively when they make it easy for consumers to assemble the meal they want, wherever they choose to shop.

The old rule was “Take it or leave it.” The new rule is “Mix it, match it, and make it yours.”

The brands that understand this shift can earn more occasions and build stronger consumer relationships. Those that ignore it risk losing relevance as consumers migrate toward the products and retailers that best fit their lives.

Three insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. The consumer's meal is the real competitive battleground. Stop defining competition only by retail channel. A restaurant entrée, a convenience-store side, and a grocery deli salad may all compete for a place in the same dinner.

2. Convenience without choice is an incomplete value proposition. Consumers want products that fit their schedules, appetites, budgets, and flavor preferences. Make meal components easy to select, combine, carry, and serve.

3. Build the basket by earning the next component. A successful entrée can lead to a side, a beverage, a snack, or a future purchase. Measure whether your products generate incremental, profitable sales and repeat occasions. Consumers ultimately decide which brands earn their loyalty—and where their next food dollar goes.

Steven Johnson is the Grocerant Guru® at Foodservice Solutions®, based in Tacoma, Washington. Foodservice Solutions® has championed the Grocerant Niche since 1991, focusing on the convergence of restaurant, grocery, and convenience retail through fresh-prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food solutions. Learn more at FoodserviceSolutions.us and Grocerant Guru on LinkedIn.

The Frozen Food Court Meets Branded Product Placement: Why Food Marketing That Connects Entertainment to the Plate Wins

2026-10-26T00:26:00.000-07:00

Success leaves clues. In food marketing, one of the most valuable clues is that branded product placement works best when consumers do more than see a product on a screen. They recognize it, talk about it, crave it, and ultimately purchase it according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

That opportunity is becoming increasingly relevant at the intersection of the frozen food aisle, the prepared-food counter, restaurant takeout, and entertainment-driven marketing. In 2025 and 2026, food marketers face a consumer who can discover a meal in a streaming series, see it discussed on social media, compare prices on a smartphone, and purchase a similar product at a grocery store, convenience store, or restaurant.

The challenge is no longer simply getting a brand noticed. It is connecting that attention to a convenient, relevant, and affordable eating occasion.

At Foodservice Solutions®, we see an opportunity for food retailers and manufacturers to rethink how branded products participate in consumers' everyday lives. The frozen food court—where frozen meals, snacks, desserts, appetizers, and heat-and-eat solutions compete for attention—can become a powerful platform for turning entertainment exposure into real-world food purchases.

The Frozen Food Court: More Than a Freezer Door

Frozen food has evolved well beyond the traditional image of inexpensive dinners stacked inside a supermarket freezer. Today's category encompasses restaurant-inspired entrées, globally influenced flavors, premium desserts, handheld snacks, plant-based alternatives, and products designed for air fryers and other convenient preparation methods.

The category benefits from several durable consumer priorities: convenience, portion flexibility, longer storage life, reduced preparation time, and the ability to keep meal options available at home.

The American Frozen Food Institute and FMI have continued to track frozen food's role in the U.S. food marketplace. Their industry research points to frozen food as an important component of household meal planning, with convenience, quality, variety, and value contributing to its appeal. For food marketers, the important question is how to make a frozen product feel distinctive enough to earn a place in the shopping basket rather than become another interchangeable option.

That is where branded product placement can help.

Imagine a consumer watching a popular streaming comedy in which a character reaches for a recognizable frozen dessert, shares a restaurant-inspired snack, or serves a convenient meal after a hectic day. If that moment feels natural, the product becomes part of the entertainment experience rather than an interruption.

Now imagine that the same brand appears in a retailer's digital circular, on a grocery freezer door, in a social-media recipe, or in a restaurant's takeout promotion.

The brand is no longer simply advertising a product. It is creating multiple opportunities for consumer participation.

Branded Product Placement Works When the Product Has a Role

Consider the earlier example of Pinkberry and Baja Fresh partnering around the television series The Good Place. Pinkberry used a playful, one-day activation featuring frozen yogurt served with forks, while Baja Fresh promoted a buy-one-get-one burrito offer. The campaign connected entertainment, food, humor, social sharing, and a purchase incentive.

The strategic lesson remains relevant in 2025 and 2026: effective product placement is not just about showing a logo. It is about giving the product a meaningful role in a story and then giving consumers a reason to act.

For frozen food brands, that role might involve a signature dessert, a late-night snack, a convenient family meal, or a restaurant-inspired appetizer. The opportunity becomes more compelling when the featured product is available where viewers already shop.

However, marketers must distinguish between a creative idea and a proven sales result. A memorable placement can generate awareness and conversation, but sales lift must be measured rather than assumed. The same applies to reports of franchisee success: they can provide useful anecdotal evidence, but a reliable assessment requires actual sales data and a credible comparison.

The objective is to make entertainment exposure commercially productive without sacrificing authenticity.

The 2025 and 2026 Data: Product Placement Is Getting Harder to Ignore

The numbers help explain why this opportunity deserves attention.

According to a June 2026 YouGov survey, 45% of U.S. adults say they always or often notice brands in movies, television shows, or streaming content. Among viewers who notice product placement, 76% identify food and beverage brands as the most visible category. Additionally, 52% of U.S. adults consider product placement effective advertising. These findings suggest that food brands have a meaningful opportunity to connect entertainment with eating occasions.

Frozen food provides another compelling part of the story.

The 2026 Power of Frozen in Retail report from the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) and FMI found that:

· 40% of consumers use frozen foods every few days or daily, up from 35% in 2019.

· 77% of consumers purchase frozen food with a specific meal or day in mind, compared with 71% in 2023.

· 76% of consumers combine fresh and frozen ingredients in the same meal.

· 37% of consumers use frozen food specifically to reduce food waste.

· 71% of shoppers report looking for frozen products they have not purchased before.

The report's consumer survey was conducted in October 2025, with findings released in February 2026.

Consider the marketing implications. Frozen food is already part of planned meal occasions, while shoppers continue to explore new products. Branded entertainment can provide the inspiration; merchandising, sampling, loyalty rewards, coupons, and convenient availability can help convert that inspiration into trial.

The frozen food court does not have to depend exclusively on price promotions to generate interest. It can give consumers a reason to seek out a particular product.

From the Television Screen to the Shopping Basket

The next opportunity is to connect product placement with the places where consumers make purchasing decisions.

A frozen pizza brand featured in a comedy could support a watch-party promotion at grocery stores. A frozen dessert appearing in a streaming series could become the centerpiece of a limited-time flavor, a loyalty-member reward, or a social-media challenge. A restaurant-inspired frozen appetizer could be promoted alongside a complementary dip or beverage.

These ideas work best when the entertainment partnership fits the brand's identity and the product is readily available.

Food marketers should consider a coordinated approach:

1. Build the story around the product. Give the food a memorable role in the entertainment, whether through humor, an occasion, a recognizable preparation method, or a distinctive flavor.

2. Make the product easy to find. Coordinate the placement with grocery retail, online product listings, retailer apps, restaurant promotions, or other channels relevant to the featured item.

3. Give consumers a reason to participate. A limited-time flavor, a bundled offer, a recipe, a loyalty reward, or a social challenge can turn passive exposure into active engagement.

4. Measure what matters. Track brand awareness, product searches, coupon redemption, trial, repeat purchase, incremental sales, and return on marketing investment. Where possible, compare exposed audiences with control groups to distinguish genuine sales impact from purchases that would have occurred anyway.

Evidence from branded entertainment shows why measurement matters. In a September 2025 case study, Bell Media reported that an integration within a culinary competition series generated a 193% lift in food purchase consideration among episode viewers. This was a campaign-specific result, not a universal benchmark, but it illustrates the potential of content that fits naturally with the food category.

Digital Advertising Versus Television? Think Integration, Not Either-Or.

Food retailers should not confuse the ability to measure digital advertising with proof that digital advertising is always more effective.

Traditional television, streaming television, social media, retailer media networks, search, and in-store merchandising each play different roles. Television and streaming can introduce a product to an audience through entertainment and storytelling. Digital media can reinforce that awareness, help consumers find the product, and support purchase measurement. Retail merchandising makes the product available when the consumer is ready to buy.

The most productive strategy may combine all three stages: discovery, decision, and purchase.

For the frozen food court, this means a brand should not stop at securing a placement in a popular program. It should consider what happens before the episode airs, while the placement generates attention, and after viewers have an opportunity to shop.

Can shoppers find the featured item? Is the price competitive? Does the packaging communicate the product's benefit? Is the product available in the stores or online channels where the target audience shops? Does the campaign give consumers a reason to choose this brand rather than a competing product?

Those questions are every bit as important as the number of viewers who saw the placement.

The Grocerant Niche Connection: Consumers Do Not Shop in Silos

At Foodservice Solutions®, our Grocerant Niche perspective begins with an important principle: consumers do not necessarily organize their eating decisions according to the industry's traditional channel boundaries.

A consumer may purchase a prepared meal from a grocery deli on Monday, pick up restaurant takeout on Tuesday, and prepare a frozen entrée with fresh vegetables on Wednesday. The occasion, convenience, flavor, price, and perceived value help determine the choice.

That creates an opportunity for frozen food manufacturers, grocers, restaurants, and foodservice retailers to build marketing around the consumer's eating occasion rather than the location where a product happens to be sold.

Branded product placement can help create demand for an eating experience. The Grocerant Niche can help retailers think about how to fulfill that demand across different formats.

The winning idea is not simply to put a brand on television. It is to make the brand relevant to what consumers want to eat, when they want to eat it, and how they want to obtain it.

Are You Ready to Edify Your Food Brand?

Do your food marketing ideas look more like yesterday than tomorrow?

If your frozen food brand is competing primarily on shelf position, discounts, and packaging claims, consider the additional possibilities offered by entertainment partnerships, recognizable food moments, limited-time offerings, social participation, and connected retail promotions.

The objective is not to abandon traditional advertising. It is to make every marketing investment work harder by connecting brand awareness to convenient meal participation, differentiation, individualization, and measurable sales.

Interested in exploring how Foodservice Solutions® can help edify your retail food brand and create new opportunities across the Grocerant Niche?

Visit FoodserviceSolutions.us or email Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us.

Four Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Entertainment creates attention; availability converts opportunity. A memorable product placement means little if consumers cannot find the featured product when they are ready to buy. Connect the screen to the shelf, the freezer, the retailer app, and the checkout.

2. Frozen food is a meal-planning platform, not merely a convenience category. With 77% of consumers purchasing frozen foods with a specific meal or day in mind, brands have an opportunity to influence planned occasions, not just last-minute decisions. The challenge is to become the product consumers plan around.

3. Branded product placement must earn its keep. Views, impressions, and social engagement are useful indicators, but incremental sales, trial, repeat purchase, and profitability determine whether the investment delivers commercial value. Measure the outcome, not just the excitement.

4. Consumers are dynamic, not static—and they do not think in channel silos. The next food marketing opportunity lies at the intersection of entertainment, frozen food, fresh ingredients, restaurant flavors, retail convenience, and individual choice. Build around the consumer's eating occasion, and let the consumer decide where the purchase happens.

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Foodservice Solutions®

The Global Grocerant Opportunity: Fresh, Fast, Flavorful Food Is Redefining How Consumers Eat

2026-10-25T00:25:00.000-07:00

Consumers do not need more complexity in their lives. They need better ways to solve everyday food decisions. That simple truth continues to reshape retail foodservice, restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, and the broader food industry according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Since Foodservice Solutions® identified the Grocerant Niche in 1996, the central premise has remained consistent: consumers want fresh-prepared, Ready-2-Eat (RTE) and Heat-N-Eat (HnE) foods that combine flavor, convenience, portability, and value. What has changed is the number of businesses competing to satisfy those needs.

Today, a consumer can purchase a prepared meal from a restaurant, grocery deli, convenience store, warehouse club, or another retailer expanding its foodservice offerings. Consumers do not necessarily organize these choices into industry categories. They decide what sounds good, what fits their schedule, what they can afford, and how much effort they want to invest in getting a meal on the table.

That is the opportunity at the heart of the Grocerant Niche.

The Data Are Clear: Prepared Food Is Becoming Part of the Everyday Meal Solution

Consider what recent industry research tells us about the changing food landscape.

According to FMI—The Food Industry Association’s 2024 Power of Foodservice at Retail research, approximately 70.7% of households regularly purchased foodservice products from retail stores. The research also found that 59% of shoppers wanted the opportunity to purchase combinations of prepared foods, including main courses, side dishes, and desserts, at a discounted set price. These findings demonstrate the importance of making meals easier to assemble and purchase. (FMI, 2024.)

The message for retailers is straightforward: convenience is not limited to selling a sandwich or a single prepared entrée. It includes helping consumers complete a meal.

In 2025, FMI reported that the share of consumers choosing grocery deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals had more than doubled, rising from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. More than half of Americans, 53%, were also combining deli-prepared foods with items from their own kitchens to create meals. (FMI, 2025.)

By October 2026, FMI's Power of Foodservice at Retail research found that 56% of households combined home preparation with foods prepared outside the home for dinner at least once a week. The report also identified an opportunity for retailers to offer meal bundles, heat-and-eat side dishes, family-size options, and combinations of prepared and grocery items. (FMI, 2026.)

These are not merely statistics about deli sales. They illustrate a larger shift in how consumers participate in meal preparation.

Consumers can prepare an entire dinner, buy a fully prepared meal, or combine the two. They can purchase a protein and prepare the sides, pick up a complete family meal, or select several individual items that reflect different tastes and dietary preferences.

The winning proposition is not necessarily a fully prepared meal. It is the right amount of preparation for the consumer's needs at that moment.

Convenience Has Become a Food Marketing Imperative

Convenience is often discussed as though it simply means faster checkout, drive-thru service, or delivery. The Grocerant Guru® sees a broader opportunity.

Convenience means reducing the effort required to decide what to eat, find the desired food, purchase it, transport it, and serve or consume it.

The National Restaurant Association's 2024 State of the Restaurant Industry report found that 52% of consumers considered restaurant takeout an essential part of their lifestyle. By April 2025, the Association reported that nearly 75% of restaurant traffic occurred through off-premises channels, including takeout, drive-thru, and delivery. Its 2025 research also found that speed, good service, easy-to-use ordering technology, value offers, and loyalty programs were important elements of repeat business. (National Restaurant Association, 2024 and 2025.)

The implications extend well beyond restaurants.

A grocery store with an attractive deli but no coherent meal solution may lose a consumer to a restaurant offering an easy family bundle. A convenience store with excellent coffee but limited fresh-food choices may miss lunch and dinner occasions. A restaurant that excels at flavor but makes ordering, pickup, or reheating unnecessarily complicated may surrender repeat business to a competitor.

The opportunity is to make the complete food experience easier without compromising quality.

That means investing in food packaging that travels well, clear product information, reliable availability, sensible portion choices, convenient ordering, and menus designed for real-life eating occasions.

Portable food is not just food that fits in a container. It is food designed around the consumer's destination, schedule, appetite, and circumstances.

Differentiation Means Familiar Food With a Twist

One of the enduring principles of effective food marketing is that differentiation does not always require inventing an entirely new food.

Often, it means taking something familiar and making it more relevant.

Consumers recognize sandwiches, salads, bowls, pizza, chicken, breakfast items, snacks, and comfort foods. Retailers can differentiate those familiar choices through seasoning, ingredients, preparation, portion size, packaging, accompaniments, or a distinctive flavor profile.

A familiar meal can become more compelling with a globally inspired sauce, a different protein, a regional flavor, a plant-forward ingredient, or a convenient format that makes it easier to eat on the move.

Individualization matters, too. Some consumers want a complete meal, while others want to select their own sides or add a preferred snack. Some prioritize protein; others seek vegetarian options, lighter meals, or familiar comfort food.

The lesson is not that every retailer needs an enormous menu. It is that every retailer needs a clear food proposition with enough flexibility to serve different needs.

Food marketing must begin with the consumer and the occasion—not simply with the products a company already knows how to sell.

Price Matters. Value Is the Bigger Equation.

In a competitive food market, convenience alone will not guarantee success. Consumers still compare prices, portions, perceived quality, and the total effort required to obtain a meal.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 off-premises research identified value offers as an important purchase motivator. Its findings reinforce the need to make the benefit of an offer clear rather than assuming consumers will pay more simply because a product is convenient.

For Grocerant Niche operators, value can take several forms:

Price value: A competitive price, meaningful promotion, or well-designed meal bundle.
Quality value: Freshness, flavor, ingredient quality, and dependable execution.
Time value: Less shopping, preparation, cooking, and cleanup.
Choice value: Options that fit different appetites, budgets, and preferences.
Social value: Food that makes it easier to share a meal with family, friends, or coworkers.
Portability value: Food that fits the consumer's schedule and destination.

The lowest-priced item does not automatically offer the greatest value. A reasonably priced meal that tastes good, travels well, and requires little additional work can be a stronger proposition than a cheaper item that leaves the consumer to purchase several more ingredients.

Retailers should measure value through the entire meal occasion, not just the shelf price of an individual product.

Retail Foodservice Is Becoming a Destination

The latest data point to another opportunity: retailers can build a reputation around a signature food offering.

FMI's 2026 research found that only about one-third of shoppers considered their primary grocery store known for a particular deli-prepared food item. Rotisserie chicken, roasted chicken, sandwiches, sushi, and pizza were among the products shoppers associated with grocery foodservice departments. The report also found that half of same-day dinner decisions occurred between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. (FMI, 2026.)

That creates two significant marketing opportunities.

First, retailers can establish a signature item that gives consumers a reason to visit. A recognizable product can become a food destination, encourage repeat purchases, and provide a platform for complementary products.

Second, retailers can align their merchandising with the moments when consumers are making food decisions. Dinner solutions displayed and promoted when shoppers are deciding what to eat may be more relevant than products presented without regard to the occasion.

A retailer does not need to be everything to everyone. It needs to be particularly good at solving selected food needs while offering enough variety to encourage additional purchases.

This is where a disciplined foodservice strategy can turn the deli, prepared-food counter, or grab-and-go department into a destination rather than simply another department in the store.

The Consumer Does Not See Industry Silos

Consumers are not required to remain loyal to a single food channel.

The same person might buy breakfast at a convenience store, lunch from a restaurant, a snack at a grocery store, and dinner from a warehouse club or another retailer. The next day, those choices may change.

The consumer's decision is shaped by the occasion, appetite, budget, schedule, location, and perceived value. Brand preference matters, but it competes with all those other considerations.

This is why the Grocerant Niche is best understood as a consumer-driven food marketplace rather than a single retail category.

Restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores, warehouse clubs, and other retailers increasingly compete for overlapping meal occasions. Each has different operational strengths, but the competitive question is similar: Can the business offer the food the consumer wants, when it is needed, at a price that feels worthwhile?

For operators and suppliers, this creates opportunities for collaboration, product development, co-branding, new distribution arrangements, and foodservice partnerships. It also demands a willingness to reconsider established assumptions about who owns a customer or a meal occasion.

Consumers migrate. Businesses must adapt.

Is Your Food Marketing Looking Ahead—or Looking Back?

The growth of prepared-food choices does not mean every retailer or every prepared-food product will succeed. Execution matters. Food safety, freshness, consistent quality, labor, waste, packaging, and profitability remain essential.

Nor should every retailer attempt to copy the same menu or the same service model. A convenience store, supermarket, restaurant, and warehouse club have different operating environments and customer expectations.

The strategic opportunity is to identify unmet consumer needs and create food solutions that fit the business's strengths.

Ask yourself:

Does your food proposition solve a specific consumer problem?
Are your RTE and HnE products designed for convenience, flavor, portability, and quality?
Can customers easily combine prepared foods and grocery items to complete a meal?
Do your price points communicate meaningful value?
Do you have signature foods that can build consumer awareness and repeat visits?
Are you competing for the consumer's next meal occasion—or relying on yesterday's channel boundaries?

At Foodservice Solutions®, we believe the next phase of food marketing belongs to companies that understand the evolving consumer and develop products, partnerships, and experiences around the way people actually eat.

The opportunity is not simply to sell more prepared food. It is to make convenient meal participation easier, more appealing, and more relevant.

The Grocerant Niche continues to offer a useful framework for understanding that opportunity. The businesses that put the consumer first, deliver consistently, and make the value proposition clear will be better positioned to earn the next purchase.

Are you looking a customer ahead?

For food marketing strategy, retail foodservice ideation, partnership development, and ways to strengthen your brand's position in the Grocerant Niche, visit FoodserviceSolutions.us.

Steven Johnson is the Grocerant Guru® at Foodservice Solutions®, Tacoma, Washington.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Consumers migrate to solutions, not silos.
The next meal occasion belongs to the business that best combines flavor, convenience, quality, and price—not necessarily the business that has traditionally owned the channel.

2. Fresh-prepared food is a platform for differentiation, not just another product category.
Signature items, meal bundles, portable formats, and customizable combinations give retailers and restaurant operators practical ways to build relevance, encourage repeat purchases, and earn a larger share of the consumer's food spending.

3. Make the meal easier, and make the value obvious.
Consumers want more than speed. They want food that fits their schedule, budget, appetite, and lifestyle. The brands that remove friction while delivering dependable flavor and quality will be better positioned to win the next purchase.

Wendy’s Battle for Value: Product Differentiation, Price, Franchisee Economics, and the Consumer’s Power to Choose

2026-10-24T00:24:00.000-07:00

Wendy’s is rediscovering a fundamental truth about food marketing: consumers do not reward a brand simply because it says its food is better. They reward brands when the food, price, portion, convenience, and overall experience make the purchase worthwhile that according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

The return of yellow packaging, combined with a limited-time $7.99 Dave’s Single combo, signals that Wendy’s is working to make its value proposition easier to see, understand, and act upon. The combination of a Dave’s Single, small fries, and a small soft drink gives customers a complete meal at a stated price rather than requiring them to assemble their own deal from a complicated menu of offers.

But the bigger question is whether this is enough to reverse the brand’s traffic challenges, restore product differentiation, satisfy franchisees, and persuade consumers to return more often.

From the perspective of the Grocerant Guru®, Wendy’s is competing on much more than the price of a hamburger. It is battling at the intersection of product differentiation, perceived value, competitive alternatives, and the economics of operating a franchise restaurant.

The $7.99 question: What does value really mean?

Wendy’s CEO Bob Wright has acknowledged a problem that many established restaurant brands eventually encounter: the differentiation that once made a brand distinctive can lose its impact when competitors improve, prices rise, and customers reconsider where they spend their food dollars.

According to the supplied company commentary, Wright said Wendy’s quality differentiation had eroded, its value proposition had weakened, and the brand had not consistently delivered the experience customers expected.

That is a consequential admission. Wendy’s has historically positioned itself around fresh, never-frozen beef for its continental U.S. hamburger business, square hamburger patties, made-to-order customization, and signature menu items such as the Dave’s Single. Those attributes help distinguish Wendy’s, but differentiation only creates value when consumers notice it and believe it justifies the price.

A $7.99 combo is an attempt to close that gap.

The offer gives consumers a recognizable sandwich, a side, and a beverage for one advertised price. It simplifies the decision, provides a reference point for comparison, and allows a customer to judge the entire meal rather than evaluating three separate purchases.

However, the critical consumer question is not simply, “Is $7.99 inexpensive?”

It is: “Is this the best meal I can get for $7.99, considering what I want, how much I receive, how good it tastes, and how convenient it is?”

That distinction is where food marketing becomes competitive strategy.

Product differentiation must earn its premium

Wendy’s cannot win a sustained value battle simply by discounting its way toward traffic recovery. A promotion can generate trial, but repeat visits depend on whether the product and experience fulfill the promise.

Consider the attributes consumers can evaluate:

· The burger: Does the beef, preparation, flavor, and customization offer a meaningful reason to choose Wendy’s?

· The portion: Does the complete meal provide enough food to satisfy the customer?

· The side and beverage: Do fries and a drink make the combo feel like a complete meal rather than a discounted sandwich with add-ons?

· The experience: Is the order accurate, the food served at an appealing temperature, and the visit convenient?

· The price: Does the final amount paid match the value the customer expected when ordering?

These are not independent variables. They combine to shape perceived value.

Wendy’s can have a differentiated burger and still lose a customer if the total meal feels overpriced. Equally, a competitor can offer a lower-priced sandwich and still lose if the customer believes Wendy’s delivers a noticeably better meal.

The winning proposition must connect product quality to an understandable price and a consistently delivered experience.

For Wendy’s, that means protecting the attributes that distinguish its core menu while making the economic reason to visit more obvious.

The competition is redefining what a meal deal means

Wendy’s is not competing in a vacuum. Its rivals are teaching consumers to compare meals, count items, check app offers, and calculate how far their food dollars will go.

McDonald’s expanded its McValue platform in April 2026 with an under-$3 menu, a $4 breakfast meal deal, and additional lunch and dinner deals. The strategy gives consumers multiple entry points into the brand rather than relying on one signature combo.

Meanwhile, recent industry reporting has highlighted Taco Bell’s success with a combination of value boxes and menu innovation, illustrating that consumers can respond to value that includes choice, variety, and new products—not simply lower prices.

Wendy’s $7.99 Dave’s Single combo offers a different proposition: a recognizable core-menu hamburger, fries, and a drink at a single advertised price.

That distinction matters. A value box built around multiple smaller items appeals to one consumer occasion. A signature burger combo appeals to another. Consumers may want a substantial burger today, a lower-priced snack tomorrow, and a convenient family meal later in the week.

There is no single value proposition that wins every occasion.

The competitive challenge for Wendy’s is to make its offer compelling against three distinct alternatives:

1. Direct burger competitors: McDonald’s and Burger King can compete on familiar sandwiches, bundles, speed, and price.

2. Menu-value competitors: Taco Bell can offer a different combination of flavors, portions, and items for a consumer’s available budget.

3. Grocery and convenience alternatives: Prepared deli meals, ready-to-eat sandwiches, heat-and-eat entrées, and convenience-store food can compete for the same meal occasion.

This third group is especially important from a Grocerant Guru® perspective. The consumer deciding what to eat for lunch or dinner does not necessarily begin by deciding which restaurant to visit. The consumer begins with a need: hunger, a budget, a time constraint, or a desire for something satisfying.

That consumer may choose Wendy’s, a grocery deli, a convenience store, or another restaurant. The occasion comes first; the channel comes second.

Wendy’s must therefore compete for the meal, not just for a share of the hamburger category.

The franchisee equation: Can value create profitable traffic?

A promotion that attracts customers but fails to generate sustainable restaurant-level economics is not a complete strategy.

Wendy’s franchisees must contend with food and packaging costs, wages, occupancy expenses, utilities, equipment, technology, delivery-related expenses, and other operating costs. A lower advertised price does not eliminate those expenses.

The economics become particularly important when a company encourages customers to trade down from a higher-priced combo to a discounted offer. The restaurant may serve more meals but generate less revenue per transaction. Whether that is beneficial depends on incremental traffic, product mix, food cost, labor requirements, and the margin earned on each order.

Consider three possible outcomes:

· The weak outcome: Existing customers switch from higher-priced meals to the $7.99 promotion, reducing average transaction value without attracting enough additional visits.

· The temporary outcome: The offer brings in trial customers, but service problems or disappointing food quality prevent repeat purchases.

· The desired outcome: The promotion brings back lapsed customers, increases visit frequency, creates additional transactions, and introduces customers to other profitable menu items.

Only the third outcome offers a convincing foundation for a lasting turnaround.

Franchisees also need a clear, consistent operating plan. They need to understand how long the promotion will run, how it will be marketed, how pricing and participation will work, and whether the expected incremental volume can support the economics.

This is not an argument against value pricing. It is an argument for value pricing that works for both the customer and the operator.

The financial pressure is especially relevant given the supplied report that Wendy’s closed 245 locations during the first half of the year. Those closures should not automatically be attributed to the $7.99 promotion or a single cause. They do, however, underscore the importance of sustainable unit economics and a value proposition capable of supporting the restaurant network.

A deal that customers love but franchisees cannot profitably execute is not a durable competitive advantage.

Equally, a restaurant that protects its short-term margins while losing customers and transactions risks weakening its long-term business.

Wendy’s leadership must find the balance.

Yellow packaging: Recognition is not differentiation

Wendy’s return to yellow packaging is an interesting marketing decision. The brand abandoned that design during a 2012 rebranding, and its return provides a recognizable visual connection to the company’s past.

Color can help a product stand out in advertising, on a counter, in a drive-thru handoff, or in a social media post. Packaging can also reinforce a campaign and make an offer easier to recognize.

But packaging is not the meal.

Yellow packaging may attract attention to the $7.99 combo. It cannot, by itself, make the burger taste better, shorten the drive-thru wait, correct an inaccurate order, or persuade a customer that the portion justifies the price.

Nostalgia may generate initial interest. Consistent execution must generate repeat visits.

For Wendy’s, the strongest use of the packaging is as a supporting signal for a more substantive brand promise: recognizable food, dependable quality, straightforward pricing, and a satisfying experience.

The same principle applies to digital marketing. A promotion can bring a customer into the app or restaurant, but the offer must translate into an experience worth repeating.

Value must be visible throughout the menu

Wendy’s CEO has also described a broader approach to value: intrinsic value across the core menu, everyday value through its standing offers, and promotional value through marketing campaigns and digital channels.

That is a more complete framework than treating value as a small section at the bottom of a menu board.

The three elements serve different purposes.

Intrinsic value is what the customer believes the food is worth before a discount is applied. Product quality, portion size, freshness, flavor, customization, and execution all contribute.

Everyday value gives customers a dependable reason to visit without waiting for a limited-time promotion.

Promotional value creates urgency, encourages trial, and gives the brand an opportunity to reconnect with consumers who have reduced their visit frequency.

The challenge is consistency. If the core menu feels overpriced, a promotion may bring temporary relief without repairing the underlying perception. If everyday offers are difficult to understand, customers may struggle to determine which option represents the best purchase. If digital promotions are confusing or overly restrictive, the advertised value can lose credibility.

Wendy’s must make value easy to recognize before the customer orders, easy to experience during the visit, and easy to remember afterward.

That is where food marketing and restaurant operations intersect.

The consumer is the ultimate judge—and will migrate

Here is the central Grocerant Guru® observation: Consumers do not owe any restaurant brand their loyalty.

They can change their behavior, their shopping habits, their meal preferences, and their spending priorities. They can move between restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, and other foodservice providers without viewing those decisions as a change in identity or allegiance.

They migrate toward the proposition that best fits the occasion.

When household budgets feel constrained, some consumers will prioritize the lowest out-of-pocket cost. Others will pay more for a burger they believe tastes better. Still others will select the option that saves time, offers convenient pickup, travels well, or allows them to feed multiple people at a predictable price.

Those priorities can change from one day to the next.

Wendy’s cannot assume that a consumer who bought a Dave’s Single last year will choose one again this year. Nor can its competitors assume that a customer attracted by a low-priced promotion will remain loyal after the promotion ends.

The winning brands will be those that understand consumers as dynamic, not static.

This is why Wendy’s must measure more than redemption of the $7.99 offer. Management should examine whether the promotion increases incremental traffic, brings back lapsed customers, improves visit frequency, supports profitable transactions, and creates repeat behavior after the limited-time deal expires.

The company should also monitor customer perceptions of quality, satisfaction, order accuracy, wait times, and value relative to competing meal options.

These measurements help separate marketing attention from actual consumer preference.

A promotion can generate headlines. A lower price can stimulate trial. A nostalgic package can earn a second look. But consumers ultimately decide whether those elements are worth another visit.

If Wendy’s delivers, consumers may return. If another brand offers a better combination of food, price, quality, convenience, and experience, consumers can migrate there instead.

The same is true of franchisees. Their confidence depends on whether the strategy produces a healthier business, not simply a more visible advertising campaign.

What Wendy’s must get right next

Wendy’s has an opportunity to reconnect its heritage of burger differentiation with a more understandable value proposition. To capitalize on it, the company must align five priorities:

1. Protect the food: Make product quality a tangible reason to choose Wendy’s.

2. Clarify the price: Ensure customers understand what they receive and what they pay.

3. Simplify the menu: Reduce confusion and make good choices easier to identify.

4. Support franchisees: Design offers around realistic restaurant-level economics and operational execution.

5. Earn repeat business: Judge success by sustainable traffic, customer satisfaction, and profitable repeat visits—not promotional attention alone.

The $7.99 Dave’s Single combo is a useful test of that strategy, not proof that the problem has been solved.

The larger test is whether Wendy’s can restore a meaningful reason for consumers to choose the brand, give franchisees a workable path to profitability, and sustain that proposition when the promotion ends.

In the end, Wendy’s does not get to declare itself the winner of the value battle. Consumers will make that decision with their purchases, their repeat visits, and their willingness to migrate to another food provider.

That is the reality of food marketing today: the brand makes the promise, the restaurant delivers the experience, the franchisee carries the operating risk, and the consumer decides who wins.

Three insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Value is not the lowest price; it is the strongest perceived return. Wendy’s must make its food quality, portion, price, and experience add up to a meal consumers believe is worth buying again. A discount may open the door, but the product must earn the next visit.

2. Franchisee profitability and consumer value must work together. Traffic generated by a promotion is not enough if the economics undermine the restaurants delivering it. Sustainable growth requires offers that consumers appreciate and operators can execute profitably.

3. Consumers migrate; brands must keep earning their business. There are no permanent channel boundaries in the consumer’s mind. Wendy’s is competing not only with burger chains but with every food option that can satisfy the same occasion. The winners will be those that consistently deliver the right combination of product, price, value, convenience, and experience.

Chipotle’s Boorito Is More Than a Halloween Promotion: It Is a Test of Brand Power, Food Value, and Consumer Migration

2026-10-23T00:23:00.000-07:00

Chipotle Mexican Grill knows something many restaurant marketers still struggle to understand: consumers do not simply buy food. They buy convenience, customization, identity, experiences, and a reason to return according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Boorito, Chipotle’s annual Halloween promotion, brings those ingredients together. What began in 2000 as a burrito-themed costume contest has evolved into a recurring brand event built around food, fandom, digital engagement, and a limited-time price incentive.

For October 31, 2026, Chipotle is offering participating Chipotle Rewards members a $6 entrée when they arrive in costume after 3 p.m. local time, subject to the promotion’s restrictions. The following day, November 1, the company plans to waive delivery fees on qualifying digital orders placed through its website or app. Delivery menu prices and other applicable charges may still apply.

From the perspective of the Grocerant Guru®, Boorito is not just about selling burritos. It is about influencing when, why, and how consumers choose a meal.

But an important business question sits beneath the Halloween fun: Can Chipotle turn cultural relevance and a powerful food proposition into sustained growth—or is the brand becoming a takeover target because investors see an opportunity to unlock value that its current operating model is not fully delivering?

To answer that, we need to look beyond the promotion and examine Chipotle’s food marketing, target audience, competitive position, and performance against the benchmarks that increasingly matter in today’s prepared-food marketplace.

1. The Food Proposition: Customization Is the Product

Chipotle’s competitive advantage begins with the food itself. Its core proposition combines made-to-order meals, customizable ingredients, recognizable proteins, rice, beans, salsas, vegetables, and add-ons such as guacamole. The result is a format that lets consumers build a meal around their preferences without requiring a traditional full-service dining experience.

That matters because customization gives the brand a broad target audience without forcing it to sell the same meal to everybody.

· Young adults and Gen Z: Digital ordering, social media, limited-time promotions, and food customization provide reasons to engage with the brand.

· Millennials and working professionals: Fast service, portable meals, and the ability to select ingredients fit busy workdays and changing schedules.

· Families and group occasions: Bowl and entrée customization accommodates different appetites and preferences within one order.

· Value-conscious consumers: Promotions such as Boorito offer a price incentive, although the regular menu’s total cost can rise with premium proteins, guacamole, queso, and other extras.

· Health- and ingredient-conscious diners: The ability to select proteins, vegetables, beans, and other components offers control over meal composition. That does not automatically make every order low-calorie, low-sodium, or nutritionally superior.

The key is that Chipotle does not need five different restaurant concepts to reach these audiences. One customizable food platform can serve multiple occasions.

This is where the Grocerant Guru® sees the opportunity: the consumer is the target, not a demographic silo or a restaurant channel.

2. Boorito: A Food Promotion Disguised as a Cultural Event

Boorito illustrates how food marketers can make a price promotion more memorable than a conventional coupon.

The event connects four marketing mechanisms:

1. Tradition: More than 25 years of history give Boorito recognition beyond a single Halloween advertising campaign.

2. Participation: Wearing a costume makes the guest part of the promotion, not merely a recipient of an offer.

3. Loyalty data: Requiring a Chipotle Rewards scan links the discounted transaction to the loyalty program.

4. Repeat occasions: The November 1 delivery offer creates another opportunity to capture spending after Halloween.

The evolution of Boorito—from a costume contest in 2000 to digital and virtual activations in 2020 and 2021, followed by newer meme-inspired and late-night concepts—also shows how a food brand can adapt a long-running promotion to changing consumer behavior.

But the marketing economics deserve scrutiny.

A $6 entrée can attract traffic, encourage trial, and create social conversation. It can also reduce the amount earned per transaction. The promotion’s success therefore depends on whether incremental visits, add-on purchases, future full-price visits, and new loyalty engagement compensate for the discount.

The November 1 delivery offer presents a different challenge. Waiving delivery fees does not mean the entire order is free of extra costs: Chipotle’s terms state that higher delivery menu prices and other applicable charges may remain.

The Grocerant Guru® takeaway: A promotion should be judged by the consumer behavior it creates, not the number of people who redeem it. The ultimate test is whether a Halloween bargain creates a more valuable customer relationship in November and beyond.

3. How Chipotle Stacks Up Against Competitors

Chipotle is one of the largest limited-service restaurant brands in the United States. Its competitive position becomes clearer when we look at sales, menu propositions, and the alternatives available to consumers.

Selected 2025 U.S. system-wide sales figures reported in the QSR 50 ranking include:

Brand	U.S. system-wide sales
Taco Bell	$17.247 billion
Chipotle	$11.679 billion
Panda Express	$6.472 billion
QDOBA	$1.268 billion
CAVA	$1.169 billion

Source: QSR Magazine’s 2026 QSR 50, based on 2025 U.S. system-wide sales. The brands have different menus, restaurant footprints, and business models.

The comparison shows Chipotle’s scale, but scale alone does not prove that it has the strongest food proposition or the best growth opportunity.

Taco Bell competes aggressively on affordability, menu variety, snack occasions, and convenience. Its larger U.S. system sales demonstrate the reach of a value-oriented Mexican-inspired quick-service model.

QDOBA competes more directly on customizable burritos, bowls, and proteins. Its franchise-heavy structure differs from Chipotle’s predominantly company-operated model.

CAVA offers a comparable customization proposition with Mediterranean ingredients. CAVA reported 22.5% full-year revenue growth and 4.0% same-restaurant sales growth for fiscal 2025, alongside a 24.4% restaurant-level profit margin.

CAVA is especially worth watching because it demonstrates that consumers can migrate toward another customizable, ingredient-led fast-casual concept without abandoning the underlying behaviors that make Chipotle attractive.

The competitive question is not simply whether a guest buys a burrito or a grain bowl. It is whether that guest chooses Chipotle, Taco Bell, CAVA, a grocery prepared-food counter, or a convenient meal from another retailer for the next eating occasion.

That is the Grocerant Niche in action: prepared-food competition extends beyond traditional restaurant categories.

4. Four Industry Benchmarks Chipotle Is Missing—or Needs to Improve

Chipotle remains a major restaurant business. However, its reported quarterly results show several performance gaps that investors and competitors should watch. These are four measurable pressure points, not claims that the company has failed every industry standard.

Benchmark 1: Consistent Same-Store Sales Growth

Chipotle’s second-quarter 2026 comparable restaurant sales increased 2.2%, following a 0.5% increase in the first quarter and declines in the second and third quarters of 2025.

That is an improvement, but it is not yet a consistently strong growth pattern.

What to watch: Sustained growth in customer transactions, not just higher average checks or the opening of additional restaurants.

Benchmark 2: Protecting Restaurant Operating Margins

Chipotle’s second-quarter 2026 restaurant-level operating margin fell to 25.2%, from 27.4% a year earlier. Its company operating margin declined to 15.7%, from 18.2%.

What to watch: Whether food preparation, staffing, throughput, pricing, and restaurant technology can support growth without continued margin erosion.

Benchmark 3: Controlling Food and Packaging Costs

Food, beverage, and packaging costs reached 29.7% of revenue in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 28.9% a year earlier. Chipotle attributed the increase to inflation, especially beef and freight, and higher protein and produce usage.

What to watch: Reducing waste and improving purchasing and portion consistency while maintaining the ingredient quality consumers expect.

Benchmark 4: Turning Sales Growth into Earnings Growth

Second-quarter revenue rose 9.3% to $3.3 billion, but diluted earnings per share remained flat at $0.32 year over year.

What to watch: Converting new restaurant openings and incremental sales into stronger earnings per share, rather than relying primarily on footprint expansion.

These are meaningful gaps because restaurant growth is not the same as economic growth. Opening more locations can increase total revenue while comparable-store weakness, higher costs, and operating expenses limit the benefit to shareholders.

5. Four Benchmarks Chipotle Is Meeting—or Exceeding

The other side of the scorecard matters just as much. Chipotle has important competitive strengths that a potential buyer, investor, or rival would find difficult to overlook.

Benchmark 1: Sales Productivity

Chipotle generated approximately $3.104 million in average U.S. sales per unit in the 2025 QSR 50 comparison. That exceeded Taco Bell’s $2.216 million and QDOBA’s $1.700 million in the same ranking.

Why it matters: High sales per restaurant can support investment in labor, food quality, technology, and new customer experiences.

Benchmark 2: Digital Engagement

Digital sales accounted for 38.3% of Chipotle’s food and beverage revenue in the second quarter of 2026, up from 35.5% a year earlier.

Why it matters: Digital ordering gives Chipotle another route to purchase, creates opportunities to engage loyalty members, and can help coordinate pickup and delivery.

Benchmark 3: Capacity to Expand

Chipotle operated 4,186 company-owned restaurants at June 30, 2026, after opening 100 company-owned locations during the second quarter. Eighty of those new locations included a Chipotlane.

Why it matters: A substantial development pipeline provides a way to grow sales geographically and extend digital pickup access.

Benchmark 4: A Differentiated, Repeatable Food Platform

Chipotle’s menu allows guests to customize bowls, burritos, tacos, and salads around a common ingredient system. That supports multiple dayparts and occasions without requiring an entirely different restaurant concept for each customer segment.

Why it matters: This flexibility supports menu innovation, group orders, loyalty offers, and new consumption occasions. It is a strategic strength, although it is not a directly comparable numerical industry benchmark.

The distinction is important: Chipotle is not a weak business simply because it has execution challenges. It has a large, productive restaurant base, significant digital adoption, and a recognizable food platform. The issue is how effectively management converts those assets into stronger comparable sales, margins, and earnings.

6. Why Is Chipotle Considered a Takeover Target?

In October 2026, reports surfaced that Starbucks had explored a potential acquisition of Chipotle. Starbucks subsequently stated that it was not pursuing a takeover. There is no confirmed transaction in the reporting reviewed here.

So why did the possibility attract attention?

First, Chipotle offers scale and an established food brand. With more than 4,000 company-operated restaurants by mid-2026, a buyer would gain a substantial restaurant platform, a recognizable food proposition, and an established customer base.

Second, its digital capabilities could complement another foodservice business. Loyalty, app ordering, digital pickup, and Chipotlanes provide multiple ways to serve consumers. A buyer with a different daypart or product portfolio might see opportunities to cross-promote, although potential synergies would need to be demonstrated rather than assumed.

Third, Chipotle has significant expansion potential. The combination of a repeatable restaurant format and strong sales per location makes additional development attractive. A strategic buyer might believe it could accelerate growth, improve site selection, or apply its own real-estate and operating expertise.

Fourth, operating improvements could create additional value. Chipotle’s declining restaurant-level margins and food-cost pressure make operational execution an obvious area for improvement. An acquirer might believe it could improve purchasing, labor deployment, or technology utilization. But any buyer would need to protect the food quality and service experience that underpin the brand.

Fifth, the company is large enough to attract strategic attention—but difficult to acquire. A transaction involving a public company of Chipotle’s size would require substantial financing, shareholder support, due diligence, and regulatory review. A buyer would also have to justify the acquisition price and integration risks.

The Grocerant Guru® perspective is that takeover speculation often becomes louder when a well-known brand combines valuable assets with visible performance challenges. That does not mean a sale is inevitable—or even desirable.

Chipotle’s strongest value may lie in its ability to improve its own operating model while preserving the distinct food experience that customers recognize.

7. What Chipotle’s Food Marketing Should Do Next

Chipotle’s next growth opportunity is not necessarily another Halloween promotion or another limited-time menu item. It is building more reasons for existing and prospective customers to choose its food across the week.

Three strategic priorities stand out.

Make Value More Visible

Consumers compare total meal cost, not just entrée prices. Clear combinations, family offerings, and occasion-based bundles can help communicate value without relying entirely on discounts. Chipotle has been expanding its attention to group occasions, including family meals designed for four to six people.

Connect Digital Engagement to Actual Eating Occasions

Rewards and app engagement should encourage repeat purchases, trial of new ingredients, and visits at different times of day. The important metric is not merely digital-sales mix; it is whether digital customers return more frequently and generate profitable incremental sales.

Compete Beyond the Restaurant Category

Grocery delis, convenience stores, prepared-food counters, and delivery-first concepts all compete for the same consumer need: a satisfying meal that fits the moment. Chipotle must remain compelling when consumers ask not simply, “Where should I eat?” but “What is the easiest, most satisfying meal for me right now?”

That is where the Grocerant Niche becomes relevant. Consumers migrate among foodservice channels based on convenience, price, quality, portability, and occasion. Brand loyalty matters, but it is continually tested by alternatives.

Three Closing Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Food builds the brand; value earns the next visit.

Boorito can generate excitement, but long-term growth depends on whether Chipotle’s everyday food proposition justifies its price. A successful promotion creates trial; a compelling meal creates habit.

2. Digital is a sales channel, not the finish line.

Chipotle’s 38.3% digital-sales mix is a substantial asset. The next challenge is converting that access into profitable frequency, stronger loyalty, and more occasions—not simply moving existing orders from the counter to the app.

3. The real competition is consumer migration.

Chipotle is not competing only with Taco Bell, QDOBA, or CAVA. It is competing with every retailer or restaurant capable of delivering a satisfying prepared meal at the right price, in the right format, at the right moment. Whether Chipotle remains independent or attracts future acquisition interest, its best defense is to keep earning the consumer’s next meal occasion.

The Grocerant Guru® bottom line: Boorito demonstrates Chipotle’s ability to turn food into a cultural event. Its longer-term challenge is turning that attention into sustained traffic, stronger margins, and a value proposition that consumers choose even when there is no Halloween costume, special offer, or delivery promotion to bring them through the door.

Consumer Migration: How 7-Eleven Can Win More Eating Occasions

2026-10-22T00:22:00.000-07:00

From the Grocerant Guru® perspective, the real opportunity for 7-Eleven is not limited to growing convenience-store traffic. It is capturing consumer food purchases that might otherwise go to a quick-service restaurant, grocery deli, coffee shop, or delivery platform.

Consumers are dynamic, not static. Their food decisions change with the occasion, the day, their budget, their schedule, and what they feel like eating. A customer who buys breakfast at a restaurant today may purchase coffee and a breakfast sandwich at 7-Eleven tomorrow. A shopper who usually buys lunch at a grocery deli may choose a hot handheld meal at a convenience store when time is short. A household that does not want to cook dinner may consider prepared foods or delivery instead.

This is consumer migration in action: the movement of food spending between providers as needs and circumstances change.

7-Eleven's portfolio gives it several ways to compete for that migration.

Breakfast migration: Coffee, breakfast sandwiches, and Laredo Taco Company breakfast tacos can position 7-Eleven to compete for occasions traditionally served by coffee shops, fast-food breakfast menus, and at-home breakfasts. The opportunity is to combine speed with dependable quality and relevant meal pairings.

Lunch migration: Fresh sandwiches, salads, pizza, and hot handheld foods can compete for purchases otherwise made at quick-service restaurants, grocery delis, and workplace cafeterias. Customers who prioritize speed may appreciate convenient access; those watching their spending may respond to clearly priced meal combinations.

Snack and beverage migration: Slurpee drinks, Big Gulp beverages, coffee, and 7-Select snacks can reinforce the retailer's established strengths while creating opportunities for complementary purchases. The marketing challenge is to turn an occasional beverage stop into a broader food purchase without relying exclusively on discounts.

Dinner migration: Hot foods, pizza, chicken offerings, and delivery create opportunities to compete for informal evening meals. Laredo Taco Company and Raise the Roost add restaurant-style food propositions that can help extend the brand beyond conventional convenience-store fare. Availability, portion size, value, and consistency will determine how effectively these products compete with restaurant takeout and grocery prepared meals.

At-home convenience migration: Through 7NOW, customers can order eligible food, beverages, and household essentials without visiting a store. This extends the competition from the physical convenience-store location to the customer's home, workplace, or other delivery destination.

The strategic point is that each of these occasions represents a potential migration opportunity, not proof that migration has already occurred. To establish actual switching behavior, 7-Eleven would need evidence such as customer surveys, purchase histories, competitive switching studies, and incremental-sales analysis.

Technology Can Make Migration Measurable

7-Eleven's loyalty data, digital ordering, inventory-aware merchandising, and AI-supported marketing could help the company understand when customers are changing their food purchasing habits.

For example, the company could measure whether a customer who previously purchased only beverages begins adding breakfast food, whether lunch purchases repeat more frequently after a targeted offer, or whether a delivery promotion generates new food spending rather than shifting an existing in-store purchase online.

The most useful measures would include:

New food-customer acquisition: Are customers choosing 7-Eleven for food for the first time?
Cross-category migration: Are beverage-only customers adding meals, or snack buyers adding fresh food?
Occasion expansion: Is 7-Eleven winning more breakfast, lunch, afternoon, and dinner purchases?
Competitive switching: Are customers moving purchases from restaurants, grocery delis, or other providers to 7-Eleven?
Incremental profitability: Do the additional purchases generate sufficient margin after discounts, labor, food costs, waste, and delivery expenses?

These measurements would distinguish genuine growth from transactions merely moving between 7-Eleven's own channels.

The Grocerant Guru® Perspective: Follow the Consumer, Not the Channel

The traditional boundaries separating grocery, restaurants, and convenience retail mean less when consumers are deciding what to eat. A consumer may choose a grocery deli for dinner on Monday, a restaurant on Tuesday, and 7-Eleven on Wednesday. The same person can be a different kind of food customer at each occasion.

7-Eleven's opportunity is to make its portfolio relevant enough to earn more of those choices. Fresh grab-and-go foods can compete for lunch; signature beverages can reinforce habitual visits; restaurant-style concepts can broaden meal appeal; and digital delivery can reach customers who would not otherwise enter the store.

The objective is not to convince every consumer to abandon another channel. It is to earn a larger share of the consumer's food occasions by delivering the right combination of price, quality, convenience, and service.

The Grocerant Guru® bottom line: Consumer migration follows value, not channel labels. 7-Eleven can strengthen its position in the Grocerant Niche when its food portfolio and technology work together to make the retailer a relevant choice for more eating occasions throughout the day.

Thanksgiving 2026: Ready-2-Eat, Heat-N-Eat, or Cook From Scratch? The Smartest Holiday Meal May Be a Mix of All Three

2026-10-21T00:21:00.000-07:00

With Thanksgiving just a month away, consumers face a familiar holiday question: How do you put a memorable meal on the table without spending a fortune, spending all day in the kitchen, or exhausting the person responsible for making it happen?

The answer is changing. Today's Thanksgiving meal doesn't have to come from one store, one restaurant, or one cooking method. Consumers can combine traditional home cooking with Ready-2-Eat (RTE) prepared foods and Heat-N-Eat (HnE) meal components to balance price, quality, convenience, and time.

That is the Grocerant Guru® perspective: Thanksgiving isn't just a turkey dinner. It's a collection of meal components, each with its own price, preparation time, convenience factor, and consumer value.

The smartest holiday shoppers will compare the entire meal—not just the price of the turkey.

The supermarket price challenge: Feeding 10 for less than $40

Supermarket News reports that several major retailers have announced Thanksgiving meal promotions for 2026. The early offers show how aggressively grocery retailers are positioning value as families plan their holiday budgets.

Lidl's Thanksgiving offering, for example, gives Lidl Plus members the ingredients for a meal serving 10 people for $35.86. That's approximately $3.59 per person.

Aldi's advertised meal for 10 costs less than $39, or less than $3.90 per person, and includes 15 items. Its package features a 16-pound turkey, stuffing mix, vegetables, sweet potatoes, Hawaiian sweet rolls, cranberry ingredients, and the ingredients for pumpkin pie.

Schnucks is also promoting a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 for less than $4 per serving, with a frozen turkey, potatoes, stuffing, gravy ingredients, vegetables, rolls, cranberry sauce, pie, and whipped topping.

Sam's Club takes a somewhat different approach, advertising a meal for 16 at less than $10 per person. Its assortment includes both turkey and ham, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, vegetables, salad, rolls, gravy, charcuterie, and two pumpkin pies.

These promotions demonstrate an important distinction: some retailers emphasize the lowest advertised ingredient cost, while others offer a broader assortment or more premium meal components.

For consumers, the question is what the advertised price actually delivers—and what additional spending, preparation, or cooking time the meal requires.

Source: Supermarket News, 2026 Thanksgiving meal-deal roundup, as provided for this article. Prices and eligibility reflect the reported offers and should be checked against each retailer's current terms.

The real comparison: Ready-2-Eat versus Heat-N-Eat versus scratch cooking

Thanksgiving is an ideal example of why consumers increasingly mix foodservice and grocery options. A single holiday meal can include a turkey cooked from scratch, prepared mashed potatoes, restaurant-made pie, and ready-to-serve appetizers.

Each approach has advantages, and none is automatically the cheapest once all costs are counted.

Cook from scratch: The traditional approach gives households control over ingredients, seasoning, recipes, portion sizes, and family traditions. Buying a whole turkey and preparing vegetables and sides at home can deliver considerable value, especially for larger gatherings. But the shelf price of the ingredients is only part of the equation. Cooking requires preparation, oven space, equipment, cleanup, and time. The cost of ingredients that go unused or spoil also matters.

Heat-N-Eat (HnE): Refrigerated or frozen mashed potatoes, prepared stuffing, refrigerated sides, heat-and-serve rolls, ready-made gravy, and fully cooked turkey breast can shorten the workday considerably. Consumers pay for preparation already completed by someone else, but they retain the ability to serve a warm meal at home. HnE can be particularly attractive when oven space is limited or the host wants to spend more time with guests.

Ready-2-Eat (RTE): Fully cooked turkey, prepared side dishes, deli salads, bakery pies, sliced meats, and restaurant catering can take much of the cooking burden off the host. Some products are served cold or at room temperature; others are fully cooked and ready to serve after simple plating. RTE can offer the greatest time savings, although the per-serving price may be higher than preparing equivalent dishes from basic ingredients.

The most useful comparison is not simply the price per package. It is the total cost per guest, including ingredients, preparation time, waste, and the value of convenience.

For a household hosting 10 people, a low-cost ingredient bundle can be an excellent foundation. But a shopper who adds a prepared pie, a deli vegetable tray, or a fully cooked turkey breast is making a different trade-off: paying more for some components in exchange for less work.

That is not necessarily overspending. It can be a deliberate purchase of time.

Thanksgiving is a meal-component opportunity

The traditional Thanksgiving menu lends itself to a component-by-component buying strategy.

The centerpiece: A raw whole turkey is generally the starting point for scratch cooking. A fully cooked turkey, cooked turkey breast, or prepared ham can be a practical alternative for households with limited oven capacity or smaller gatherings. Compare the price per edible serving rather than comparing package prices alone.

The starches: Potatoes, stuffing, macaroni and cheese, and rolls are natural candidates for HnE. Shoppers can peel and mash potatoes themselves, use refrigerated prepared potatoes, or buy a ready-made side. The same applies to stuffing: a boxed mix offers a low-cost starting point, while a prepared version saves additional steps.

The vegetables: Fresh carrots, celery, green beans, and sweet potatoes allow scratch cooks to control seasoning and texture. Frozen steamable vegetables reduce preparation and cleanup. Prepared green bean casseroles and other refrigerated sides offer an additional convenience tier.

The sauces and accompaniments: Cranberry sauce, gravy, and relishes are relatively easy to purchase ready-made. Making them from scratch may be worthwhile for cooks who prize family recipes, but buying them can eliminate several small tasks that otherwise accumulate on a busy cooking day.

The desserts: Pumpkin pie illustrates the choice particularly well. Consumers can purchase filling and crust and bake at home, buy a prepared pie from the supermarket bakery, or order dessert from a restaurant or bakery. The first option offers customization; the second and third offer time savings.

The extras: Appetizers, cheese boards, prepared salads, beverages, and bakery items are often the easiest parts of the meal to outsource. They also help hosts accommodate guests who arrive early or bring unexpected additions to the table.

The lesson is simple: consumers don't need to choose one preparation method for the entire meal. They can cook the dishes that matter most to their family and purchase the rest.

The price of convenience: What should consumers actually compare?

A meaningful comparison requires more than putting a raw turkey beside a fully cooked turkey and declaring a winner.

The Aldi and Lidl offers are built around ingredients that still require preparation. Sam's Club's reported meal includes more prepared components, but it also costs more per guest. That does not make one offer universally better; the menus, serving assumptions, and labor involved differ.

Here is how I would advise consumers to evaluate the options:

Thanksgiving strategy	Primary advantage	Cost consideration
Cook from scratch	Control, customization, traditional recipes	Ingredients, energy, equipment, preparation time and waste
Heat-N-Eat sides with a home-cooked turkey	Balances savings and convenience	Prepared components can cost more than basic ingredients
Fully prepared supermarket meal	Fewer cooking tasks and easier coordination	Compare the complete package, serving sizes and any extras
Restaurant or catering order	Minimal cooking and potentially broader menu choices	Per-person pricing, ordering deadlines, service fees and pickup logistics
Mix-and-match meal	Lets shoppers spend where convenience matters most	Requires comparing several purchases and coordinating pickup

There is no defensible universal dollar premium for RTE or HnE without comparing equivalent products, serving sizes, local prices, and preparation requirements. But consumers can make the economics work in their favor by choosing which tasks they want to pay someone else to perform.

For example, roast the turkey at home, buy prepared mashed potatoes and gravy, steam frozen vegetables, and purchase a bakery pie. The result is still a Thanksgiving meal prepared for family and friends, even though several components never passed through the host's own kitchen.

That is component-based meal planning in action.

Why grocers and foodservice operators should pay attention

Thanksgiving illustrates a broader food-marketing reality: consumers do not necessarily organize their food decisions around industry categories.

They are not always thinking, "I need a grocery product," "I need a restaurant meal," or "I need a prepared food." They are thinking, "I need to feed 10 people, stay within budget, and have time to enjoy the day."

That consumer objective can be fulfilled by a supermarket, club store, restaurant, bakery, or a combination of them.

The reported 2026 meal promotions also demonstrate that price messaging remains powerful. Lidl's $35.86 offer for 10 works out to about $3.59 per person for Lidl Plus members. Aldi's under-$39 meal also targets shoppers looking for a low-cost traditional dinner. Sam's Club, meanwhile, is selling a broader assortment designed for 16 people, including two proteins and a selection of prepared sides.

These are different consumer propositions. One emphasizes the low entry price; another emphasizes assortment and convenience. The best choice depends on what the shopper values, what the household already has, and how much work the host wants to do.

For retailers, the opportunity extends beyond selling a turkey. It includes merchandising coordinated meal components, making serving quantities clear, offering easy add-ons, and communicating the total cost of a meal.

For restaurants, it means recognizing that a family may not want a complete catered dinner but may gladly buy the turkey, appetizers, a few signature sides, or dessert. A well-designed partial-meal offer can serve a different need from a full catering package.

The Grocerant Guru® view: Thanksgiving is another reminder that there are no permanent silos in the consumer's mind. What matters is the meal occasion, the desired experience, and the balance of price, quality, service, and portability.

The last-minute Thanksgiving guest: Have a Ready-2-Eat backup plan

Suppose relatives call on Thanksgiving morning and announce that two more people are coming. Or a neighbor unexpectedly joins dinner. The turkey is already accounted for, but there is not enough food for everyone.

Don't panic, and don't automatically start cooking another entrée.

My last-minute recommendation is to visit a supermarket with a full-service deli and prepared-foods section. Depending on availability, assemble a Ready-2-Eat supplemental meal with:

· A fully cooked rotisserie chicken or prepared turkey breast.

· Ready-made mashed potatoes, gravy, and one or two prepared vegetable sides.

· Dinner rolls from the bakery.

· A pumpkin pie or another ready-made dessert.

This is a practical backup, not a guarantee that any particular store will have these items on Thanksgiving Day. Call ahead, check holiday hours, and confirm availability before traveling. Some stores close early, limit hot-food service, or sell out of popular prepared entrées.

The strategy is to supplement the original meal rather than duplicate it. A prepared chicken, a couple of sides, and a pie can stretch the table without requiring the host to roast another bird.

That is the value of Ready-2-Eat food: it gives consumers another option when the number of guests, the schedule, or the cooking plan changes.

One important reminder: keep prepared hot foods at safe holding temperatures, refrigerate perishable leftovers within two hours, and reheat leftovers to 165°F. The USDA provides additional guidance on.

Three closing Grocerant Guru® insights

1. Price is the invitation; value closes the sale. A Thanksgiving offer advertised at less than $4 per person gets shoppers' attention. But consumers ultimately judge value by the meal they can serve, the quality they experience, the amount of work involved, and whether the offer fits their household.

2. The future of the holiday meal is mix-and-match. Scratch cooking, Heat-N-Eat, and Ready-2-Eat are not competing ideologies. They are options consumers can combine. Retailers and foodservice operators that help shoppers assemble the right meal for their circumstances can compete for more of the occasion.

3. Convenience is not the opposite of tradition. Thanksgiving traditions are about gathering, sharing food, and making memories. If buying prepared potatoes, a ready-made pie, or an additional entrée gives the host more time with family, convenience can help preserve the tradition rather than diminish it.

The bottom line? This Thanksgiving, don't ask only whether cooking from scratch is cheaper than buying prepared food. Ask which parts of the meal deserve your time, which parts deserve your money, and how to deliver the best experience for everyone at the table.

That's how consumers turn a holiday menu into a smarter meal—and how the Grocerant Niche continues to connect grocery, prepared food, and foodservice around what consumers actually want.

Wilder Market & Kitchen: The Future of Food Retail Is Not Another Grocery Store. It Is the End of Channel Silos

2026-10-20T00:20:00.000-07:00

What if the future of food retail is not a better grocery store, a more convenient restaurant or another premium prepared-foods concept—but a destination that combines the best of all three, that’s what Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® wants you to start thinking about.

And what if consumers are already telling the food industry that separating grocery shopping from restaurant-quality meals, ingredient transparency, convenience and hospitality is an outdated way to organize a business?

That is the consumer challenge behind Wilder Market & Kitchen, the new Miami concept backed by Major Food Group. Scheduled to debut in fall 2026, Wilder combines a neighborhood market, café, made-to-order sandwiches, hot and cold prepared foods, and a patio designed to encourage customers to stay awhile—or take dinner home.

The ambition is bigger than putting a restaurant inside a grocery store. Founder and CEO Danielle Axman wants to create a neighborhood destination where ingredient integrity, sustainability, culinary quality and hospitality work together.

For the Grocerant Guru®, that is a development worth watching. Food retail and foodservice are not competing in separate consumer universes. They are competing for the same stomachs, wallets, meal occasions and increasingly limited time.

Consumers do not shop in channel silos. They shop for solutions.

Meet Danielle Axman: The consumer problem behind Wilder

Axman's background offers an important clue to Wilder's positioning. Reporting on the launch identifies her as a former member of the founding team behind BABE Rosé, the canned-wine brand, and a former chief of staff at SoulCycle. Her experience spans consumer products, brand building and experience-driven hospitality rather than the traditional grocery-store operating ladder.

The idea for Wilder emerged after she became a mother. Axman found herself spending considerable time researching ingredients, interpreting labels and investigating where food came from. Even after doing that work, she often struggled to find products that met her standards and tasted good.

Her proposed answer was straightforward: create one place where consumers could buy groceries, pick up a prepared meal and feel more confident about what they were purchasing, without having to do all the research themselves.

That origin story matters because it starts with a consumer frustration rather than a traditional retail category.

Axman is not simply asking shoppers to buy more organic produce or pay a premium for a prepared meal. The broader proposition is to reduce the effort required to make food decisions while delivering a better eating experience.

The commercial challenge will be converting that proposition into a repeatable routine. A compelling origin story may earn a first visit. Consistent food quality, credible sourcing, convenience, appropriate prices and a dependable experience must earn the second, third and fiftieth.

Major Food Group brings culinary credibility—and a different growth proposition

Wilder's founding investor and strategic adviser is Major Food Group, the hospitality company founded by Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi and Jeff Zalaznick.

The group is associated with prominent concepts including CARBONE, Sadelle's and The Grill, alongside a broader portfolio of restaurants, private clubs, bars and hotels. Its experience centers on distinctive food, recognizable brands, hospitality and creating destinations that customers want to revisit.

Wilder represents a meaningful extension of that playbook. Rather than opening another restaurant, club or hotel, Major Food Group is backing a business designed to combine everyday grocery needs with prepared meals and neighborhood hospitality.

That shift changes the frequency equation.

A celebrated restaurant may depend on customers making a special occasion out of a visit. A neighborhood market can compete for coffee in the morning, lunch, a snack, an ingredient for tonight's dinner and a ready-to-eat meal on the way home.

The opportunity is to turn culinary credibility into more frequent, everyday consumer interactions.

But there is an important distinction: a Michelin-associated culinary pedigree does not automatically make a grocery business successful. Grocery requires disciplined purchasing, inventory management, fresh-food execution, labor productivity, waste control and pricing that supports repeat purchasing.

Major Food Group brings a potentially valuable hospitality perspective. Wilder must demonstrate that this perspective can work at neighborhood-market frequency and economics.

The Wilder Standard: Ingredient integrity must become a consumer benefit

Wilder's proposed standards are intended to guide what the business sells and serves, how ingredients are sourced and how decisions account for environmental health, labor practices and animal welfare.

The company has identified the Environmental Working Group (EWG) as an input into its standards and named prospective farm and producer relationships including Paradise Farms, Glaser Organic Farms and White Oak Pastures.

The distinction is important: Wilder is attempting to make sourcing standards part of the operating proposition, rather than leaving shoppers to evaluate every package independently.

Ingredient transparency is not an imaginary consumer issue. The International Food Information Council's 2025 Food & Health Survey continued its long-running examination of how Americans understand food, ingredients and food safety. Its national survey program included 3,000 U.S. consumers.

EWG's 2026 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce, meanwhile, analyzed U.S. Department of Agriculture testing data and reported pesticide residues in 75% of conventionally grown produce samples examined. That is a finding about the samples and methodology used in that analysis—not proof that every residue creates a health risk or that conventional produce is unsafe.

For Wilder, the strategic opportunity is to make sourcing information easier to understand and act on.

The standard must also be credible. Shoppers should be able to distinguish verified sourcing claims, specific production practices, supplier commitments and broader sustainability aspirations. Ingredient integrity should be explained clearly, not used as a vague premium-price justification.

And here is the Grocerant Guru's test: Does Wilder make it easier for a consumer to eat well, enjoy the food and feel confident about the purchase—or does it simply make shopping more expensive?

The winning proposition has to deliver both trust and taste. If the food is not delicious, transparent sourcing alone will not create a durable food brand.

Elevate Your Brand with Expert Insights

For corporate presentations, regional chain strategies, educational forums, or keynote speaking, Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru®, delivers actionable insights that fuel success.

With deep experience in restaurant operations, brand positioning, and strategic consulting, Steven provides valuable takeaways that inspire and drive results.

Visit GrocerantGuru.com or FoodserviceSolutions.US Call 1-253-759-7869