Foodservice Solutions

Is Starbucks’ CEO Hoodwinking Wall Street—or Is the Turnaround Really Working

2026-09-29T00:29:00.000-07:00

The Grocerant Guru® asks: Is Starbucks really getting “Back to Starbucks,” or is Wall Street being handed a familiar restaurant turnaround script that sounds better than the consumer reality?

Let's be clear from the beginning: “hoodwinking” is a question, not an accusation. There is no evidence presented here that Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is intentionally misleading investors.

But there is a legitimate food-marketing question worth asking.

When a restaurant company is under pressure, there is an old playbook: close underperforming stores, remodel the remaining stores, simplify the operation, improve service, invest in employees, refresh the menu, increase marketing—and then tell Wall Street that the turnaround is working.

That playbook can work.

But consumers don't buy turnaround plans.

Consumers buy coffee, food, convenience, experience and value.

And that's where the Starbucks story becomes considerably more interesting.

Starbucks announced September 24 that it would close approximately 250 additional North American coffeehouses, about 1% of its more than 18,000 North American locations. The company says the closures involve locations that cannot consistently deliver the desired customer and partner experience or that lack a path to acceptable financial performance. Starbucks also says it is accelerating toward 1,500 coffeehouse “uplifts.”

That sounds like classic portfolio management.

But the bigger question for Wall Street is:

Is Starbucks fixing stores—or is the coffee consumer changing faster than the Starbucks playbook?

Four food-marketing facts Wall Street should examine

1. Coffee consumers are increasingly buying specialty coffee—but that does not automatically mean Starbucks

The National Coffee Association's 2025 data found that 66% of American adults drank coffee on the previous day, while specialty coffee reached a record 48% of adults, up from 37% in 2021.

Even more interesting, specialty coffee drinkers were more likely than traditional coffee drinkers to have coffee prepared outside the home.

That's a huge opportunity.

But it is an opportunity for the coffee category, not necessarily a guarantee for Starbucks.

Consumers have more choices than ever: independent coffee shops, drive-thru specialists, convenience stores, regional chains, fast-food restaurants and increasingly sophisticated foodservice programs.

The coffee consumer is not waiting for one brand to tell them where to drink coffee.

2. Convenience has become part of the coffee product

Coffee isn't simply coffee anymore.

It is coffee + speed + location + portability + customization + food + technology.

NCA data reported in 2025 showed that 85% of past-day coffee drinkers consumed coffee at breakfast, 82% consumed it at home, and the average coffee drinker consumed nearly three cups per day.

That means Starbucks isn't competing only with another coffeehouse.

It is competing for one of the consumer's daily beverage occasions.

And that competition increasingly comes from places that were never historically defined as coffee companies.

That is the Grocerant Guru's no-silos consumer principle:

Consumers don't see restaurant, grocery, convenience-store and coffee-company silos. They see a coffee occasion.

3. Starbucks' own numbers show that transactions—not just higher tickets—matter

Here is where the Starbucks turnaround deserves credit.

In Q3 fiscal 2026, Starbucks reported U.S. comparable-store sales growth of 7.9%, consisting of 4.2% transaction growth and 3.6% average-ticket growth. North American comparable sales increased 8.1%, with transactions up 4.5%. Starbucks also reported that food attachment and beverage modifications contributed to the result.

That is important.

It means the current Starbucks story cannot fairly be dismissed as simply raising prices.

Customers were coming through the doors more frequently.

Earlier in fiscal 2026, Starbucks reported U.S. comparable transactions up 4.3% in Q2, after declines in the prior-year comparison.

So, if Wall Street wants evidence that the turnaround has traction, transactions are one of the most important pieces of evidence.

But that also creates the next question:

Can Starbucks maintain transaction growth after the easiest turnaround gains have been harvested?

That is a very different question from whether a quarter looks better than the previous year.

4. Look at what the fast-growing coffee competitors are actually building

The most revealing comparison may not be Starbucks versus Starbucks.

It may be Starbucks versus the emerging coffee occasion economy.

Dutch Bros reported Q2 2026 revenue growth of 32.5% to $550.9 million, opened 48 shops during the quarter and posted 8.3% company-operated same-shop sales growth. Systemwide same-shop sales increased 5.8%. The company finished the quarter with 1,225 shops.

Scooter's Coffee reached approximately 900 stores across 32 states in early 2026 after adding 83 stores during 2025, a 10% increase following 16% growth in 2024. Its model is heavily built around drive-thru convenience, speed, menu variety and franchise-led expansion.

And 7 Brew has been expanding at extraordinary speed, reaching more than 700 locations across 38 states in 2026, according to reporting on the company's expansion.

These brands are not simply selling coffee.

They are selling a coffee occasion designed around the way consumers increasingly live.

Fast.

Portable.

Customizable.

Drive-thru friendly.

Highly beverage-focused.

And increasingly accompanied by food and snack occasions.

The Starbucks problem may not be coffee

This is where the Grocerant Guru sees the bigger food-marketing issue.

Starbucks has a powerful brand.

It has enormous scale.

It has technology.

It has loyalty.

It has thousands of locations.

And its 2026 operating results show genuine improvement.

But the competitive landscape is changing.

The consumer is increasingly asking:

“Where can I get what I want, when I want it, at a price and experience that feels worth it?”

That is the same consumer question driving the Grocerant niche.

Ready-2-Eat.

Heat-N-Eat.

Foodservice.

Convenience.

Drive-thru.

Delivery.

Coffee.

Snacks.

Breakfast.

Lunch.

Dinner.

The consumer doesn't care which corporate department owns the occasion.

The old restaurant playbook versus the new consumer playbook

The old playbook says:

Close weak stores.

The new consumer playbook says:

Why was the store weak?

The old playbook says:

Remodel the store.

The new consumer playbook says:

What does the customer actually want from the experience?

The old playbook says:

Improve the menu.

The new consumer playbook says:

Build the menu around occasions, cravings, portability and value.

The old playbook says:

Increase the average ticket.

The new consumer playbook says:

Increase the frequency of visits and the consumer's perception of value.

That distinction matters.

Starbucks itself says its 2026 North American improvement has been helped by faster service, greater consistency, warmer coffeehouses, food attachment and beverage modifications.

Those are meaningful improvements.

But they aren't proprietary.

Competitors can copy speed. Competitors can copy menu innovation. Competitors can copy loyalty. Competitors can build drive-thru units.

What cannot be copied overnight is a consumer habit.

And that is the real Wall Street question.

The Grocerant Guru's bottom line

Brian Niccol's “Back to Starbucks” strategy is producing measurable results in 2026. Starbucks has reported four consecutive quarters of comparable-sales growth, and Q3 U.S. transaction growth was positive.

So this is not a story about Starbucks simply failing.

It is a story about whether Starbucks' improvement is being confused with a fundamental change in consumer behavior.

There is a difference.

A turnaround can make an existing business better.

A consumer migration can change the competitive landscape.

And coffee is increasingly part of a much larger food-and-beverage occasion.

The Grocerant Guru's Three Questions for Wall Street

1. Are Starbucks' improving transactions evidence of sustainable consumer migration—or are they primarily the first fruits of a successful turnaround investment cycle?

2. If consumers are increasingly choosing coffee based on speed, portability, customization, food attachment and perceived value, is remodeling Starbucks stores enough to defend the brand against drive-thru specialists and nontraditional coffee competitors?

3. When Dutch Bros, Scooter's and 7 Brew are expanding their footprints while building businesses around convenience and beverage occasions, should Wall Street measure Starbucks primarily by remodeled stores—or by the consumer's next coffee occasion?

That's the question.

Because Wall Street may invest in companies, but consumers invest in habits.

And in the food business, consumer habits—not corporate presentations—ultimately write the next chapter.

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

ALDI Evolves With the Consumer: When Price, Value and Convenience Meet the Grocerant Niche

2026-09-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

For decades, ALDI has built its reputation around a remarkably simple consumer proposition: deliver good food at a low price without making the shopper pay for things that do not add value.

Now ALDI is taking that proposition into a part of the food industry that the Grocerant Guru® has been watching—and writing about—for decades: Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food.

That is more than a new product launch. It is a signal that ALDI is evolving with the consumer.

On September 22, 2026, ALDI announced its first-ever collection of fresh ready-made meals in the United States. The initial lineup includes five single-serve meals priced under $8 and two family-size meals priced under $15. The meals are scheduled to begin rolling out in select stores in October, with nationwide availability targeted for January 2027.

The important story isn't simply that ALDI is selling prepared meals.

The important story is why ALDI is doing it now.

The Consumer Is Redefining the Meal

The old food-industry model asked consumers to decide among grocery stores, restaurants, convenience stores and takeout.

Today's consumer increasingly asks a different question:

"What's the easiest way to get a meal that fits my time, my budget and what I want to eat right now?"

That is the heart of the Grocerant Niche.

And the data increasingly supports the shift.

McKinsey's 2026 grocery research found that 74% of consumers identify convenience as one of their top reasons for buying prepared foods, while 68% cite saving time. Even more telling, the frequency of prepared-food purchases from grocers increased 9% year over year from August 2024 to August 2025.

FMI's 2025 research found that consumers choosing deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals had more than doubled—from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. More than half, 53%, said they use a hybrid approach, combining prepared foods with items prepared at home.

That is not consumers abandoning cooking.

It is something more interesting.

Consumers are mixing and matching food solutions.

That is precisely where ALDI's new strategy becomes important.

ALDI Understands That Price Alone Is Not Value

The Grocerant Guru® has long defined value as something larger than price.

Price is what the consumer pays. Value is what the consumer receives.

A $5 meal that requires 45 minutes of preparation may not represent greater value than an $8 meal that can be heated and eaten in minutes.

ALDI's new ready-made meals address that equation directly.

The retailer says its new single-serve meals will sell for less than $8, while family-size meals will sell for less than $15. The single-serve meals include Beef Bolognese Spaghetti, Beef Brisket with White Mac & Cheese, Butter Chicken & Rice, Chicken Burrito Bowl and Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo. Family offerings include Chicken and Bacon Mac n' Cheese and Meat Lovers Pizza Bake.

The meals also are positioned around protein and satiety. ALDI says the single-serve meals provide 30 to 46 grams of protein, while the family-size meals provide 16 to 22 grams per serving.

This is consumer-centric marketing.

ALDI isn't simply saying:

"We have prepared food."

The message is closer to:

"We can help you solve dinner, lunch or another meal occasion without asking you to spend restaurant money."

That is a much more powerful proposition.

Convenience Has Become Part of the Value Equation

Deloitte's 2024 research found that 52% of consumers said they valued convenience more than they had in the past, while 53% said figuring out "what's for dinner" was a major pain point.

Think about what that means from a food-marketing perspective.

The consumer is not necessarily looking for another grocery-shopping mission.

The consumer may be looking for meal completion.

That's a very different retail objective.

The Grocerant Guru® has repeatedly argued that the grocery store, restaurant, convenience store and other food channels have fewer meaningful "silos" in the consumer's mind than the industry often assumes.

Consumers don't wake up saying:

"Today I will consume something from the grocery category."

They say:

"I'm hungry."

Or:

"What's for dinner?"

Or:

"I need something fast."

That distinction is enormous.

ALDI Is Bringing the Grocerant Proposition Into Its Own Brand

ALDI's move is especially interesting because it is not simply adding a third-party prepared-food concept.

It is bringing ready-made meals into its own-brand architecture.

That matters because ALDI's consumer proposition has historically been built around private-label value.

Now the retailer can extend that value proposition from ingredients to solutions.

That is a major strategic distinction.

Traditional grocery asks:

"What ingredients do you need?"

Grocerant thinking asks:

"What meal do you need?"

ALDI is moving toward the second question.

And it is doing so while maintaining its traditional value language.

Fresh, Not Frozen, Changes the Marketing Conversation

ALDI says the new meals are fresh and never frozen, with the collection designed around quality ingredients, bold flavors and satisfying portions.

That is important because the consumer's perception of "prepared" matters.

Prepared food can mean:

· restaurant leftovers,

· frozen dinners,

· convenience food,

· deli food,

· fresh meal solutions,

· or something that tastes and feels closer to food prepared at home.

ALDI is attempting to occupy that last space.

The company says the meals are designed to be ready in minutes, making them useful for lunch, dinner, busy families and meal preparation.

That is service through food.

The product is doing more than satisfying hunger.

It is giving the consumer something extremely valuable:

time.

Service Doesn't Always Mean More Employees

There is another important lesson here.

The food industry often defines service by human interaction.

The consumer increasingly defines service by friction removed.

If ALDI puts an appealing meal in the refrigerated section, prices it clearly, packages it for easy heating and allows the shopper to leave with dinner in minutes, ALDI has delivered a form of service without adding a traditional restaurant-style service model.

That is the Grocerant opportunity.

Product becomes service.

Packaging becomes service.

Placement becomes service.

Speed becomes service.

And price communicates respect for the consumer's budget.

The 2026 Consumer Wants Permission to Mix and Match

FMI's 2025 research showing that 53% of consumers use a hybrid approach to meals is particularly important.

A consumer might buy:

· a prepared entrée,

· a salad,

· fresh fruit,

· a bakery item,

· a beverage,

· or something already in the refrigerator at home.

That's Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling, another foundational Grocerant Guru® concept.

The retailer does not have to dictate the entire meal.

It needs to provide the components consumers want.

ALDI's single-serve and family-size formats create different opportunities for that behavior.

One shopper can solve lunch.

Another can solve dinner for the family.

Another can buy a prepared entrée and add a vegetable or side.

The consumer becomes the meal architect.

ALDI's Marketing Message Should Stay Consumer-First

There is a temptation in food marketing to advertise the retailer.

"Look what ALDI is doing."

That's retailer-centered marketing.

A stronger message is:

"Look what ALDI can do for you."

That means the marketing should focus on four things:

Price

Under $8 for single-serve and under $15 for family-size creates a simple, understandable value message.

Value

The consumer receives a complete meal solution—not merely ingredients.

Service

The food is ready to heat, reducing preparation time and the mental work associated with meal planning.

Relevance

The assortment includes familiar comfort foods alongside globally inspired choices such as Butter Chicken & Rice and the Chicken Burrito Bowl.

That's consumer-centric marketing.

It begins with the consumer's problem and positions the food as the solution.

2026 Is the Year "What's for Dinner?" Became a Retail Opportunity

FMI's 2026 research found that 44% of shoppers say they are having more family meals at home than a year earlier, while 35% say they are cooking more often. At the same time, half of shoppers reported eating fewer restaurant meals and ordering less takeout and delivery for their families.

This is an important distinction.

The consumer isn't necessarily choosing between home cooking and prepared food.

The consumer increasingly wants home meal occasions with less work.

That is where Heat-N-Eat becomes so powerful.

ALDI can participate in the home-meal occasion without requiring the shopper to start from scratch.

And that is exactly what the Grocerant Niche has been about.

ALDI Is Evolving—Without Abandoning Its DNA

The most interesting part of this ALDI announcement is that the retailer isn't abandoning its historic value proposition.

It is extending it.

For years, ALDI's value equation has been:

Good Food + Low Price = Value

The Grocerant opportunity adds another dimension:

Good Food + Low Price + Convenience + Time Saved = Modern Food Value

That is a much more powerful equation.

And ALDI's entry into fresh ready-made meals suggests the company understands that consumers don't live in food-industry silos.

They live in meal occasions.

The retailer that can solve more of those occasions—at the right price, with the right quality and the right level of convenience—has another opportunity to earn the consumer's next food dollar.

ALDI's planned monthly ready-made-meal additions through its ALDI Finds program also create an interesting marketing mechanism: the retailer can combine meal-solution convenience with the discovery and urgency associated with limited or rotating products.

That turns a prepared meal from simply another SKU into a potential traffic, trial and repeat-purchase vehicle.

Three Insights From the Grocerant Guru®

1. Price gets the consumer's attention—but convenience can get the second purchase.
ALDI's opportunity is not merely to prove that prepared food can be inexpensive. It is to prove that affordable prepared food can save time, reduce meal-planning stress and still deliver an experience consumers want to repeat.

2. The next battlefield isn't grocery versus restaurants—it's the meal occasion.
Consumers increasingly move across channels looking for the right combination of price, quality, convenience, portability and service. ALDI's fresh ready-made meals demonstrate how a traditional grocer can move directly into the competitive space once occupied primarily by restaurants, deli departments and convenience stores.

3. The biggest opportunity is eliminating the industry silos in the consumer's mind.
The consumer doesn't care whether a meal is classified as grocery, foodservice, deli or convenience. They care whether it is good, affordable, available and easy. ALDI's move into fresh Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meals is another indication that the Grocerant Niche isn't a department—it is a consumer behavior.

The Grocerant Guru® Bottom Line: ALDI isn't simply adding seven prepared meals. It is extending its value proposition from selling food ingredients to selling meal solutions. And in a food marketplace where consumers increasingly value price, time, convenience and quality together, that is a very important evolution.

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

Chili’s Takes the Fight Beyond Burgers: Why the Restaurant Industry Needs to Stop Thinking in Silos

2026-09-27T00:27:00.000-07:00

There is an important lesson emerging from Chili’s that reaches far beyond burgers, chicken sandwiches, tacos or even casual dining according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Consumers do not live in restaurant industry silos—and neither should restaurant marketers.

For decades, the restaurant industry has divided itself into categories: quick-service restaurants, fast casual, casual dining, pizza, Mexican, chicken, burgers and convenience stores. But consumers do not wake up in the morning thinking, “Today I am going to purchase from the casual-dining segment.”

They think:

“What do I want to eat, how much do I want to spend, how quickly do I want it, and what am I going to get for my money?”

That distinction is becoming increasingly important.

And Chili’s appears to understand it.

At Brinker International’s September 17, 2026 Investor Day, Chili’s executives Kevin Hochman, president and CEO of Brinker International, and George Felix, EVP and CMO, described a strategy that began by attacking the perceived value gap between casual dining and fast food—and is now looking toward Mexican QSR as another category where Chili’s believes it can compete.

From the perspective of the Grocerant Guru®, this isn't simply a story about Chili’s going after Taco Bell.

It is a story about the continuing collapse of restaurant industry silos.

The Consumer Doesn't Care About Your Industry Category

In 2024, Chili’s made its intentions very clear.

The brand introduced its Big Smasher burger as part of its $10.99 3 For Me platform, explicitly positioning the offer against fast-food burgers. Chili’s said the Big Smasher contained twice the beef of a Big Mac, while the $10.99 meal included the burger, fries, bottomless chips and salsa, and a bottomless non-alcoholic beverage.

The important marketing idea wasn't simply “we have a burger.”

The message was:

“Compare what you get for your money.”

That is a fundamentally different way to market food.

Chili’s subsequently extended the strategy into lunch. Its 2024 3 For Lunch platform offered 11 combinations beginning at $10.99, including burgers, chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders and other familiar lunch choices.

Then came 2025.

Chili’s introduced the Big QP burger with 85% more beef than a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, again putting the comparison squarely into the consumer's frame of reference. The $10.99 3 For Me included the burger, fries, bottomless chips and salsa, and a bottomless drink.

And the results suggest that consumers were paying attention.

For fiscal 2025, Chili’s comparable restaurant sales increased 25.3%, with traffic up 16.0%. In the fourth quarter alone, comparable sales increased 23.7%, including a 16.3% increase in traffic.

Those numbers matter because they demonstrate something more important than a successful advertising campaign:

Consumers were willing to change where they spent their restaurant dollars.

Then Came Chicken

In April 2026, Chili’s moved beyond burgers.

The company introduced the Big Crispy chicken sandwich to its $10.99 3 For Me platform and explicitly compared it with fast-food chicken sandwiches. Chili’s said its average Big Crispy filet was more than 80% larger than the average McCrispy breaded filet in its local study.

Again, the strategy wasn't:

“We are a casual-dining restaurant selling chicken.”

It was:

“Here is what you get for your money. Now compare.”

That is Price Value Service Equilibrium in action.

Price alone isn't value.

Value is the relationship between:

Price + Quality + Service + Experience + Portability = Consumer Value

A $9 meal isn't automatically a better value than a $12 meal.

If the $12 meal provides substantially more food, better ingredients, table service, a comfortable environment and an experience consumers enjoy, the consumer may perceive the $12 purchase as the better value.

That is exactly the battleground Chili's has entered.

Chili's Says Mexican QSR Is Next

At the 2026 Investor Day, Brinker executives discussed Mexican QSR as a potential future growth category.

Importantly, this is not being positioned as an immediate rollout. George Felix described Mexican QSR as a future opportunity, potentially about two years out, while pointing to existing Chili's capabilities in quesadillas and fajitas. Executives discussed potential extensions such as Chicken Crisper tacos, upgraded steak quesadillas and other Mexican-inspired menu applications.

That is strategically significant.

Chili's isn't starting from zero.

It already has:

· Chicken Crispers

· Fajitas

· Quesadillas

· Mexican-inspired menu items

· Familiar proteins

· Sauces and flavor profiles

· A strong restaurant experience

· A value platform

· A marketing system built around comparison

The opportunity is therefore less about entering Mexican food and more about recombining existing assets into new consumer occasions.

That is something the Grocerant Guru® has been calling Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling for years.

Take a proven protein.

Take a proven sauce.

Take a familiar format.

Take a recognized brand.

Bundle the components.

Create a new occasion.

Then give the consumer a reason to choose it.

This Is Where the Silos Begin to Break

The restaurant industry has traditionally organized itself around categories.

Burger restaurants compete with burger restaurants.

Chicken restaurants compete with chicken restaurants.

Mexican restaurants compete with Mexican restaurants.

Casual dining competes with casual dining.

But the consumer sees none of those walls.

The consumer sees one wallet.

And that wallet may be deciding between:

· a burger at McDonald's,

· tacos at Taco Bell,

· chicken at Chick-fil-A,

· a meal at Chili's,

· pizza for the family,

· a prepared meal from a supermarket,

· food from a convenience store,

· or something delivered to the home.

That's the real competitive landscape.

The consumer's stomach is the marketplace.

The Chili's Numbers Tell an Interesting Story

Chili's fiscal 2024 performance already showed the beginning of the shift.

In fiscal 2024, Chili's comparable restaurant sales increased 7.4%, while traffic declined only 0.6%, with the company specifically citing the Big Smasher launch and value-oriented advertising as traffic drivers in the fourth quarter.

Then fiscal 2025 accelerated dramatically.

Chili's comparable sales increased 25.3%, with traffic increasing 16.0%.

By fiscal 2026, Brinker reported that Chili's had delivered five consecutive years of same-store sales growth, with cumulative growth of 71% over that period. Fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter comparable sales increased 5.6% at Chili's.

Those results help explain why Brinker is now talking about expanding the concept rather than simply defending it.

At Investor Day, Brinker established longer-term targets calling for 4% to 6% annual revenue growth and 2% to 3% annual unit growth, with a goal of reaching approximately 30 new restaurants annually by fiscal 2029.

Value Is Becoming More Than a Discount

This is perhaps the most important lesson.

Chili's executives are not describing value as simply having the lowest price.

They describe an everyday low-price strategy based on price certainty, more food for the money and the overall experience.

The company's executives said the Chili's entry price points can be available without requiring consumers to find a coupon, visit at a specific hour or use a special promotion. They also described the average Chili's check for comparable occasions as roughly $3 to $4 below competitors in casual dining.

That is a very different proposition from traditional promotional marketing.

“Come in today because the coupon expires tonight” creates urgency.

“You know what you're going to get for your money every day” creates trust.

For today's consumer, that distinction matters.

And This Is Where Taco Bell Enters the Conversation

The question isn't really whether Chili's can become Taco Bell.

It doesn't need to.

Nor does Taco Bell need to become Chili's.

The more interesting question is whether consumers will increasingly compare them on the same occasion.

If a consumer wants tacos, the consumer can evaluate Taco Bell.

But that same consumer can now ask:

What does Chili's offer me for the same money?

That is the competitive disruption.

Chili's executives have already indicated that the company intends to make comparisons visible by showing consumers the difference in portion size, ingredients and experience.

And that is exactly how category boundaries begin to disappear.

The Bigger Opportunity Is the Occasion

The restaurant industry should stop asking:

“Who is our competitor?”

It should start asking:

“What other food occasions can steal our customer's dollar?”

That is a much larger question.

A burger chain isn't only competing against burger chains.

A Mexican QSR isn't only competing against Mexican QSRs.

A casual-dining restaurant isn't only competing against casual dining.

They are all competing for share of stomach, share of wallet and share of occasion.

Brinker executives made essentially this point at Investor Day, noting that Chili's can source guests from across the restaurant landscape rather than from one specific category.

That is the future of foodservice marketing.

The Grocerant Guru® Perspective

I have long argued that there are no silos in the consumer's mind.

Consumers don't care whether the food industry calls something QSR, fast casual, casual dining, convenience retail, grocery prepared foods or a restaurant.

They care about what's for dinner.

They care about what's for lunch.

They care about how much it costs.

They care about how much food they receive.

They care about quality.

They care about speed.

They care about service.

And increasingly, they care about whether the experience is worth leaving home for.

Chili's is demonstrating what happens when a restaurant stops defining its competition by industry classification and starts defining competition by consumer value perception.

The next phase may be Mexican QSR.

But the larger opportunity is much bigger.

It is the consumer.

And the consumer has never recognized the silos in the first place.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Stop defining competition by category.

The restaurant industry needs to stop asking, “Who operates in our category?” and start asking, “Who is competing for this consumer's next meal?” That includes restaurants, grocery prepared foods, convenience stores, delivery, takeout and increasingly every retailer capable of selling Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat food.

2. Price gets attention—but value wins the occasion.

Chili's lesson is not simply that $10.99 is powerful. The lesson is that what the consumer receives for $10.99 creates the value proposition. Food quantity, food quality, service, atmosphere, convenience and price must work together. That is the Price Value Service Equilibrium.

3. The future belongs to Mix-and-Match.

Chili's potential move into Mexican QSR demonstrates the power of using existing foodservice components in new ways. Chicken Crispers can become tacos. Fajita steak can become quesadillas. Sauces can create new flavor platforms. Existing ingredients can create new occasions.

That's Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling—and it is one of the most powerful ways to grow food sales without rebuilding the entire business from scratch.

The biggest lesson from Chili's isn't that casual dining is going after Mexican QSR.

The biggest lesson is that the consumer has already eliminated the silos. The smartest food marketers are simply catching up.

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

Round Table Pizza and Dr. Pepper Put a New Spin on the Grocerant Game

2026-09-26T00:26:00.000-07:00

Football season has always been about food, friends, family and gathering around the table. But in 2026, gathering around the table means something different than it did a generation ago.

Consumers increasingly think about the meal occasion, not the traditional restaurant category according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Pizza, wings, sides, beverages and snacks can come from different places, different channels and different brands. The consumer doesn't care about the industry's organizational chart. They simply want to answer one question:

“What's for dinner—and what are we going to share?”

That is precisely why Round Table Pizza's new collaboration with Dr Pepper and The Dairy Alliance deserves attention from foodservice marketers.

Round Table Pizza is introducing what it describes as its first nationwide Dr Pepper-inspired pizza, along with a limited-time lineup built around the distinctive flavor of Dr Pepper. The promotion includes a Dr Pepper BBQ Pizza, Dr Pepper BBQ Classic and Boneless Wings, Bacon & Cheese Tots with Dr Pepper BBQ Dipping Sauce, and a Margherita Pizza.

The promotion is available through Jan. 3 and is designed squarely around football-season sharing.

From my perspective as the Grocerant Guru®, this isn't simply another limited-time offer. It is a lesson in Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling, brand collaboration and trial generation.

The Grocerant Consumer Doesn't Buy Categories—They Build Meals

For years, foodservice companies organized themselves around categories:

Pizza.

Wings.

Sides.

Beverages.

Desserts.

Grocery.

Convenience stores.

Restaurants.

Consumers don't think that way.

They build meals from components.

That consumer behavior is becoming increasingly important as restaurants compete not merely with other restaurants, but with every food retailer capable of supplying a Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat component.

The National Restaurant Association's 2024 research specifically identified meal blending as an important consumer behavior, noting that restaurant food increasingly supplements food prepared at home.

That is the foundation of what I call Grocerant Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling.

A consumer might purchase:

Pizza + wings + tots + beverage

Pizza + salad + beverage

Wings + sides + beverage

The consumer is assembling an occasion rather than ordering from a predetermined restaurant-category box.

Round Table's Dr Pepper promotion understands that dynamic.

The Pizza Is the Platform. The Beverage Is Part of the Experience.

The Dr Pepper BBQ Pizza is particularly interesting because the beverage brand isn't simply sitting beside the pizza on the menu.

Dr Pepper becomes an ingredient and flavor cue.

Round Table's signature crust is paired with creamy garlic sauce, Dr Pepper BBQ sauce, three cheeses, bacon, mini pepperoni and green onions.

That changes the marketing proposition.

Instead of:

“Buy a pizza and a Dr Pepper.”

the proposition becomes:

“Experience Dr Pepper in a completely new way.”

That is a much more powerful reason to try something.

Dr Pepper brings decades of brand recognition and a distinctive 23-flavor identity to the collaboration. KDP describes Dr Pepper as having built a passionate consumer following around its unique flavor profile.

And the brand's recent innovation strategy reinforces the importance of flavor exploration.

In 2025, KDP said Dr Pepper Creamy Coconut had become its most successful limited-time carbonated soft-drink offering to that point. The company also reported that its 2025 beverage research showed consumers were highly interested in flavor innovation.

In 2026, KDP continued that strategy, reporting that 44% of Americans—and 72% of Gen Z—try new beverages each month.

That creates an important marketing opportunity.

Dr Pepper isn't merely supplying a beverage. It is supplying curiosity.

Brand Equity Can Lower the Cost of Trial

Trial is one of the hardest things for a restaurant brand to generate.

A consumer may have no particular reason to visit a restaurant they've never considered.

But introduce a familiar brand into an unfamiliar product and the consumer has a reason to investigate.

That is the power of borrowed brand equity.

Round Table Pizza supplies the pizza credibility, food preparation expertise and restaurant experience.

Dr Pepper supplies recognition, flavor identity and consumer familiarity.

The Dairy Alliance adds another dimension around dairy and cheese.

Three organizations therefore bring different forms of brand equity into one food occasion.

The consumer doesn't have to understand the partnership structure.

They simply see something they recognize—and something they've never tried.

That combination can be a powerful trial mechanism.

2024, 2025 and 2026 Tell the Same Story: Value Is Bigger Than Price

The timing is particularly important.

In 2024, the National Restaurant Association reported that 7 in 10 adults often looked for a daily special or discount, while 85% said they were flexible about when they dined if a deal was offered.

But value has continued to evolve.

In 2025, the National Restaurant Association reported that consumers increasingly define restaurant value through a combination of experience, hospitality and affordability, rather than price alone.

And in its 2025 off-premises research, the Association found that value deals—including limited-time offers, BOGO promotions and other value mechanisms—resonated with about 8 in 10 off-premises customers.

Now look at 2026.

The National Restaurant Association's latest consumer research reports that 40% of consumers are using more discounts or value promotions than they usually do, up from 35% in the prior quarter.

That tells us something important:

Value isn't disappearing. It is becoming more sophisticated.

Consumers want a compelling reason to spend.

That reason can be price.

But it can also be novelty, convenience, social connection, portion flexibility, flavor discovery and perceived experience.

Round Table's Dr Pepper promotion brings several of those elements together.

This Is Where Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling Gets Interesting

The real opportunity isn't just selling the Dr Pepper BBQ Pizza.

It is selling the occasion.

Think about the menu architecture:

Pizza — the meal anchor.

Wings — a highly shareable protein component.

Tots — a snackable side.

Dr Pepper BBQ sauce — the flavor bridge.

Dr Pepper — the beverage component.

Margherita Pizza — a familiar alternative for consumers who don't want the experimental flavor.

This is a textbook example of giving consumers multiple components from which to construct their own meal.

And that matters because consumers don't all want the same thing.

One person wants the Dr Pepper BBQ Pizza.

Another wants wings.

Another wants a traditional Margherita.

Another wants tots.

Someone else wants the beverage.

The group can still eat together.

That's Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling at work.

The Consumer Doesn't Have to Choose Between Familiar and New

This may be one of the smartest aspects of the promotion.

The Dr Pepper BBQ Pizza is the discovery vehicle.

But the Margherita Pizza provides a familiar choice.

That creates a menu architecture of:

New + Familiar + Shareable.

It lowers the perceived risk of experimentation.

A family or football gathering doesn't have to commit the entire order to something new.

One new pizza can be the trial item.

Wings can satisfy another preference.

Tots can become the snack.

The traditional pizza can satisfy the consumer who doesn't want to experiment.

And Dr Pepper can tie the entire occasion together.

This is how brands can introduce innovation without requiring every member of the party to become an adventurous eater.

The Real Test Is What Happens After the Promotion

Here is where the promotion gets particularly interesting.

A limited-time offer creates trial.

But trial isn't the final objective.

The objective is migration.

A consumer who normally orders from another pizza chain tries Round Table because of Dr Pepper.

The consumer likes the food.

The food arrives on time.

The order is accurate.

The price feels reasonable.

The service experience is positive.

Now the consumer has a new restaurant consideration.

That is customer migration.

But there is an important condition:

The service and price have to be right.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 off-premises research identified speedy service, good customer service, easy ordering and payment, value offers and loyalty programs as critical attributes for repeat business.

The Association also reported that 94% of consumers consider speed critical and more than 9 in 10 identify customer service as a priority.

So the Dr Pepper promotion can get the customer through the door—or onto the app.

Round Table then has to earn the second order.

That's the difference between a promotion and a customer-acquisition strategy.

The Beverage Is No Longer Just the Beverage

This is another important lesson.

For decades, restaurant beverages were frequently treated as an attachment sale.

Today, that thinking is changing.

KDP's 2026 foodservice beverage analysis describes beverages as increasingly capable of influencing where consumers go, what they order and how they experience an occasion, with younger consumers particularly interested in variety, flexibility and novelty.

That makes the Dr Pepper partnership strategically interesting.

Dr Pepper provides:

Recognition.

Flavor equity.

Novelty.

Consumer conversation.

Cross-brand discovery.

A reason to try something new.

And potentially, a reason to order again.

That is considerably more valuable than simply putting a fountain drink next to a pizza.

Football Makes the Marketing Even More Powerful

Football is fundamentally a group eating occasion.

That makes the menu architecture particularly relevant.

Pizza is shareable.

Wings are shareable.

Tots are shareable.

Beverages are shareable in the sense that everyone has a personal choice.

The promotion therefore fits the occasion rather than trying to force the occasion to fit the menu.

That is good food marketing.

The restaurant isn't simply saying:

“Here is our new pizza.”

It is saying:

“Here is something interesting to bring to the football gathering.”

That is a much larger marketing proposition.

The Price-Value-Service Equilibrium

I've long argued that consumers evaluate foodservice through a Price Value Service Equilibrium.

Price matters.

Quality matters.

Service matters.

Convenience matters.

Experience matters.

And increasingly, the ability to customize the meal occasion matters.

A promotion can have a spectacular flavor concept and still fail if the customer believes the price is too high.

A low price won't rescue poor service.

Great service won't necessarily overcome a disappointing product.

And a great product won't guarantee repeat business if the ordering experience is frustrating.

The equation has to work together.

Price + Quality + Service + Convenience + Experience = Consumer Value.

That's why Round Table's Dr Pepper promotion should be viewed as more than a seasonal menu.

It is a test of whether brand collaboration can create trial and whether restaurant execution can convert trial into migration.

The Grocerant Lesson: Don't Sell the Product. Sell the Meal Occasion.

This is the larger lesson for restaurants, grocery retailers, convenience stores and every other food retailer competing for the consumer's next meal.

Consumers increasingly want food that is:

Ready-2-Eat.

Heat-N-Eat.

Portable.

Shareable.

Customizable.

Affordable.

Interesting.

And increasingly, they want to assemble the meal themselves.

The National Restaurant Association's research reinforces this movement toward expanded off-premises choices, including snack items and bundled meals.

That is the Grocerant opportunity.

The winning food retailer doesn't necessarily have to own every component.

It needs to understand how consumers want to combine the components.

Round Table Pizza, Dr Pepper and The Dairy Alliance have created a particularly interesting example.

Pizza brings the platform.

Dr Pepper brings the flavor equity.

Cheese brings the indulgence and culinary credibility.

Wings and tots create shareability.

Football creates the occasion.

The limited-time offer creates urgency.

And the restaurant experience determines whether trial becomes migration.

That is modern food marketing.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling is the future of the meal occasion.
Consumers don't think in restaurant categories. They think in meals, snacks and occasions. Pizza, wings, sides and beverages become components consumers can combine to build the meal they want.

2. Brand collaboration can manufacture trial—but execution creates migration.
Dr Pepper brings enormous flavor recognition and consumer curiosity to Round Table Pizza. That can motivate a customer to try something new. But price, product quality, speed and service determine whether that customer considers Round Table again.

3. The beverage can be the marketing engine, not merely the meal attachment.
Dr Pepper demonstrates how a beverage brand can become an ingredient, an innovation platform, a flavor cue and a consumer acquisition vehicle. When the right brands are combined around the right food occasion, the beverage can help sell the entire meal—not just the drink.

The Grocerant Guru® bottom line:
The consumer doesn't care whether the pizza company, beverage company or dairy industry created the promotion. The consumer cares whether the price, value, flavor, convenience and experience come together at the moment they are deciding what to eat.

And that's why this Round Table Pizza–Dr Pepper collaboration is worth watching.

It isn't just about a Dr Pepper BBQ Pizza.

It's about getting consumers to try something new, giving them a reason to gather, and creating enough value and satisfaction that the first order isn't the last.

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Casey’s Wings Are Flying: The Convenience Store Continues Its March Into Restaurant Territory

2026-09-25T00:25:00.000-07:00

There is something important happening at Casey’s General Store, and it has very little to do with chicken wings alone according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

The wings are simply the latest evidence.

For decades, Casey’s has been quietly proving that consumers do not necessarily care whether a meal comes from a restaurant, convenience store, grocery store or another retail channel. They care about price, value, service, quality, convenience and timing.

That is precisely where Casey’s and the Grocerant Guru® philosophy intersect.

I call it the Price Value Service Equilibrium: consumers continuously balance what they pay, what they receive, how good the experience is and how easily the food fits into their lives.

Casey’s is increasingly building its prepared-food business around that equilibrium.

And now, chicken wings are giving the company another way to win the consumer's food dollar.

The Wings Are Flying — But Look at What They Are Really Doing

Casey’s latest chicken-wing results are particularly interesting because the company is not simply selling more food to existing pizza customers.

According to CEO Darren Rebelez, about 38% of guests purchasing wings have placed a wings-only order.

That distinction matters.

It means the customer did not necessarily come to Casey’s for pizza and decide to add wings.

The wings created a new food occasion.

Even more important, customers who purchased wings on a wings-only occasion subsequently increased their overall frequency of prepared-food purchases from Casey’s by approximately 30%.

In the Des Moines market, where Casey’s has had wings the longest, wing sales were up 46% year over year in the latest quarter.

That is not simply a new menu item.

It is an occasion-building strategy.

And occasion building is one of the most powerful tools available to a modern grocerant operator.

Casey’s currently has wings in approximately 850 stores and is beginning another rollout phase. Management has said it sees substantial room to expand the category.

The strategic objective is remarkably clear:

Do for wings what Casey’s already did for pizza.

Remember When Casey’s Was “Just” a Convenience Store?

This is where the history becomes important.

Casey’s began as a small-town general-store concept in Iowa. Over time, the company evolved from a place primarily associated with fuel, groceries and convenience into a retailer increasingly associated with prepared food.

The pivotal move was pizza.

Casey’s introduced its made-from-scratch pizza in the 1980s, and pizza became a foundational part of the company's identity. Casey’s celebrated the 40th anniversary of its pizza business in 2025.

Historically, the company did not stop with pizza.

It added sandwiches, bakery products, breakfast foods, donuts, beverages and other prepared foods.

By the mid-1990s, Casey’s was already describing prepared food as an important part of its product strategy, including made-from-scratch pizza and commissary-produced sandwiches.

That was an early version of what I have called the Grocerant Revolution.

The retailer wasn't asking:

“Are we a restaurant?”

It was asking:

“What food does the customer want, and can we make it conveniently available?”

That is a very different question.

From 50 Million Pizzas to the Next Food Occasion

Today, Casey’s says it operates roughly 3,000 convenience stores across 19 states and describes itself as the fifth-largest pizza chain in the United States by number of kitchens. The company also reports roughly 800 million guest transactions annually.

The pizza business is enormous.

Casey’s sells the equivalent of approximately 50 million whole pizzas annually, making pizza one of the company's most important prepared-food traffic drivers.

But here's the strategic lesson:

A successful food platform does not have to remain a one-product platform.

Pizza gets customers thinking about Casey’s as food.

Wings give them another reason to return.

Breakfast gives them another.

Sandwiches give them another.

Bakery gives them another.

Beverages give them another.

And suddenly the convenience store is no longer competing for only the “I'm getting gas” occasion.

It is competing for what's for dinner, what's for lunch, what's for breakfast, what's for tonight's gathering and what can I grab right now?

That is grocerant thinking.

The Food Sales Numbers Tell the Story

The financial results demonstrate that Casey’s prepared-food strategy is not merely marketing language.

In fiscal 2025, prepared food and dispensed beverage revenue reached approximately $1.61 billion, up from $1.46 billion in fiscal 2024 and $1.32 billion in fiscal 2023.

That represented a 10.3% increase in prepared-food and dispensed-beverage revenue in fiscal 2025, driven by 3.5% same-store sales growth plus growth from additional stores.

Then came fiscal 2026.

Prepared food and dispensed beverage revenue increased to approximately $1.78 billion, while same-store sales increased 5.2%. Casey’s specifically identified strong whole-pizza performance as a major driver.

And the momentum continued into fiscal 2027.

For the quarter ended July 31, 2026, prepared-food and dispensed-beverage same-store sales increased 4.8%, while the category's margin reached 59.3%. Casey’s reported that positive traffic, led by whole pizzas, drove the prepared-food performance.

Put those numbers together and a pattern emerges:

Prepared food isn't an accessory to Casey's convenience-store business. Prepared food is increasingly one of the reasons customers come inside.

That is a profound change.

The Price Value Service Equilibrium Is Working

This is where I see a direct alignment between Casey’s strategy and the Grocerant Guru® Price Value Service Equilibrium.

Consumers don't evaluate food based on price alone.

They evaluate the entire proposition:

Price + Quality + Service + Convenience + Experience = Perceived Value

Casey’s has an interesting competitive advantage because it can combine several things in one stop:

· Convenience

· Extended hours

· Fuel

· Prepared food

· Beverages

· Grocery items

· Speed

· Multiple occasions

· A familiar local retail presence

And, importantly, price remains part of the equation.

Casey’s management has historically emphasized competing on price as well as location, extended hours, product offerings and quality of service.

That is precisely the equilibrium.

Consumers don't necessarily need Casey’s to be the cheapest possible food provider.

They need Casey’s to make the total value proposition feel right.

Pizza Taught Casey’s the Lesson. Wings Expand It.

There is a subtle difference between selling another menu item and creating another occasion.

Casey’s wings appear to be doing the latter.

A pizza can be dinner.

A pizza can be lunch.

A pizza can be a family meal.

A pizza can be a game-night purchase.

But wings can introduce different consumption occasions:

Friday night. Football. A party. A snack. Dinner for one. Dinner for two. A late-night meal. A shareable food purchase.

That is why the 38% wings-only figure is so important.

The consumer is telling Casey’s:

“I don't need pizza to buy food from you.”

That is an enormously valuable consumer message.

And Then There Is the Marketing Message

Marketing matters here.

Casey’s has spent decades building recognition around pizza, but the brand's messaging increasingly positions the retailer as a destination for food rather than merely a place that happens to sell food.

That distinction is critical.

The marketing message isn't simply:

“We have wings.”

It is closer to:

“Casey’s is a place where you can get the food you want, when you want it.”

That is a much bigger idea.

And it is consistent with how successful grocerant concepts grow.

The consumer doesn't want channel definitions.

The consumer wants solutions.

They don't wake up and say:

“Today I would like to purchase food from a convenience-store foodservice operator.”

They say:

“I'm hungry.”

Or:

“What's for dinner?”

Or:

“I need something for the game.”

Or:

“I need food now.”

The retailer that solves that problem wins the occasion.

Casey’s Is Still a Convenience Store — Just Not Only a Convenience Store

This is the historical progression worth watching.

Casey’s did not abandon convenience retail.

It expanded the meaning of convenience.

Fuel is convenient.

A pizza is convenient.

A wing order is convenient.

A breakfast sandwich is convenient.

A beverage is convenient.

And putting all of those things under one roof makes the store more relevant to more consumer occasions.

That is why I continue to believe the future of food retail is not about protecting traditional channel boundaries.

There are no silos in the consumer's mind.

The consumer sees:

Food.

Casey’s increasingly sees it that way, too.

And the wings are simply the latest proof point.

Three Insights From the Grocerant Guru®

1. The next growth opportunity is the next occasion.

Casey’s isn't simply asking, “How many wings can we sell?”

The more important question is:

“How many new occasions can wings create?”

The 38% wings-only purchase rate and the roughly 30% increase in prepared-food purchase frequency among those customers suggest the answer could be significant.

The lesson for every grocerant operator is simple:

Don't just add products. Add reasons to return.

2. Price gets the consumer's attention. Value gets the transaction.

The Casey’s model demonstrates why the Price Value Service Equilibrium matters.

A consumer can find food almost anywhere.

But the combination of price, quality, speed, convenience, service and availability determines whether the consumer believes the purchase was worth it.

That is why Casey’s does not have to become a traditional restaurant to compete with restaurants.

It can create a different value equation.

3. The future belongs to food retailers that think in occasions, not channels.

Casey’s historical evolution—from general store to convenience retailer to major pizza operator and increasingly sophisticated prepared-food destination—is a case study in the Grocerant Revolution.

The next generation of food competition will not be:

Restaurant vs. convenience store.

Or:

Grocery vs. restaurant.

Or:

C-store vs. QSR.

It will be:

Who can solve the consumer's food occasion best?

Casey’s wings are flying because they are doing more than selling chicken.

They are giving consumers another reason to think:

“Casey’s has food for that.”

And in the modern grocerant marketplace, that may be the most valuable marketing message of all.

The consumer doesn't care what channel you call yourself. The consumer cares whether you deliver the right Price Value Service Equilibrium at the right time.

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.

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Why the Time Is Now — And Why the Concept Is Consumer Driven

2026-09-24T00:24:00.000-07:00

Let me give credit where credit is due: Danielle Romano and Convenience Store News provide the foundation for this discussion with their excellent look at the return of Swiss Farms and its plan to evolve America's drive-thru grocer.

But from the perspective of Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru®, at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® the bigger story is not simply that Swiss Farms is coming back.

The bigger story is why the timing makes sense now.

Swiss Farms is showing what happens when a retail food concept starts with a consumer behavior and then builds the business around it.

That distinction matters.

Too many retailers begin with a facility, a menu, a format, a technology platform or an internal operating model and then ask consumers to adapt.

The Grocerant Niche works in the opposite direction.

Start with the consumer. Identify the friction. Solve the food occasion. Then build the format around the solution.

That is exactly what makes Swiss Farms interesting.

The Consumer Is Already Telling Us What Comes Next

For nearly six decades, Swiss Farms has built its identity around a simple proposition: consumers can get food and everyday essentials without leaving the vehicle. The company's current strategy keeps that drive-thru DNA while expanding fresh food, made-to-order food and beverages, grocery essentials, loyalty and eventually fuel.

That is not a random assortment of new ideas.

It reflects a consumer reality that has been accelerating across restaurants, grocery stores and convenience stores:

Consumers increasingly want the food they want, when they want it, in the easiest format available.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 Off-Premises Restaurant Trends found that 47% of adults pick up takeout at least weekly and 42% use the drive-thru weekly. The same research identifies speed, customer service, technology, value and loyalty as basic requirements for repeat off-premises business.

That is important because it changes the competitive set.

Swiss Farms is not simply competing with another grocery store.

It is competing for the consumer's time.

And time may be one of the most valuable commodities in the modern food marketplace.

The Opportunity Is Not "More Food." It Is Less Friction.

Swiss Farms' leadership describes the problem with remarkable clarity.

Traditional grocery shopping can require parking, unloading children, walking through a large store and spending substantial time shopping for only a few products. Swiss Farms' answer is essentially: pull up, provide the list and open the trunk.

That is a Grocerant proposition.

The consumer isn't necessarily saying:

"I want another grocery store."

The consumer is saying:

"I need milk, breakfast, coffee, dinner, snacks and maybe gas — and I don't want to spend an hour accomplishing it."

That is a very different business proposition.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 research reinforces the point. Consumers increasingly judge off-premises experiences on speed, value and ease, while younger adults report using takeout, drive-thru and delivery more often than the previous year.

The winning question is therefore not:

How do we get consumers to spend more time with us?

It is:

How do we give consumers more value for the time they give us?

Why the Time Is Now

The economic environment makes this even more relevant.

The National Restaurant Association reported in June 2026 that 36% of consumers said they were spending less at restaurants than the previous quarter, while more consumers were trading down, ordering fewer add-ons and choosing less expensive options.

At the same time, the Association reported in August 2026 that consumers continue to value convenience while household budgets remain under pressure.

This creates a fascinating intersection.

Consumers still want foodservice.

They still want fresh food.

They still want convenience.

But they are becoming increasingly deliberate about where their dollars go.

That is the environment in which hybrid concepts become especially interesting.

A consumer may not view a Swiss Farms purchase as "grocery" or "restaurant" or "convenience."

They simply see dinner.

They see breakfast.

They see something to eat now.

They see something to take home for later.

The consumer does not live inside industry silos.

Why should the operator?

Retail Foodservice Is Already Breaking Down the Silos

FMI's 2025 research found that consumers are increasingly treating grocery foodservice as an alternative to restaurant dining. The share of consumers choosing deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals more than doubled from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. More than half of Americans now take a hybrid approach to meals, combining prepared foods with items from their own kitchens.

Read that again.

Hybrid is becoming normal.

That is the Grocerant Niche in action.

The meal doesn't have to come from one place.

Consumers can buy a prepared entrée, add a side from home, purchase a beverage at a convenience store and finish the meal with something already in the pantry.

The consumer creates the meal.

The retailer's job is to make that creation easier.

That is why Swiss Farms' plan for a curated grocery assortment is so intriguing. Instead of trying to reproduce a supermarket's thousands of SKUs, the strategy calls for carrying the top products in major grocery categories.

That is not about offering everything.

It is about offering enough of the right things.

The Consumer-Driven Concept Is Mix-and-Match

This is where the Grocerant Niche becomes particularly powerful.

I have long argued that consumers are increasingly comfortable with Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling.

The consumer does not necessarily want a conventional restaurant meal.

The consumer may want:

A breakfast sandwich and coffee now.

A take-home dinner later.

A Stromboli for one family member.

A milkshake for another.

Fresh groceries for tomorrow.

Snacks for the car.

Fuel while already making the trip.

Swiss Farms' evolving model touches each of those occasions. Its planned foodservice program includes breakfast sandwiches, coffee, Stromboli, refreshers, milkshakes and take-home meal options, while its broader strategy adds grocery essentials and fuel at new locations.

That is not simply an expanded convenience store.

It is a consumer-controlled meal ecosystem.

Convenience Is No Longer Enough

There is an important warning here.

Convenience by itself is becoming table stakes.

Consumers also want value, quality, freshness, variety and personalization.

Technomic's 2026 retail foodservice research identifies evolving expectations around value, quality and freshness, while also highlighting interest in made-to-order food, grab-and-go options, customization, breakfast sandwiches and other cross-category foodservice offerings.

That fits Swiss Farms' strategy surprisingly well.

The concept is not saying:

"We are fast, therefore we win."

It is saying:

"We are fast, while becoming more relevant."

That is a much stronger proposition.

Consumer Choice Is Becoming the Format

Swiss Farms plans to preserve its drive-thru while also adding a walk-in option at new locations.

That may be one of the most important details in the entire story.

Why?

Because the company is not forcing every consumer into one behavior.

The consumer who wants speed can use the drive-thru.

The consumer who wants to browse can walk inside.

The consumer who wants digital engagement can use the app and loyalty program.

The consumer who wants nostalgia can engage with the brand through merchandise and familiar visual cues.

That is consumer-driven retail.

The brand is adapting to the consumer rather than demanding that the consumer adapt to the brand.

And that distinction is increasingly important.

Why Restaurants Should Pay Attention

Restaurants should pay attention because Swiss Farms represents something larger than one company's growth strategy.

The competitive battlefield is increasingly moving from restaurant versus restaurant to food occasion versus food occasion.

FMI reported in 2024 that 29% of consumers said they were pulling back from restaurants and turning to grocery stores for convenient meal solutions, with prepared foods becoming increasingly relevant across breakfast, lunch and dinner.

That means a restaurant dinner can lose the occasion before a consumer ever thinks about visiting another restaurant.

The replacement might be:

A grocery deli meal.

A convenience-store dinner.

A drive-thru purchase.

A meal kit.

A prepared entrée.

A combination of several retailers.

Or some combination of all of them.

The consumer doesn't care which industry classification wins.

The consumer cares which solution wins.

And This Is Where "What's for Dinner?" Becomes a Retail Strategy

The fundamental food question remains remarkably simple:

What's for dinner?

The answer is increasingly not determined by a restaurant menu or a grocery shopping list.

It is determined by time, money, convenience, appetite, household needs and what the consumer wants to do next.

FMI's 2026 grocery research reports that shoppers are looking for help making lunch and dinner easier without sacrificing health or value. Better-value lunch options lead their requests, followed by healthier, fresher, more varied and better-tasting prepared foods.

That is exactly the consumer-driven opportunity.

Consumers don't necessarily want somebody to tell them what dinner is.

They want somebody to make their version of dinner easier.

Why Swiss Farms Matters to the Grocerant Niche

Swiss Farms is particularly interesting because it is retaining the thing that consumers already understand while adding the things consumers increasingly want.

Keep the drive-thru.

Add fresh food.

Add grocery essentials.

Add made-to-order.

Add take-home meals.

Add technology.

Add loyalty.

Add new formats.

Add fuel where appropriate.

But keep the consumer at the center.

That is the formula.

Not technology for technology's sake.

Not more SKUs simply to say you have more SKUs.

Not a restaurant bolted onto a convenience store.

Not a grocery store trying to become a restaurant.

Rather:

A consumer-driven food solution that crosses categories because consumers already cross categories.

And that may be the most important lesson of all.

The Grocerant Niche has never been about whether a product is sold by a restaurant, grocery store, convenience store, dollar store, warehouse club or another retailer.

It is about the consumer's decision to buy Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat food where it is easiest, most relevant and most valuable at that moment.

Swiss Farms is betting that the time is right.

The consumer data suggests the market conditions are moving in that direction.

The next question is whether more operators will recognize that the future of food retail is not being designed in conference rooms.

It is being designed one consumer occasion at a time.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. The time is now because consumers are already breaking the silos.
Restaurant, grocery, convenience and foodservice are increasingly interchangeable in the consumer's mind. The industry may still use separate boxes, but consumers increasingly do not. FMI's prepared-food data makes that migration measurable.

2. Consumer-driven concepts solve friction before they add complexity.
Swiss Farms starts with a very simple consumer proposition — get essentials quickly — then adds foodservice, grocery, technology, loyalty and fuel around it.

3. The next generation of Grocerant growth will be built around "one now, one later."
The strongest concepts will increasingly satisfy the immediate need while creating the next meal occasion. Breakfast now. Dinner later. Coffee now. Groceries later. Snack now. Take-home meal later. That is not simply convenience. That is consumer-centric food occasion management — and it is where the next wave of Grocerant growth can emerge.

Yum! Brands After Pizza Hut: Buy, Sell or Build?

2026-09-23T00:23:00.000-07:00

Yum! Brands has just completed one of the more consequential portfolio moves in recent restaurant-industry history: Pizza Hut is gone from the Yum! Brands portfolio.

The Pizza Hut transactions totaled approximately $2.7 billion, with Pizza Hut China sold to Yum China and the remainder sold to LongRange Capital. Yum now describes itself as a more focused company built around KFC, Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill, with more than 44,000 restaurants in 151 countries and territories.

And now according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® CFO Ranjith Roy has essentially opened the door to the next question:

Should Yum! Brands buy another brand?

My answer as the Grocerant Guru® is: perhaps—but Yum should think much bigger than simply buying another restaurant chain.

The more provocative question is whether Yum should buy a consumer occasion, a distribution system and a place where food is purchased frequently.

That brings the convenience store into the conversation.

Part One: Should Yum Brands Be Buying Anyone?

The first question isn't who should Yum buy?

It is:

What consumer problem should Yum solve that its existing brands cannot solve?

That's an important distinction.

Yum already owns enormous global restaurant platforms. Taco Bell is chasing a $3 million average-unit-volume goal, while KFC International continues to expand aggressively. Habit provides a fast-casual burger platform.

Meanwhile, Yum says its strategy is centered on “battling for the future consumer,” improving restaurant unit economics and expanding the potential of Byte by Yum!

That suggests Yum doesn't need another brand simply to add another logo.

It needs another growth engine.

And the consumer data is telling us something important.

In 2024, the National Restaurant Association projected U.S. restaurant sales above $1.1 trillion, while 52% of consumers said takeout was essential to their lifestyle.

By 2025, nearly 75% of restaurant traffic was occurring off-premises, and consumers were telling operators that speed, convenience, technology, value and loyalty were all components of the value equation.

Then came 2026.

The National Restaurant Association projects the restaurant industry will reach approximately $1.55 trillion in sales, but it also reports consumers are becoming increasingly careful about where and how they spend their food dollars.

That changes the M&A equation.

Yum doesn't necessarily need more restaurants.

It needs more occasions.

Breakfast.

Snacking.

Late night.

Fuel-and-food.

Afternoon beverages.

Grab-and-go lunch.

Dinner on the way home.

Food purchased while doing something else.

That last category is particularly interesting.

Because the consumer doesn't wake up thinking:

“Today I will eat at a restaurant.”

The consumer thinks:

“I'm hungry.”

That's the Grocerant opportunity.

So, Should Yum Buy a C-Store?

Now we're asking a more interesting question.

The convenience store industry increasingly isn't about gasoline with food attached.

It is becoming foodservice with gasoline attached.

In 2025, U.S. convenience-store in-store sales reached $341.2 billion, up 1.7% from 2024. Foodservice represented 28.5% of in-store sales and 38.9% of in-store gross profit dollars. Prepared food alone represented 73.9% of c-store foodservice sales.

That is not a side business.

That's a food business.

And CSP's 2026 State of Foodservice report describes convenience stores increasingly becoming full-fledged food-and-beverage destinations, with operators investing in prepared foods, meal options and customization.

That sounds remarkably similar to where restaurant consumers are headed.

Think about the strategic fit.

Yum brings:

· Global food brands

· Restaurant operating expertise

· Franchise development

· Digital ordering

· Loyalty

· AI

· Menu innovation

· Supply-chain scale

· Consumer marketing

A high-performing C-store platform brings:

· Real estate

· High-frequency visits

· Extended hours

· Fuel traffic

· Beverage traffic

· Snacking occasions

· Grab-and-go

· Prepared food

· Breakfast

· Late-night occasions

· Immediate geographic convenience

Put the two together and the opportunity becomes much larger than another restaurant acquisition.

It becomes a food-and-convenience ecosystem.

And that could potentially give Yum something it doesn't currently own at scale:

the consumer's everyday stop.

Part Two: Should Yum Simply Part Ways With Some of Its Other Holdings?

Here I would take Yum's own Pizza Hut decision seriously.

The company just demonstrated that it is willing to say:

“This brand may be valuable, but it may be more valuable somewhere else.”

That's disciplined portfolio management.

Pizza Hut wasn't necessarily a bad brand.

But Yum decided that its capital, management attention and growth strategy could potentially be better deployed elsewhere. The transaction also came with an additional $4 billion share-repurchase authorization.

That creates an important precedent.

Yum should continually ask three questions about every brand:

1. Does it create incremental consumer occasions?

2. Does it produce attractive restaurant economics?

3. Does it strengthen the overall Yum ecosystem?

If the answer repeatedly becomes “no,” selling isn't failure.

It is portfolio discipline.

Habit Burger & Grill therefore deserves an especially interesting strategic examination—not because it is necessarily a candidate for sale, but because Yum needs to determine exactly what role Habit plays in the future portfolio.

Does Habit provide a differentiated fast-casual growth platform?

Does it create occasions Taco Bell and KFC don't reach?

Does it provide capabilities Yum can export elsewhere?

Does it strengthen Yum's franchise ecosystem?

Or does Yum simply own another burger brand in an extraordinarily crowded category?

Those are very different questions.

And today's consumer is making the distinction increasingly clear.

In 2025, Circana reported that consumer-perceived value-menu traffic increased 1% in the quarter ending June, even while overall restaurant traffic declined 1%.

In 2026, the National Restaurant Association reported that 36% of consumers said they were spending less at restaurants than the previous quarter, with consumers increasingly trading down and choosing less expensive options.

That means Yum shouldn't fall in love with brands.

It should fall in love with consumer demand.

Part Three: Should Yum Brands Buy Another Brand?

Yes—but only if the acquisition expands the Yum consumer universe rather than simply adding another restaurant concept.

That's the critical distinction.

Yum already has powerful positions in:

Chicken.

Mexican-inspired food.

Burgers.

Buying another traditional QSR could create scale.

But scale isn't necessarily the same thing as opportunity.

Taco Bell is already demonstrating the power of brand buzz + value + more occasions + digital engagement.

KFC is attempting to modernize its U.S. proposition while continuing its international growth engine.

And Yum has Byte by Yum! as a potentially powerful technology platform.

So what should the next acquisition bring?

Something Yum doesn't already have.

That's why I would put a C-store acquisition ahead of another conventional QSR acquisition on the Grocerant Guru® strategic whiteboard.

Not because every convenience store is a great food business.

It isn't.

Circana reported that convenience-store foodservice traffic declined year over year in Q1 2025, although dollar growth kept pace with QSRs.

That is exactly why the opportunity is interesting.

The C-store industry is still transforming.

The winners are increasingly treating food as a destination rather than an accessory.

NACS reports that prepared food—including pizza, chicken, burgers, sandwiches, wraps and salads—has become the dominant component of c-store foodservice.

And CSP's 2026 research shows retailers continuing to refresh prepared-food offerings and expand cuisines and menu categories.

Imagine Taco Bell inside a convenience ecosystem.

Now imagine KFC.

Now imagine Yum's digital loyalty architecture.

Now imagine personalized offers based upon the customer's trip.

Now imagine:

Fuel + Food + Beverage + Snack + Loyalty + Digital + Restaurant Quality.

That isn't merely a restaurant.

That's a grocerant ecosystem.

The Bigger Opportunity: Yum Could Buy the Occasion

This is where I believe Yum should push the strategic conversation.

The future isn't necessarily about:

Restaurant A vs. Restaurant B.

It is about:

Who owns the consumer occasion?

The consumer doesn't live in foodservice silos.

The same person can buy breakfast at a convenience store, lunch at Taco Bell, coffee somewhere else, a prepared dinner at a grocery store and a late-night snack at KFC.

There are no silos in the consumer's mind.

There are only needs.

And today's needs increasingly revolve around:

Price.

Value.

Speed.

Convenience.

Portability.

Digital connection.

Food quality.

That is precisely the intersection where Yum could potentially create another growth engine.

Three Insights From the Grocerant Guru®

1. Don't buy another brand—buy another occasion.

Yum shouldn't ask, “What restaurant should we own next?”

It should ask:

“Where is the consumer spending food dollars that Yum doesn't currently touch?”

That could lead directly to convenience retail, foodservice retail, travel centers, airports, campuses or other high-frequency environments.

The biggest opportunity may not be another restaurant.

It may be another place to eat.

2. Turn the C-store into Yum's “everyday restaurant.”

Here's where I would push the limit.

Imagine a C-store platform where Taco Bell, KFC and Habit aren't simply tenants or menu additions.

They become occasion engines.

Breakfast from one brand.

Coffee and beverage attachment.

KFC chicken for lunch.

Taco Bell afternoon snacking.

Grab-and-go dinner.

Late-night Taco Bell.

Yum loyalty across all of it.

Byte technology connecting all of it.

The objective would be to transform a fuel stop into a food stop that happens to sell fuel.

That is a fundamentally different business proposition.

3. Make “one now, one later” a Yum growth strategy.

The strongest future Yum acquisition might be one that creates two transactions from one consumer visit.

Buy breakfast now.

Buy lunch later.

Buy a meal now.

Buy a snack for later.

Buy dinner now.

Buy tomorrow morning's breakfast.

That's the Grocerant Guru® version of expanding restaurant economics:

Don't just increase frequency. Increase the number of food occasions attached to every relationship.

The restaurant industry is projected to reach $1.55 trillion in 2026, while convenience-store in-store sales already exceed $340 billion.

Yum doesn't have to own all of that.

But the strategic question is whether Yum should position itself to participate in more of it.

And that's why, after selling Pizza Hut, I wouldn't ask simply:

“Who should Yum buy?”

I'd ask something much bigger:

“What part of the consumer's food day does Yum want to own next?”

That is where the next billion-dollar idea may be hiding.

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

Wawa Understands the Most Important Word in Food Marketing: NOW

2026-09-22T00:22:00.000-07:00

$5. Saquon Barkley. Football season. Breakfast. Family. Convenience. Put those five things together and you have something far more powerful than a meal deal. You have NOW according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

That is what Wawa understands.

The Pennsylvania-based convenience retailer has once again teamed with Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, this time launching its “Hungry for Greatness” campaign around a new $5 Sizzli Meal running September 8 through October 25. The offer pairs a Sizzli breakfast sandwich with hot or iced coffee—or, for the first time, a 16-ounce fountain beverage. There is also a limited-time Pancake Sizzli.

And Barkley isn't simply standing beside a breakfast sandwich holding a sign.

He is playing a football coach.

His daughter, Jada, appears with him.

The story is about tired young athletes getting ready for the second half of a game.

That's marketing.

Wawa is not merely selling breakfast.

It is selling the idea of being ready for what comes next.

And that is a much bigger idea.

The Price–Value–Service Equilibrium Is Alive and Well

I have been talking about the Price–Value–Service Equilibrium for years.

Here is the simple version:

Price gets you noticed.
Value gets you to buy.
Service gets you to come back.

But in 2026, I would add two more ingredients:

Timing creates urgency.
Relevance creates desire.

Wawa has all five.

Price

$5 is easy to understand.

No complicated math.

No “starting at” price that changes when you actually order.

No 17-step coupon journey.

$5.

Value

You don't get just a sandwich.

You get a breakfast sandwich plus coffee or a fountain beverage.

That is a meal solution.

Service

Wawa is built around convenience, speed, customization and foodservice availability when consumers need it.

Timing

September.

Back to school.

Fall sports.

Football.

Busy mornings.

Family schedules.

The second half of the year.

Relevance

Saquon Barkley.

Philadelphia.

The Eagles.

Football culture.

Family.

Young athletes.

Suddenly, a breakfast sandwich has a reason to exist right now.

That is the equilibrium.

Here's the Part Restaurant Operators Should Pay Attention To

The restaurant industry has spent the past several years teaching consumers to look for deals.

But consumers are becoming smarter about what they consider a deal.

Circana reported in 2025 that consumer-perceived value-menu traffic increased 1% in the quarter ending June, even as overall restaurant traffic declined 1%. Value menus were actually gaining traffic while the broader restaurant industry was losing it.

Then came 2026.

The lesson became even clearer:

Cheap isn't enough anymore.

Reuters reported in August that major chains were discovering that discounts alone weren't necessarily keeping consumers coming back. Brands that combined value with innovation, quality and better execution were performing better than brands relying primarily on discounting.

That's an enormously important distinction.

Consumers aren't necessarily asking:

“Who is cheapest?”

They are increasingly asking:

“Who gives me the most for what I am willing to spend?”

That's value.

And value is not the same thing as price.

Wawa's $5 Is the Hook. The Story Is the Net.

This is where Wawa gets interesting.

Imagine the headline without Saquon Barkley:

Wawa Offers $5 Breakfast Meal.

Fine.

Now add:

Saquon Barkley Launches Wawa $5 Sizzli Meal for Football Season.

Different story.

Now add his daughter.

Now add young athletes.

Now add the second half of the game.

Now add back-to-school.

Now add fall sports.

Now you aren't marketing a sandwich.

You're marketing momentum.

That's the difference between a promotion and a campaign.

McDonald's Already Taught Us This Lesson

McDonald's figured out years ago that celebrity partnerships could turn a familiar menu item into a cultural event.

The Travis Scott Meal in 2020 wasn't about inventing a new hamburger.

It was about taking an existing product, attaching a celebrity to it, creating a limited window and giving consumers something to talk about.

That is a fundamentally different proposition from simply putting a coupon in a newspaper.

The celebrity doesn't have to make the food better.

The celebrity makes the food more culturally relevant.

Wawa is doing something similar—but with a particularly strong seasonal fit.

Saquon Barkley isn't a random celebrity.

He's an NFL running back.

He's associated with Philadelphia.

He's associated with football.

And football is happening now.

That's the secret sauce.

Taco Bell Understands the Power of “NOW,” Too

Taco Bell has repeatedly demonstrated another part of the equation: limited availability + fan participation + cultural relevance.

Its Nacho Fries platform has repeatedly brought consumers back around a familiar product by making its return an event.

Technomic's 2026 State of the Menu research continues to identify limited-time offers and value as important tools for driving traffic and sales.

But there's a warning here.

Don't confuse an LTO with a strategy.

By 2026, consumers are seeing so many limited-time offers that the words “limited time” themselves can lose their power.

The LTO has to mean something.

It needs a reason.

It needs a story.

It needs a season.

It needs cultural relevance.

Wawa has all four.

2026 Is Teaching Foodservice a Brutal Lesson

There is simply too much competition for the consumer's food dollar.

Circana says total U.S. foodservice traffic declined slightly in 2025, while the company forecasts foodservice spending growth of 3% across the U.S. and Europe in 2026.

Meanwhile, the National Restaurant Association's 2026 industry outlook projects U.S. restaurant sales of approximately $1.55 trillion, but only 1.3% real, inflation-adjusted growth.

Translation:

There is plenty of money in foodservice.

But getting your share of it is becoming harder.

That's why marketing can't simply say:

“Come eat.”

It needs to answer:

“Why here?”

“Why this?”

“Why now?”

Wawa answers all three.

This Is Where Restaurants Get It Wrong

Too many restaurant operators think their competitive advantage is their menu.

It isn't.

Your menu can be copied.

Your burger can be copied.

Your breakfast sandwich can be copied.

Your coffee can be copied.

Your discount can definitely be copied.

But the combination of:

brand + timing + cultural relevance + convenience + experience + value

is much harder to copy.

That's the real competitive advantage.

Wawa Is Selling Time, Too

Here's another reason I like this campaign.

The customer isn't only buying breakfast.

They're buying time.

They don't have to grocery shop.

They don't have to prepare breakfast.

They don't have to cook eggs.

They don't have to make coffee.

They don't have to clean the kitchen.

They can stop, purchase and continue with the day.

I've long argued that the modern consumer increasingly values food that eliminates the opportunity cost of preparing it themselves.

That is one reason the grocerant marketplace continues to blur traditional restaurant, grocery and convenience-store boundaries.

The consumer doesn't care about your industry classification.

They care about:

“I'm hungry. I'm busy. What's good? What's fast? What's affordable?”

No silos in the consumer's mind.

Football Is the Perfect Food Marketing Season

Football is particularly powerful because it isn't merely a sport.

It is a food occasion.

Breakfast before the game.

Lunch before the game.

Snacks during the game.

Pizza during the game.

Wings during the game.

Burgers during the game.

Convenience-store food on the way to the game.

Takeout after the game.

Delivery during the game.

And now breakfast can become part of the football narrative.

That's smart.

Wawa is effectively saying:

The game has a second half.
Your day does, too.
Start prepared.

That's emotional marketing wrapped around a $5 meal.

The Daughter Makes the Campaign Better

There is another small detail that I think marketers should notice.

Jada Barkley makes her commercial debut.

That changes the emotional equation.

Dad.

Daughter.

Young athletes.

Food.

Football.

Morning.

Preparation.

Community.

Now Wawa has moved beyond an athlete endorsement and into family storytelling.

And Wawa is reinforcing that story with a $25,000 contribution to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia.

That's important because modern consumers increasingly evaluate brands as more than transactional entities.

The food still has to be good.

The price still matters.

The service still matters.

But the brand can also have a role in the community.

That is value beyond the receipt.

The Grocerant Guru® Prediction

I believe we're entering an era where the strongest foodservice promotions will have five dimensions:

1. A clear price.

2. A compelling value equation.

3. Fast, frictionless service.

4. A reason the offer matters now.

5. A cultural or emotional reason to care.

Wawa's $5 Sizzli Meal hits all five.

And that is why this isn't really a story about a breakfast sandwich.

It is a story about food marketing timing.

Because here's what I know after decades of watching the foodservice industry evolve:

A great product at the wrong time is an opportunity lost.

A good product at exactly the right time can become an opportunity found.

Wawa has found the moment.

Football season is here.

School is back.

Families are busy.

Consumers are value conscious.

And Saquon Barkley is telling them:

Get ready for the second half.

That's a pretty good place for a breakfast sandwich to be.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Stop Selling Food. Start Selling the Moment.

Breakfast isn't the story.

The morning is the story.

Football isn't the product.

The football occasion is the product.

The best marketers identify what consumers are doing, feeling and anticipating—and then put their food directly into that moment.

2. $5 Isn't the Strategy. $5 + Everything Else Is.

A low price without value is cheap.

Value without service is frustrating.

Service without relevance is forgettable.

Celebrity without authenticity is noise.

But put Price + Value + Service + Timing + Relevance together and you have something powerful.

That's the Price–Value–Service Equilibrium with a 2026 twist:

Timing and relevance turn value into action.

3. The Future Belongs to “NOW” Marketing.

Consumers have more food choices than ever.

They have more channels.

More delivery.

More convenience stores.

More grocery prepared foods.

More restaurants.

More virtual brands.

The Customer Is the New Food Developer

2026-09-21T00:21:00.000-07:00

Rutter’s understands something many foodservice operators still miss: the best new menu idea may already be living inside the customer’s head according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru®
at Foodservice Solutions® based in Tacoma, Washington.

Here is a question every restaurant, convenience store, grocery retailer and foodservice operator should be asking in 2026:

What if your next great menu item isn't sitting in your test kitchen?

What if it is sitting in the head of your customer?

Rutter’s is betting that it is.

The York, Pennsylvania-based convenience-store retailer has launched its Customer Craving Contest, inviting consumers to create their dream Rutter’s menu item. Customers name the creation, build it with ingredients, explain why it is irresistible and tell Rutter’s why it deserves to become the next big bite.

Then comes the really interesting part.

Rutter’s will select 10 submissions, narrow those to five finalists and let customers vote on social media. The winning creation becomes a limited-time Rutter’s menu item, and the creator gets free fuel for a year.

Now that's more than a contest.

That's customer-powered product development.

And I believe foodservice operators should pay very close attention.

Because the consumer is changing from food buyer to food participant.

7 Reasons the Customer Is Becoming the New Food Developer

1. Customers Don't Just Want to Buy Food—They Want to Discover Food

Food discovery has fundamentally changed.

For years, restaurants controlled discovery through advertising, menu boards, television, radio, print and promotions.

Today, discovery happens everywhere.

TikTok.

Instagram.

YouTube.

Google.

Restaurant apps.

Delivery platforms.

Reviews.

Creators.

Friends.

And increasingly, artificial intelligence.

Datassential describes social-media data as a source of real-time insight into food and beverage trends, flavor preferences and dining behavior.

That's an important shift.

The food marketer's job is no longer simply to push a product.

It is increasingly to understand what consumers are discovering, talking about, combining and craving.

Rutter's takes that one step further:

It asks customers to create the discovery.

2. The Customer Has Become Part of the R&D Department

Think about what happens when 1,000 customers submit food ideas.

Rutter's isn't just getting 1,000 sandwich ideas.

It is potentially getting 1,000 pieces of consumer intelligence.

Customers reveal:

· Flavor combinations.

· Ingredient preferences.

· Portion expectations.

· Handheld preferences.

· Texture preferences.

· Regional tastes.

· Craving occasions.

· Price/value expectations.

· Food trends.

· Product combinations.

· Emotional connections to food.

That's market research disguised as fun.

And it can be more revealing than asking:

“What new products would you like to see?”

Consumers aren't always good at answering abstract research questions.

But give someone a blank menu and say:

“Build your perfect meal.”

Suddenly they have an opinion.

3. Customization Is Evolving Into Personalization

There is a difference between:

“Build your own sandwich.”

and

“Invent the sandwich you wish existed.”

The first is customization.

The second is personalization.

And personalization is becoming increasingly important.

The 2026 foodservice environment is particularly interesting because consumers are simultaneously demanding value, convenience and experiences that feel relevant to them.

Popmenu's 2026 restaurant research found that 68% of U.S. consumers said they were cutting back on restaurant dining, while reported weekly restaurant spending fell from approximately $115 in June 2025 to about $90 in February 2026.

That makes customer relevance even more important.

When consumers are spending carefully, they have less patience for food they don't really want.

They want:

Worth it.

And “worth it” increasingly means more than price.

It means:

I like it.
I discovered it.
It fits me.
It's convenient.
It's interesting.
And I want to tell somebody about it.

4. Limited-Time Offers Have Become the Foodservice Laboratory

Rutter's is also using one of the most powerful tools in modern foodservice:

The LTO.

Limited-time offers have exploded because they provide something every food marketer needs:

permission to experiment.

According to Technomic data reported by Axios in 2024, the number of restaurant LTOs had increased 53% over four years.

Why?

Because an LTO answers an important operational question:

“What happens if we try this?”

It doesn't require the operator to make a permanent commitment.

That makes the LTO a foodservice laboratory.

Rutter's adds another layer:

The customer helps design the experiment.

That's smart.

5. Lay's Already Proved That Consumers Will Invent Products

Rutter's isn't starting from scratch.

One of the greatest examples of participatory food marketing remains Lay's Do Us a Flavor.

Lay's asked consumers to create new potato-chip flavors.

The response was enormous.

Millions of submissions eventually produced real products, including the 2013 winning Cheesy Garlic Bread flavor.

Then in 2024, Lay's brought the program back after a seven-year hiatus, again asking consumers for flavor ideas and turning consumer submissions into finalist products that fans could vote on.

Notice the formula:

Consumer idea
↓
Brand development
↓
Consumer voting
↓
Product launch
↓
Consumer trial
↓
Social conversation

That's not traditional advertising.

That's a consumer-powered innovation engine.

Rutter's is taking essentially the same thinking into prepared food and convenience-store foodservice.

6. Social Media Turns the Customer Into the Media Department

Here's where the Rutter's concept becomes particularly powerful.

Imagine someone submits a sandwich.

They tell their friends.

Their friends vote.

Their family shares it.

A local food creator notices it.

Someone makes a video.

Someone else says:

“I would put hot honey on that.”

Now the company has something advertising dollars can't easily manufacture:

conversation.

Toast research published in 2024 found that consumers wanted restaurants to use social media for promotions, new menu items and visual content, with 38% saying they preferred videos showing the dining experience and 44% preferring promotions.

Meanwhile, social-media food discovery continued gaining influence in 2025. Mintel's U.S. research tracks social media's role in foodservice discovery and specifically identifies restaurant deals and ingredient transparency among content consumers want.

The lesson?

Don't just advertise the food. Give people something to talk about.

7. The Best Marketing May Be Letting Customers Market for You

This may be the biggest lesson of all.

Rutter's isn't merely buying attention.

It is creating a reason for customers to generate attention.

That distinction matters.

A conventional campaign says:

“Look at our new sandwich.”

A participatory campaign says:

“Look what our customer created.”

Those are two completely different stories.

The first is corporate.

The second is human.

And food is particularly well suited for human storytelling.

People have favorite foods.

Family food memories.

Road-trip foods.

Late-night foods.

Comfort foods.

Celebration foods.

Foods they eat after work.

Foods they eat while traveling.

Foods they invented themselves.

That means food has something most products don't have:

personal history.

The Grocerant Advantage: Consumers Don't Care About Your Silos

This is where I come back to the Grocerant.

Consumers don't wake up thinking:

“Today I will shop the convenience channel.”

They think:

“I'm hungry.”

They don't care whether their meal comes from:

· A restaurant.

· A convenience store.

· A supermarket.

· A dollar store.

· A warehouse club.

· A drive-thru.

· A delivery kitchen.

· A virtual restaurant.

They care about:

Price + Quality + Convenience + Speed + Experience + Discovery.

That's the Grocerant world.

And convenience stores are increasingly important players in that world.

Rutter's understands that food is not simply something sold inside a convenience store.

Food is one of the reasons consumers choose the store.

The Handheld Opportunity Is Sitting Right in Front of Them

There is another reason I like the Rutter's idea.

It's built around something consumers already understand:

the handheld.

Sandwiches.

Burgers.

Wraps.

Breakfast sandwiches.

Chicken sandwiches.

Tacos.

Pizza.

Snacks.

The handheld is portable, familiar and easy to personalize.

And portability matters because today's consumer increasingly eats according to occasion, not according to the traditional breakfast-lunch-dinner clock.

The question isn't always:

“What should I have for lunch?”

It can be:

“What can I eat right now?”

That's a very different foodservice question.

The Consumer Is Also Bringing Ideas From the Internet Into the Store

This is perhaps the most fascinating development.

Food trends don't necessarily begin with food companies anymore.

They can begin with consumers.

A creator posts something.

Consumers modify it.

Someone adds an ingredient.

Someone creates a mashup.

Someone makes a “secret menu” combination.

Someone posts it.

Other people try it.

Then the operator notices.

And suddenly the foodservice industry is responding to something that began outside the foodservice industry.

Datassential's social-data research explicitly describes social media as a source of real-time foodservice intelligence.

That means operators need to be listening before they start cooking.

The Next Menu Board May Be Written by the Customer

This is where I believe foodservice is headed.

The traditional menu-development model was:

Chef → Corporate → Test Kitchen → Menu → Customer

The emerging model is:

Customer → Social Conversation → Data → Culinary Team → LTO → Customer

That is a radically different feedback loop.

And AI will only accelerate it.

Food marketers now have tools capable of analyzing enormous quantities of reviews, social posts, search behavior, purchase history and menu data.

Academic research published in 2024 examined AI's growing role in food marketing through personalized recommendations, predictive analytics and consumer-behavior modeling. (arXiv)

So imagine the future:

A customer creates a sandwich.

10,000 people interact with the idea.

AI identifies the ingredients consumers repeatedly mention.

The culinary team sees the opportunity.

The company creates three prototypes.

Customers vote.

One becomes an LTO.

Sales data determines whether it becomes permanent.

That's customer-driven food innovation.

And Here's the Most Important Part: Give Customers Credit

This is where brands sometimes get it wrong.

If a customer creates the idea, recognize the customer.

Name the creation.

Tell the story.

Put the creator's story on social media.

Let them participate in the launch.

Give them bragging rights.

Because recognition turns a transaction into an experience.

Rutter's is doing precisely that by making the winning customer part of the story.

The customer doesn't just get:

“a sandwich.”

They get:

“My sandwich.”

That's powerful.

The Future of Food Marketing Is Participatory

The food industry has spent decades asking:

“How do we get consumers to buy more?”

I think the better question is:

“How do we get consumers to participate more?”

Participation creates engagement.

Engagement creates conversation.

Conversation creates discovery.

Discovery creates trial.

Trial creates data.

Data creates better products.

Better products create loyalty.

And loyalty creates sales.

That's a much more powerful marketing loop than another billboard saying:

“Try our new sandwich.”

The Grocerant Guru® Bottom Line

Rutter's has done something deceptively simple.

It has asked its customers:

“What do you want us to make?”

But underneath that simple question is a very sophisticated food-marketing strategy.

It combines:

Customer research.

Product development.

Personalization.

Social engagement.

Food discovery.

LTO experimentation.

Loyalty.

User-generated content.

And sales.

All wrapped around one craving.

That's smart foodservice marketing.

And here's my prediction:

The restaurant, grocery retailer or convenience store that listens best to its customers may not simply discover the next food trend.

It may create it.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Stop Asking Customers What They Like. Ask Them What They Would Create.

A survey gives you an answer.

A creation contest gives you an idea.

The future belongs to foodservice companies that turn customer feedback into customer participation.

2. Make the Customer the Hero, Not the Product

Consumers have seen millions of food advertisements.

But they haven't seen millions of stories about someone just like them creating the next menu item.

That's why customer-generated food has marketing power.

The product gets the sale. The story gets the attention.

3. The Menu Is No Longer Just a Menu—It's a Media Platform

Every new food item can now be:

A product.
A photograph.
A video.
A conversation.
A contest.
A story.
A social post.
An LTO.
A loyalty event.
And a customer relationship.

That's the Grocerant opportunity.

Don't just give consumers something to eat.

Give them something to discover.

Give them something to create.

Give them something to talk about.

And, every once in a while, give them something they can proudly say:

“I invented that.”

That is where food marketing gets very interesting.

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.

What’s for Dinner in 2026? The Battle for the Meal Occasion

2026-09-20T00:20:00.000-07:00

Look around. Talk to your friends. Watch what consumers are doing at 4 p.m. on a Tuesday.

One thing becomes increasingly clear: “What’s for dinner?” has become one of the most valuable questions in the food industry according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®

And in 2026, the answer is increasingly not a recipe. It is an experience, a solution, a combination of meal components, a social occasion, a value proposition—and sometimes simply a decision that requires the least amount of work.

Americans still love food. They still love restaurants. They still enjoy cooking. They still enjoy gathering around a table.

But consumers are increasingly asking a different question:

Why should dinner be difficult?

That is where the Grocerant Opportunity begins.

The consumer does not think in traditional industry silos. They don't wake up thinking, “Tonight I am going to purchase something from the grocery channel.”

They think:

“What am I going to eat?”

That distinction is becoming more important every year.

The Dinner Decision Is the New Battleground

In 2024, Deloitte found that 53% of consumers said figuring out what’s for dinner was a major pain point. That number rose to 66% among Gen Z and 60% among Millennials, while 62% of households with children struggled with the evening meal decision. Even more telling, 44% said they would regularly buy from a grocery store that helped them with meal planning.

Think about what that means.

The consumer may not have decided whether dinner will come from a restaurant, grocery store, convenience store, delivery platform, prepared-food counter, drive-thru, frozen-food aisle or some combination of all of them.

The meal occasion is up for grabs.

And the retailer or restaurant that helps consumers make that decision first has a significant competitive advantage.

Circana reported in 2024 that U.S. consumers sourced 81% of their dinners from home, compared with 78% before the pandemic. At the same time, restaurant checks were rising and consumers were becoming more careful about restaurant spending.

That creates an enormous opportunity for Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat food.

It also creates an enormous warning for food marketers:

Being in the consumer's refrigerator does not necessarily mean you own dinner.

Consumers Want Dinner. They Don't Always Want to Cook Dinner.

In 2024, FMI reported that the percentage of shoppers preparing dinner at home at least seven times a week increased from 21% to 23%.

But here is the important part: “home dinner” does not necessarily mean “cooked completely from scratch.”

FMI found that 59% of shoppers wanted the opportunity to purchase a combination of prepared foods—including a main course, side dishes and dessert—for a set discounted price.

In other words:

Consumers want dinner. They increasingly want somebody else to do some of the work.

That is the Grocerant model.

The consumer can purchase the chicken, salad, potatoes and dessert—or perhaps just the chicken and salad—and create the meal at home.

This is not failure to cook.

It is successful meal assembly.

The old foodservice industry asked: Did we prepare the entire meal?

The 2026 consumer asks:

“Did you help me get dinner on the table?”

That is a very different measurement.

2025: Grocery Began Looking More Like Foodservice

By 2025, this behavior had moved well beyond a niche trend.

FMI reported that consumers choosing deli-prepared foods as a substitute for restaurant meals had more than doubled—from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025.

Even more important, 53% of Americans were taking a hybrid approach to meal preparation, combining deli-prepared foods with items prepared in their own kitchens.

That number should make every restaurant executive, supermarket executive and convenience-store operator stop and think.

The competition isn't necessarily:

Restaurant vs. grocery store.

Increasingly, it is:

Restaurant + grocery + convenience + delivery + home preparation = dinner.

The consumer is mixing channels.

There are no silos in the consumer's mind.

There is only the meal occasion.

FMI also found in 2025 that 26% of shoppers prepared dinner at home seven or more times per week, exceeding the 23% record established in 2020. Meanwhile, grocery deli foodservice reached approximately $52.1 billion, with prepared meals and items accounting for $19.6 billion and growing 3.7% in dollar sales.

That is not simply grocery.

That is foodservice hiding inside retail.

2026: Convenience Is Becoming a Food Attribute

Now move forward to 2026.

McKinsey's 2026 grocery research found that the leading reasons consumers purchase prepared foods from grocers include convenience, cited by 74%, and saving time, cited by 68%. McKinsey also reported that prepared-food purchase frequency increased 9% year over year from August 2024 to August 2025.

That is a profound shift.

For years, the food industry treated convenience as a merchandising feature.

In 2026, convenience is becoming part of the food product itself.

A chicken breast isn't simply a chicken breast.

A rotisserie chicken that requires no preparation, is available now and can feed multiple people is a meal solution.

A deli pizza that can go from store shelf to family table is a meal solution.

A refrigerated bowl that requires two minutes of heating is a meal solution.

A handful of prepared foods that consumers combine into a personalized dinner is a meal solution.

The product isn't merely food.

The product is time.

The 30-Minute Dinner Is Becoming a 30-Second Decision

YouGov reported in 2025 that 60% of Americans preferred to spend less than 30 minutes cooking dinner, including 12% who preferred to spend no time cooking at all.

That doesn't mean Americans have stopped caring about food.

It means consumers increasingly want to spend their time eating food rather than managing food.

This is particularly important as households become smaller, work patterns remain fluid and consumers continue to move between work, home, school, entertainment, social occasions and other commitments.

The traditional three-part dinner—entrée, side and beverage—has also become increasingly fluid.

Dinner might be:

A sandwich.

A bowl.

A pizza.

A salad with protein.

Chicken wings and vegetables.

A combination of deli foods.

A restaurant entrée shared at home.

A collection of snacks that collectively becomes dinner.

A Heat-N-Eat entrée supplemented with something fresh.

Or a restaurant meal combined with a grocery-store side.

Dinner has become modular.

That is why I continue to believe that Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling is one of the most important opportunities in food marketing.

The Rise of the “New Dinner”

FMI's 2025 research offers another fascinating clue.

The organization reported that 22% of consumers had purchased what has been called “girl dinner” from grocery deli-prepared foods—but that number jumped to 40% among Gen Z and 39% among Millennials.

What is “girl dinner”?

It can be olives, cheese, crackers, fruit, deli meats and other small foods assembled into an informal meal.

The name may change.

The behavior won't.

Consumers are increasingly comfortable constructing meals from components rather than purchasing a predetermined meal architecture.

That means the food industry should stop asking only:

“What entrée should we sell?”

And start asking:

“What components can we sell that consumers can turn into dinner?”

That is a much larger opportunity.

But Here's the Twist: Consumers Still Want Other People

Here is where my original thinking remains just as relevant in 2026.

Convenience does not mean consumers want isolation.

Digital convenience does not eliminate the human need for connection.

Food remains one of the world's oldest social technologies.

People gather around food.

Families gather around food.

Friends gather around food.

Coworkers gather around food.

Communities gather around food.

And increasingly, consumers are looking for ways to make convenient food feel more personal.

That may mean ordering a restaurant meal and sharing it at home.

It may mean building a dinner from grocery deli components.

It may mean meeting friends at a food hall.

It may mean picking up takeout rather than cooking.

Or it may mean sitting down with family after somebody else did most of the preparation.

Interestingly, the restaurant industry itself is rediscovering the importance of human interaction. In September 2026, the Wall Street Journal reported that major fast-food chains were shifting some attention away from excessive automation and back toward hospitality and human service after consumers expressed dissatisfaction with impersonal experiences. McDonald's, for example, is undertaking a major hospitality initiative and retraining more than two million workers globally.

That is an important lesson:

Technology can make getting dinner easier. Humans make dinner memorable.

The winning food brands will increasingly understand both.

Price Still Matters—But Value Is Bigger Than Price

There is another critical component to the 2026 dinner equation:

Value.

Consumers remain price conscious.

But value is not simply the lowest price.

Value increasingly means:

Price + Quality + Convenience + Variety + Speed + Experience + Portability.

A $7 meal that requires 45 minutes of preparation may not be perceived as a better value than a $10 meal that is ready in five minutes.

Likewise, a $12 restaurant meal may compete successfully against a $9 grocery meal if the restaurant provides an experience consumers cannot easily replicate at home.

The question is no longer simply:

“What does dinner cost?”

It is:

“What is dinner worth to me tonight?”

That is a fundamentally different consumer calculation.

The Battle for Dinner Begins Before 4 p.m.

Food marketers should also rethink when the dinner competition begins.

Dinner isn't won at 6:30 p.m.

It may be won at 10 a.m.

It may be won at noon.

It may be won at 3 p.m.

Or it may be won when a consumer walks into a store at 5:17 p.m. and sees a compelling Ready-2-Eat meal solution.

Deloitte's 2024 research showed that consumers are asking retailers for help with dinner planning, particularly younger consumers.

That means the smartest retailers will not simply merchandise food.

They will merchandise decisions.

“Tonight's Dinner for Four.”

“Dinner for Two Under $20.”

“Five-Minute Family Dinner.”

“Build Your Own Dinner.”

“Protein + Two Sides.”

“Heat, Eat & Share.”

“Dinner for One—No Leftovers Required.”

The opportunity is not just selling food.

The opportunity is removing the friction between hunger and dinner.

What’s for Dinner in 2026?

The answer is increasingly:

Whatever makes sense tonight.

Sometimes that means cooking.

Sometimes it means takeout.

Sometimes it means delivery.

Sometimes it means a restaurant.

Sometimes it means the grocery deli.

Sometimes it means the convenience store.

Sometimes it means a frozen entrée.

Sometimes it means a handful of prepared components.

Sometimes it means all of the above.

That is why I have long argued that there are no silos in the consumer's mind.

The consumer doesn't care which industry association claims the meal.

They care whether the meal is:

Available. Affordable. Good. Fast. Convenient. Shareable. Portable. And worth the money.

That is the definition of the modern Grocerant opportunity.

Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Own the decision, not just the food.

The next generation of food marketing will increasingly compete for the “What’s for dinner?” decision before competing for the transaction.

AI-powered meal planning, personalized recommendations, digital loyalty programs, prepared-food merchandising and real-time inventory can turn retailers and restaurants into dinner decision engines.

The winning question will not be:

“What do you want to buy?”

It will be:

“What kind of dinner do you need tonight?”

That moves food marketing from product-centric merchandising to consumer-centric meal orchestration.

2. Build dinners like consumers build playlists.

Consumers increasingly mix components, cuisines, brands, channels and price points.

Why shouldn't dinner merchandise work the same way?

Give consumers the protein.

Give them the side.

Give them the beverage.

Give them the dessert.

Give them the sauce.

Give them the snack.

Then let the consumer create the experience.

Personalization doesn't always require customization in a kitchen. Sometimes it simply requires giving consumers the right components.

3. Never underestimate the power of gathering around food.

Technology changes.

Channels change.

Menus change.

But humans remain social.

Food remains one of the simplest and most powerful ways to connect people.

Restaurants should continue investing in hospitality.

Grocers should create places and products that encourage sharing.

Convenience stores should recognize that food can be more than fuel.

And every food retailer should remember that a meal is an experience—not merely calories in a container.

4. Make the food good enough that consumers want it again tomorrow.

Convenience may win tonight.

Quality wins tomorrow.

The future of food will not be built by choosing between convenience and quality.

It will be built by combining them.

The consumer wants one now and one later:

One solution for tonight.

One reason to come back tomorrow.

That is where the future value of the Grocerant opportunity becomes particularly powerful.

The food industry has spent decades fighting over restaurants versus grocery stores, foodservice versus retail, fresh versus frozen, prepared versus scratch and dine-in versus takeout.

But the consumer has already moved beyond those arguments.

The consumer simply wants dinner.

And in 2026, the company that makes answering “What's for dinner?” easiest, fastest, most valuable and most enjoyable may be the company that wins the meal occasion.

The future of food isn't about owning a channel.

It's about owning the moment when the consumer decides what to eat.

That is the real Battle for Share of Stomach.

Breakfast Is Not Just a Daypart — It Is an Opportunity

2026-09-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

Do you want to sell more food?

Then breakfast deserves more than a menu category, a coffee station, or a few eggs and breakfast sandwiches sitting under a heat lamp according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Breakfast is an opportunity-cost decision.

Every morning, consumers make a choice about where, when and how they will get their first food and beverage occasions of the day. Restaurants, convenience stores, grocery service delis, coffee shops, dollar stores and other food retailers are all competing for that occasion.

And here is the part many operators still overlook:

You pay rent 24 hours a day.

So why would you think about your business as though it only operates during lunch and dinner?

The building is costing you money at 6 a.m., 8 a.m., 10 a.m., noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.

That makes breakfast more than another daypart.

Breakfast is an opportunity to monetize an asset you are already paying for.

And in 2026, the food-marketing evidence suggests that the morning opportunity is becoming more interesting, not less.

The Breakfast Opportunity Is Bigger Than Breakfast

One of the most important changes taking place in foodservice is the continuing breakdown of traditional daypart boundaries.

Consumers don't wake up thinking:

“It is 7:15 a.m., therefore I must eat a traditional breakfast.”

They think:

I'm hungry. I'm busy. I need coffee. I need protein. I need something portable. I need something fast. I need something affordable.

That is a very different consumer proposition.

Circana reported in 2024 that 39% of consumers were eating their first meal before 8 a.m., five percentage points higher than in 2020. At the same time, 37% of consumers said they were looking for quick bites rather than larger meals.

That creates an important opportunity for foodservice operators.

Breakfast can be:

· a breakfast sandwich,

· coffee and a pastry,

· a burrito,

· oatmeal,

· a smoothie,

· a protein beverage,

· a handheld,

· a grab-and-go meal,

· a small meal,

· or simply something consumers can eat now and something they can take for later.

That last idea matters.

One now. One later.

It may be one of the most powerful breakfast merchandising concepts available to food retailers today.

90% of Breakfast Is Already About Speed

Circana's 2024 Future of Morning research found that 90% of morning meals are prepared in less than 15 minutes. The report also projected continued growth in on-the-go and away-from-home breakfast occasions through 2027, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials.

Read that again.

Ninety percent. Less than 15 minutes.

That tells us something fundamental about the breakfast consumer.

Breakfast isn't necessarily asking operators to create a three-course culinary experience.

It is asking operators to remove friction.

Speed matters.

Portability matters.

Ordering ease matters.

Price matters.

And increasingly, protein matters.

Circana reported in 2025 that 41% of adults were actively seeking to increase their protein intake, while morning-meal traffic increased in the first quarter of 2025—the first increase since Q2 2023. Circana connected the morning opportunity partly to changing workplace patterns and the return-to-office movement.

That creates a remarkably clear breakfast proposition:

Fast + portable + protein + beverage + value.

The Opportunity Cost of Opening Late

Here's where I believe food operators need to change their thinking.

The question shouldn't be:

“How much breakfast business can we get?”

The better question is:

“How much business are we losing because we aren't competing for breakfast?”

That is opportunity cost.

If a restaurant opens at 10:30 a.m., it didn't simply avoid the cost of opening earlier.

It also potentially surrendered:

· the coffee occasion,

· the breakfast sandwich occasion,

· the morning snack,

· the commuter,

· the school-parent trip,

· the construction worker,

· the healthcare worker,

· the office worker,

· the early shopper,

· the traveler,

· the drive-thru customer,

· and the consumer who buys breakfast today and becomes a lunch or dinner customer tomorrow.

Opportunity lost can be much more expensive than opportunity cost.

You can't recover a breakfast transaction at 2 p.m.

The consumer already ate.

Breakfast Can Be a Customer-Acquisition Machine

One of the most interesting breakfast statistics comes from Circana's research into heavy restaurant breakfast buyers.

Circana found that a group representing only 20% of U.S. shoppers accounted for nearly 60% of restaurant breakfast sales. These heavy breakfast buyers spent approximately five times more on restaurant breakfasts than the average consumer and showed strong interest in caffeinated beverages and convenient, on-the-go breakfast items.

That is not a niche worth ignoring.

That is a customer-acquisition opportunity.

And breakfast has another advantage.

It can create a routine.

Dinner can be occasional.

Lunch can be interrupted by meetings.

But breakfast can become habitual.

Monday through Friday.

Same coffee.

Same location.

Same app.

Same drive-thru.

Same breakfast sandwich.

Same experience.

That is extremely valuable to a food operator.

And Then There Is the Beverage Opportunity

Breakfast shouldn't be thought of as food alone.

Circana reported in 2024 that beverage-only morning occasions sourced from home or retail had grown by 16 occasions per capita since 2020, with water, tea, coffee and energy drinks among popular morning choices. Protein shakes and other nutrition-oriented beverages were also gaining attention.

This is where the Grocerant Guru® concept of meal components becomes especially important.

Consumers don't necessarily need a traditional breakfast.

They may want:

Coffee + breakfast sandwich.

Energy drink + pastry.

Protein shake + banana.

Tea + breakfast bar.

Coffee now + sandwich later.

The opportunity is not necessarily selling a bigger breakfast.

It is selling the right combination of components.

2025: Convenience Became Table Stakes

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 Off-Premises Restaurant Trends research found that nearly 75% of restaurant traffic was occurring off-premises—takeout, delivery and drive-thru. Among adults, 47% reported weekly takeout use and 42% weekly drive-thru use.

The Association identified five off-premises “must-haves”:

speedy service, good customer service, intuitive ordering/payment technology, value offers and loyalty programs.

Breakfast fits this model almost perfectly.

The morning consumer isn't looking for friction.

They are looking for certainty.

“I know what I want.”

“I know what it costs.”

“I know where to get it.”

“I know how long it will take.”

“I can eat it in the car.”

That is not simply convenience.

That is modern foodservice value.

2026: Value Has Become More Than Price

Now move into 2026.

The National Restaurant Association's latest consumer research shows a consumer who still wants restaurants but is increasingly cautious about spending. In Q2 2026, 56% of consumers reported dining at a restaurant during the previous week, while 36% said they were spending less at restaurants than the previous quarter. Consumers were increasingly trading down, including ordering fewer add-ons and selecting less expensive options.

That makes breakfast particularly interesting.

Why?

Because breakfast can deliver perceived value without requiring a giant meal.

A $5–$8 breakfast proposition can feel very different from a $15–$20 lunch or dinner transaction.

And value doesn't have to mean “cheap.”

The National Restaurant Association's 2026 culinary forecast places value, comfort, quality and convenience squarely among the major forces shaping foodservice. Protein add-ons are also identified as a 2026 trend.

So the breakfast opportunity becomes:

Give consumers enough value to buy now—and enough reason to buy again later.

One Now. One Later.

This is where I believe breakfast marketing needs to evolve.

I call it:

One Now. One Later.

The consumer comes in for breakfast.

But why should the transaction end there?

What if the operator's breakfast merchandising encourages a second occasion?

Breakfast now.

Snack later.

Lunch component later.

Coffee now.

Beverage later.

Breakfast sandwich now.

Take-home item later.

This is not about pushing food the consumer doesn't want.

It is about recognizing that consumers live in multiple eating occasions, not one transaction.

Circana's 2024 research showed that 86% of eating occasions were sourced from home, while foodservice continued to face pressure from changing meal patterns.

That means the competitive battle isn't simply restaurant versus restaurant.

It is:

restaurant vs. grocery vs. convenience store vs. workplace cafeteria vs. home vs. delivery vs. the consumer's own kitchen.

There are no silos in the consumer's mind.

Breakfast Can Sell Tomorrow's Business Today

This is why I see One Now. One Later as more than a breakfast promotion.

It is a customer-retention strategy.

Imagine a consumer who buys:

Breakfast sandwich + coffee

and receives an intelligently merchandised offer for:

afternoon snack + beverage.

Or:

Breakfast burrito + coffee

with an offer for:

take-home dinner component.

Or:

protein smoothie

with a convenient:

mid-morning snack.

Suddenly breakfast isn't simply a transaction.

It becomes the first link in a chain of eating occasions.

And that is precisely where grocerant thinking becomes powerful.

The best food operators aren't simply selling meals.

They are selling solutions to eating occasions.

The Rent Clock Never Stops

Let's return to the basic business equation.

Your rent doesn't stop at breakfast.

Your insurance doesn't stop.

Your refrigeration doesn't stop.

Your equipment doesn't stop.

Your property taxes don't stop.

Your technology doesn't stop.

Your lease doesn't stop.

Your brand doesn't stop.

You pay rent 24 hours a day.

Therefore, every hour in which your facility isn't producing an appropriate consumer occasion deserves scrutiny.

That doesn't mean every restaurant should suddenly open at 5 a.m.

It means operators should understand the economic opportunity of the hours they already own.

Maybe breakfast begins at 6.

Maybe it begins at 7.

Maybe your opportunity is 9:30.

Maybe you don't need a traditional breakfast menu at all.

Maybe your opportunity is coffee, handhelds, protein, bakery and grab-and-go.

The answer is different for every location.

But ignoring the question is expensive.

Breakfast Is an Investment in Tomorrow

The smartest breakfast strategy isn't necessarily about selling the most food at the lowest price.

It is about creating one more reason for consumers to choose you today—and one more reason to choose you tomorrow.

That is the difference between an opportunity and an opportunity lost.

The food industry has spent years talking about dayparts as though consumers operate according to a clock.

They don't.

Consumers operate according to needs, routines, schedules, budgets and occasions.

Breakfast sits directly at the intersection of all five.

And when operators combine:

speed + portability + protein + beverages + value + technology + loyalty

they aren't simply selling breakfast.

They are building a morning relationship.

And relationships can be worth far more than a single transaction.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Breakfast is an opportunity-cost equation.

If you aren't competing for the morning consumer, somebody else is. You pay rent 24 hours a day, so start measuring what each hour of occupancy could produce—not simply what yesterday's daypart produced.

2. “One Now. One Later” is the next breakfast opportunity.

Don't stop thinking when the consumer pays. Think about the next eating occasion. Breakfast can become a platform for snacks, beverages, lunch components and take-home food.

3. Tomorrow's value begins with today's experience.

Consumers increasingly define value as a combination of price, quality, convenience, speed and experience. The operator that can make breakfast easy, portable, affordable and worth repeating isn't merely winning today's transaction—it is building tomorrow's traffic.

Success does leave clues.

And in 2026, one of the biggest clues may be sitting in plain sight every morning:

Breakfast isn't a small daypart.

It's an opportunity.

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

Restaurants Are Social Settings Stop Thinking of Them as Places That Just Sell Food

2026-09-18T00:18:00.000-07:00

The restaurant's most valuable product may not be on the menu according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Man is a social being.

That simple observation has enormous implications for restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores and every other food retailer competing for today's consumer.

The pandemic changed where consumers ate. It accelerated delivery, takeout, drive-thru, digital ordering and eating at home.

But something else happened.

Consumers discovered that convenience has a limit.

People still want to get out.

They want to see people.

They want to be seen.

They want to meet friends.

They want to celebrate.

They want to discover a new food, flavor, beverage or restaurant.

They want to sit across the table from someone and talk.

And increasingly, they want the restaurant to give them a reason to do it.

That is why I believe restaurants should stop thinking of themselves simply as places that sell food.

Restaurants are social settings.

And that may become one of their greatest competitive advantages.

The Consumer Can Eat Anywhere

Let's start with the uncomfortable truth.

Consumers have never had more ways to get food.

They can cook it.

They can order it.

They can have it delivered.

They can pick it up.

They can use a drive-thru.

They can buy Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat food at a grocery store.

They can grab a meal at a convenience store.

They can eat in their car.

They can eat at their desk.

They can eat in front of a 65-inch HDTV.

So why leave home?

That is the question every restaurant operator should be asking.

Because if the only reason to visit a restaurant is the food, somebody else can eventually sell the consumer something similar—and perhaps cheaper, faster and closer to home.

But if the restaurant provides food + atmosphere + discovery + hospitality + human connection, the competitive equation changes.

The restaurant becomes an experience.

2026: The Data Says Consumers Still Want to Gather

The newest data makes the point remarkably well.

OpenTable's 2026 dining research found that 78% of Americans agree that dining out is a way to feel connected to others. Group dining involving six or more people was up 11% year over year, while 36% of consumers said they wanted more group and private dining in 2026.

Read that again.

Dining out is a connection business.

Not just a food business.

And the evidence goes even further.

OpenTable reports that experiential dining increased 46% year over year in 2025, while 37% of Americans said they wanted more experiential dining in 2026. Nearly half—48%—said they were more likely to dine at a restaurant hosting a pop-up, collaboration or other special experience.

Why?

Because consumers cannot duplicate that experience simply by opening the refrigerator.

The experience is the product.

The Restaurant Is Becoming the New Social Media

For decades, restaurant operators worried about location.

Then came websites.

Then online reviews.

Then Facebook.

Then Instagram.

Then TikTok.

Now the restaurant itself has become a form of media.

The food is photographed.

The beverage is photographed.

The dining room is photographed.

The décor is photographed.

The customer photographs the table.

The customer photographs the menu.

The customer photographs the experience.

OpenTable reports that 79% of Millennials and 68% of Gen Z consider a restaurant's Instagram/TikTok-worthiness important when deciding where to dine.

That is a remarkable transformation.

The restaurant is no longer simply the place where the marketing happens.

The restaurant has become the marketing.

Every table can become a billboard.

Every handheld can become an advertisement.

Every unusual beverage can become content.

Every interesting service interaction can become a story.

This is what I call Hand-Held Marketing—and today the consumer's hand may be holding both the food and the smartphone.

Consumers Want Discovery

My original thinking about young adult consumers was built around the idea that they wanted to explore.

That idea has not gone away.

It has become more important.

Consumers want something they have not experienced before.

A new flavor.

A new sauce.

A new beverage.

A new handheld.

A new preparation.

A new restaurant.

A new collaboration.

A new way to share food.

A new reason to gather.

In 2026, OpenTable reports that 54% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for a one-of-a-kind dining experience, while local charm and unique restaurant environments are increasingly important elements of restaurant design.

That is the opportunity.

Different does not have to mean expensive.

It means memorable.

Convenience Didn't Die—It Changed

Now here is where restaurant operators can get themselves into trouble.

They can hear "social experience" and conclude that consumers suddenly want slow service, complicated menus and leisurely dining every time they eat.

Wrong.

Convenience is still king when convenience is what the consumer wants.

The National Restaurant Association has continued to document the enormous importance of off-premises dining, particularly among younger consumers.

Consumers want restaurants to accommodate their lifestyles.

Sometimes that means:

“Get me in and out.”

Sometimes it means:

“Bring it to my house.”

Sometimes it means:

“I'm eating in my car.”

And sometimes it means:

“Give me a table where I can sit with my friends for two hours.”

The consumer isn't inconsistent.

The occasion is different.

That is an important distinction.

Speed of Service and Socialization Can Coexist

The smartest operators understand that speed and socialization are not opposites.

They are different consumer needs.

A commuter wants speed.

A parent between activities may want convenience.

A teenager may want a place to hang out.

A couple may want a date-night experience.

A group of friends may want a table.

A family may want food everyone can agree upon.

A senior may want conversation.

A businessperson may want lunch and Wi-Fi.

One consumer.

Multiple occasions.

That is why I have long argued that there are no silos in the consumer mind.

The consumer does not wake up and say:

“Today I am a restaurant consumer.”

They simply ask:

“What's for dinner?”

Or lunch.

Or breakfast.

Or a snack.

Or coffee.

Or something to share.

The Price-Value Equation Just Got Bigger

There is another critical issue.

Consumers still care about price.

In fact, they care enormously about price.

But price is not the same thing as value.

OpenTable's 2026 research identifies happy hour and value promotions as the No. 1 dining trend restaurateurs expect to see in 2026, while 51% of Americans said they wanted more happy-hour and value promotions.

That is not surprising.

Consumers want to know:

“What am I getting for my money?”

And increasingly the answer isn't just ounces of food.

It can include:

Food + service + atmosphere + convenience + entertainment + discovery + socialization.

That is a much larger definition of value.

A restaurant can therefore compete on value without simply becoming the cheapest restaurant in town.

The goal isn't always to lower the price.

Sometimes the goal is to increase what the consumer believes the experience is worth.

The Dining Room Has Become a Product

For years, restaurant operators treated the dining room as an operating expense.

I believe they should increasingly treat it as a product.

What does the consumer see?

What does the consumer hear?

Where do people sit?

Can people see other people?

Is the room inviting?

Can groups comfortably gather?

Is there counter seating?

Is there bar seating?

Can someone dine alone without feeling alone?

Can two people have a conversation?

Can six people celebrate?

Can a family spread out?

Can consumers discover something happening around them?

OpenTable reports that counter seating increased 26% and bar seating 23% year over year in its 2025 data.

That isn't simply furniture.

That's social architecture.

The way a restaurant is designed influences whether people interact with the environment around them.

The Best Restaurant May Give Consumers Something to Talk About

The old restaurant question was:

“Did you like the food?”

The new question should be:

“What did you experience?”

Was the burger different?

Was the beverage interesting?

Did the server make you laugh?

Was there a special event?

Did you discover something?

Was the dining room exciting?

Did you see something you had never seen before?

Did your friends enjoy it?

Did you take a picture?

Did you tell somebody about it?

That final question is critical.

Because when a consumer tells someone else about a restaurant, the consumer becomes the restaurant's salesperson.

That is powerful marketing.

And it doesn't require a television commercial.

Restaurants Are Selling "Together"

This may be the biggest opportunity of all.

The restaurant industry has spent decades selling:

Breakfast.

Lunch.

Dinner.

Snacks.

Beverages.

Desserts.

But perhaps the most important thing restaurants sell is:

Together.

Together with friends.

Together with family.

Together with coworkers.

Together on a date.

Together for a birthday.

Together after a game.

Together before a concert.

Together because nobody wanted to cook.

Together simply because people wanted to see other people.

OpenTable's 2026 research shows that birthdays were the most popular celebration associated with dining out in 2025, while anniversary dining generated 40% more spending per person than an ordinary restaurant visit.

That is the occasion economy.

And restaurants are perfectly positioned to own it.

The Grocerant Opportunity Is Bigger Than Restaurants

Here is where this becomes bigger than restaurants.

The same consumer behavior applies to:

Grocery store service delis.

Convenience stores.

Food halls.

Dollar stores.

Retail prepared foods.

Virtual restaurants.

Takeout.

Drive-thru.

Home delivery.

The consumer does not care who owns the kitchen.

The consumer cares about getting the right food for the right occasion at the right price with the right amount of convenience.

That is the Grocerant Niche.

The grocery store can become a restaurant.

The convenience store can become a café.

The restaurant can become a retailer.

The retailer can become a foodservice operator.

And the consumer simply moves between them.

No silos in the consumer mind.

The New Restaurant Question

So I would challenge every restaurant operator, foodservice executive and food retailer with one question:

If I removed your food from the equation, would consumers still want to be there?

If the answer is no, you have a food product.

If the answer is yes, you may have a destination.

That distinction matters.

Because food can be copied.

Menus can be copied.

Promotions can be copied.

Prices can be copied.

Even technology can be copied.

But community, atmosphere, hospitality and human connection are much harder to copy.

That is the restaurant's moat.

Three Insights From the Grocerant Guru®

1. Stop Selling Meals. Start Selling Reasons to Gather.

The consumer has never had more convenient ways to get food.

Therefore, convenience alone is not a sustainable competitive advantage.

The restaurant needs to answer:

“Why should I leave home for this?”

If the answer includes food, discovery, hospitality, atmosphere and people, you have created something that delivery cannot fully duplicate.

2. The Dining Room Is a Marketing Channel.

Restaurant operators should stop thinking about four walls, tables and chairs as simply operating costs.

The dining room is media.

What consumers see, photograph, experience and share becomes part of the restaurant's marketing.

Make the food visual.

Make the environment inviting.

Make the experience memorable.

Give consumers something worth talking about.

Let the customer help market the restaurant.

3. The Future Belongs to the Restaurant That Understands the Occasion.

Tuesday at 5:15 p.m. may require speed.

Friday at 7:00 p.m. may require atmosphere.

Saturday afternoon may require family convenience.

A birthday may require celebration.

A business lunch may require efficiency.

A group of friends may require a social setting.

Same consumer. Different occasion.

The winning operator doesn't ask:

“Who is our customer?”

The winning operator asks:

“What does our consumer want to accomplish with this meal?”

That is the difference between selling food and understanding the consumer.

And that, ultimately, is what the Grocerant Guru® has been saying for decades:

The consumer is not looking for a food category.

The consumer is looking for a solution to an occasion.

Restaurants that understand that will sell more than meals. They will become places people want to be.

And in an increasingly connected but increasingly isolated world, being a place where people want to be may be the most valuable product a restaurant can sell.

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.

Convenience Store Food Can Win the Restaurant Customer Ask OnCue How

2026-09-17T00:17:00.000-07:00

The real lesson behind OnCue being named America’s Best Gas Station Food according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® are below:

For years, the convenience-store industry has fought an image problem: Gas station food.

OnCue just delivered another powerful reminder that the phrase no longer tells the whole story.

The Stillwater, Oklahoma-based convenience retailer has been named the No. 1 Best Gas Station Food in Reviewed’s 2026 Readers’ Choice Awards after readers selected it from 10 national finalists.

That recognition is important. But from my perspective as the Grocerant Guru®, the bigger story isn't the award.

The bigger story is why consumers voted for OnCue.

Readers repeatedly pointed to three things:

Quality. Speed. Value.

Those three words describe much more than a successful convenience-store food program. They describe the modern consumer's definition of foodservice value.

And OnCue appears to understand something that many traditional restaurant operators still struggle to understand:

Consumers don't care what channel sells the food. They care whether the food fits their life.

That's the Grocerant Revolution.

The consumer doesn't see channels — the consumer sees food

Today's consumer can buy a burger from a restaurant, a grocery store, a convenience store, a dollar store or increasingly from other retail formats.

The consumer doesn't walk around thinking in industry silos.

They think:

“I'm hungry.”

“What sounds good?”

“How fast can I get it?”

“How much will it cost?”

“Is it worth it?”

That is why OnCue's success matters.

The retailer is competing for the same stomach share, meal occasions and food dollars as traditional restaurants.

And the competitive landscape is getting bigger.

NACS reports that U.S. convenience-store foodservice and merchandise sales reached $341.2 billion in 2025, with foodservice accounting for 28.5% of in-store sales and an even more impressive 38.9% of in-store gross-profit dollars. Prepared food — including pizza, chicken, burgers, sandwiches, wraps and salads — represented 73.9% of convenience-store foodservice sales.

That's not a side business.

That's a food business.

OnCue understands the power of knowing its customer

OnCue's foodservice strategy includes The Grill, where customers can order made-to-order burgers, breakfast tacos, pizza and other foods while customizing their selections through an in-store touchscreen or online.

That is important because customization isn't simply a technology feature.

It is a consumer-insight strategy.

The retailer is learning what customers want, how they want it prepared and which combinations create repeat visits.

That matters because the modern foodservice consumer increasingly expects personalization without sacrificing speed.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 Off-Premises Restaurant Trends research identifies speedy service, good customer service, intuitive technology, value offers and loyalty programs as essential components of repeat business.

In other words:

Technology isn't the product. Technology removes friction between the consumer and the food.

That distinction is important.

Handheld food is perfectly designed for the convenience consumer

Look at what consumers are buying from OnCue: burgers, breakfast tacos, pizza, chicken quesadillas and other portable foods.

That's no accident.

Handheld food is one of the most powerful formats in modern foodservice.

Why?

Because handheld food is portable, familiar, customizable, easy to eat and compatible with today's increasingly mobile lifestyles.

Technomic specifically identifies sandwiches, wraps and handhelds as a major category within convenience-store prepared food, alongside breakfast items, pizza, burgers and other ready-to-eat foods.

Datassential's sandwich research also illustrates the enormous scale of the opportunity: the average sandwich eater consumes about 72 sandwiches per year, while younger consumers increasingly seek unique, premium and customizable sandwich experiences.

The lesson for foodservice operators is simple:

Don't underestimate the hand.

The hand may be one of the most important pieces of foodservice real estate in America.

I have called this Hand-Held Marketing for years.

Put great food in the consumer's hand and you've also put your brand in the consumer's life.

Speed is part of the food

One of the most revealing comments from an OnCue customer was:

“The food is restaurant quality food, but fast!”

That sentence should be posted in every restaurant executive's conference room.

Fast is not separate from quality.

Fast is part of the quality equation.

The National Restaurant Association reports that 94% of consumers say speed is critical when ordering off-premises, while more than 80% use value-oriented deals such as BOGO offers, combo meals and real-time specials.

That's a profound change in the definition of value.

The consumer doesn't necessarily want the cheapest food.

The consumer wants food that is worth the money and worth the time.

And those are two very different things.

Price is important. Value is bigger.

OnCue customers also highlighted the ability to get a tasty lunch or dinner for less than $5.

That is powerful marketing.

But the lesson isn't simply:

“Keep prices below $5.”

The lesson is:

Give consumers a reason to believe the food is worth what you charge.

NACS research found that when consumers were asked what is most important about their food, 46% selected “good value,” compared with 33% selecting high quality and 31% healthy. But NACS also found that consumers define value in multiple ways — including getting a good deal, receiving good quality and getting something worth its cost.

That's the Price/Value Equation.

Price gets the consumer's attention.

Quality earns the consumer's trust.

Convenience saves the consumer time.

Speed reduces friction.

And the combination creates value.

OnCue's menu is also a lesson in Mix-and-Match Meal Component Bundling

Burger.

Pizza.

Chicken quesadilla.

Fried pickles.

Breakfast taco.

Coffee.

Bakery.

Roller grill.

Those aren't just individual menu items.

They are meal components.

One consumer may want a burger and beverage.

Another wants a breakfast taco and coffee.

Another wants pizza.

Another wants a snack.

Another wants something indulgent after work.

This is why convenience foodservice is increasingly competing with restaurants throughout the entire day rather than simply during traditional meal periods.

The consumer doesn't always want a three-course meal.

Sometimes they want a mini-meal.

Sometimes they want a snack.

Sometimes they want a beverage.

Sometimes they want a handheld meal they can eat immediately.

The smartest retailers aren't simply selling menu items.

They're selling solutions to eating occasions.

The c-store foodservice revolution is already here

The industry's numbers make the transformation impossible to ignore.

Foodservice accounted for only 11.9% of convenience-store in-store sales in 2005.

In 2025, it reached 28.5%.

That's not incremental change.

That's a fundamental transformation of the convenience-store business model.

And prepared food is driving the transformation.

NACS reports that prepared food represented 73.9% of c-store foodservice sales in 2025, up from 66.4% in 2021.

The convenience store is no longer simply the place consumers stop for gasoline, cigarettes, packaged snacks and beverages.

Increasingly, it is becoming a food destination.

Datassential's 2026 c-store research reinforces the point: 40% of consumers say convenience-store offerings are improving, while 35% see improvements in quality and 33% in freshness. Yet price remains a challenge, with 31% saying prices are getting worse.

That combination creates an enormous opportunity.

Improve the food. Improve the experience. Improve the value perception.

Then tell consumers about it.

The real competitive advantage: knowing your customer

This may be the most important lesson from OnCue.

Winning foodservice isn't necessarily about having the biggest menu.

It isn't about copying the nearest restaurant.

It isn't about having the most expensive ingredients.

And it isn't about adding technology simply because technology is fashionable.

It begins with understanding the consumer.

Who is coming through the door?

What daypart are they shopping?

Are they buying breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack?

Are they alone?

Are they buying for a family?

Are they driving?

Are they working?

Are they looking for indulgence?

Are they looking for protein?

Are they looking for value?

Are they willing to customize?

Do they want grab-and-go or made-to-order?

The answers should determine the menu.

Not the other way around.

NACS itself has emphasized that today's convenience consumer isn't the same consumer who walked into the store five or even ten years ago.

That is why foodservice operators need to continually measure purchasing behavior rather than relying on yesterday's assumptions.

The restaurant industry should be paying attention

OnCue's recognition isn't a threat to restaurants.

It's a wake-up call.

Consumers are expanding the number of places where they are willing to purchase restaurant-quality food.

The National Restaurant Association reports that nearly 75% of restaurant traffic now occurs off-premises, including takeout, delivery and drive-thru.

That means consumers are already prioritizing convenience.

Convenience stores simply have a different starting point:

They already own convenience.

Now they're adding better food.

When you combine location + speed + food + technology + value, the traditional restaurant definition becomes increasingly irrelevant.

That is precisely what the Grocerant movement has been predicting.

OnCue isn't selling gas-station food. It's selling food.

And that may be the most important lesson of all.

OnCue's award demonstrates that consumers are perfectly willing to change their perception of a channel when the food earns it.

The customer doesn't need to be convinced that a convenience store should sell good food.

The customer simply needs to experience good food.

Then the perception changes.

Quality changes the conversation.

Speed changes the occasion.

Handheld food changes portability.

Technology changes convenience.

And value changes frequency.

That's how a foodservice program becomes a brand.

That's how a convenience retailer becomes a competitor for restaurant occasions.

And that's how “gas station food” becomes simply “food.”

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Know the consumer, not just the channel.
The consumer doesn't care whether the food comes from a restaurant, grocery store or convenience store. They care about taste, quality, price, speed and convenience. The winning foodservice operator studies the consumer's occasion first and builds the menu second.

2. Handheld food is a strategic weapon.
Burgers, breakfast tacos, sandwiches, wraps, quesadillas and pizza are more than menu items. They are portable meal solutions designed for today's mobile consumer. Hand-Held Marketing® puts the food — and the brand — directly into the consumer's hand.

3. The new value equation is Price + Quality + Speed + Convenience.
Low price alone doesn't create loyalty. Consumers increasingly define value as getting something that is genuinely worth what they paid and worth the time they spent getting it. OnCue's success demonstrates what happens when quality, speed and affordability converge.

The bottom line from the Grocerant Guru®:
The next great foodservice competitor may not look like a restaurant. It may look like a convenience store, grocery store, dollar store, club store or another retailer that understands one simple truth:

Consumers don't have foodservice silos in their minds — they have hunger, occasions and expectations.

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

Restaurants and SNAP: The Next Grocerant Opportunity Is Inclusion

2026-09-16T00:16:00.000-07:00

For decades, restaurants have talked about convenience, accessibility, value and serving every consumer. Yet one of the largest food-assistance programs in America has historically stopped at the restaurant door.

That may be changing — and restaurants should be paying attention.

The USDA’s Restaurant Meals Program (RMP) allows participating states to let certain SNAP recipients use their EBT benefits to purchase prepared meals from participating restaurants. The program is specifically designed for SNAP households in which everyone is elderly, disabled, homeless, or an eligible spouse. USDA currently lists nine participating states: Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia.

At the same time, a new federal bill would eliminate the program entirely.

H.R. 10268, the Ending Restaurant Purchases with SNAP Act of 2026, was introduced in the House on September 3, 2026, and referred to the House Agriculture Committee. The bill would abolish the federal statutory authority for the Restaurant Meals Program. It has not become law.

Steven Johnson the Grocerant Guru®, at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® believe that the larger food-marketing story isn't simply about legislation.

It is about whether restaurants understand that the consumer has already erased the traditional walls between grocery, restaurant and foodservice.

The consumer doesn't live in foodservice silos

Consumers don't wake up thinking:

"Today I am a grocery consumer. Tonight I will become a restaurant consumer."

They think:

What's for dinner?

And the answer can be a supermarket deli meal, a convenience-store sandwich, a restaurant takeout order, a grocery-store rotisserie chicken, a delivery meal or a ready-to-eat product.

USDA's Economic Research Service reports that U.S. foodservice sales reached $1.41 trillion in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2025, up 73% from 1997. Foodservice also accounted for 56.3% of total U.S. food expenditures in 2025, compared with 43.7% for food at home.

That is an enormous consumer migration.

And it creates an equally enormous question:

Why shouldn't eligible consumers be able to use their SNAP benefits wherever they can legally and practically obtain an appropriate meal?

The current Restaurant Meals Program is one answer.

Singles are part of the opportunity

One of the biggest changes in American food marketing has been the shrinking household.

Smaller households fundamentally change the economics of food preparation.

Buying ingredients, cooking a complete meal, managing leftovers and cleaning up can make less economic sense for one person than purchasing a reasonably priced prepared meal.

USDA specifically identifies smaller U.S. households, convenience and the growing availability of fast food and other food-away-from-home options among the factors contributing to increased food-away-from-home consumption.

That matters enormously for restaurants.

The restaurant industry shouldn't define its market exclusively around the traditional four-person family.

The opportunity increasingly includes:

· Singles

· Seniors

· People living with disabilities

· Individuals without kitchen access

· People experiencing homelessness

· Caregivers

· Parents buying meals for children

· Households purchasing individual meal components

This is exactly where the Grocerant mindset becomes important.

The product is not simply "restaurant food."

The product is a solution to the consumer's immediate food need.

Seniors don't necessarily need ingredients — they need meals

Consider an older consumer living alone.

A grocery store may offer inexpensive ingredients, but ingredients still require transportation, storage, preparation, cooking and cleanup.

A restaurant can provide something fundamentally different:

a finished meal.

For a senior who has difficulty standing for extended periods, handling cookware, lifting pots or preparing food, that distinction can be substantial.

USDA's Restaurant Meals Program exists specifically because certain SNAP recipients may not be able to prepare meals for themselves or may lack permanent housing in which to store and prepare food.

Restaurants therefore aren't simply another place to spend a food benefit.

For some consumers, the restaurant can become part of the food-access infrastructure.

That is a very different way of looking at foodservice.

Disability changes the meaning of convenience

Restaurant marketing has spent years selling convenience.

Drive-thru.

Takeout.

Delivery.

Mobile ordering.

Curbside pickup.

Ready-to-eat meals.

Yet convenience has different meanings for different consumers.

For a person with a disability, "convenience" can mean:

I don't have to cook.

It can mean:

I don't have to stand in a grocery checkout line with ingredients.

It can mean:

I can purchase a complete meal in one transaction.

And it can mean:

I can eat the same type of meal that other people are eating.

That last point is particularly important.

Kids don't want to feel different

Food marketers sometimes underestimate the emotional importance of belonging.

Children notice differences.

They notice what their friends eat.

They notice where their families shop.

They notice restaurant bags, branded cups, kids' meals and familiar menu items.

Food is not merely nutrition to a child.

It is also social participation.

That makes access to restaurant food a particularly interesting issue when a household is using food assistance.

A child shouldn't have to understand the economics of food assistance in order to understand that his or her family is different.

The most powerful food-marketing experience can be extraordinarily simple:

Everybody gets a meal.

That is one reason universal approaches to children's meals can reduce stigma.

California's experience with universal school meals provides an important food-marketing lesson. The state reports that nearly 3.5 billion free school meals have been served since implementation began, with officials specifically pointing to reduced stigma as one benefit of universal access.

Whether the setting is a school cafeteria or a restaurant, the consumer psychology is similar:

When participation is normalized, stigma can diminish.

Restaurants understand this instinctively when they design kids' menus.

The child doesn't want a "special assistance meal."

The child wants the same experience as everyone else.

The kids' meal is becoming a bigger food-marketing battleground

This is also why restaurant children's meals deserve greater strategic attention.

California already requires restaurants serving children's meals with beverages to make water, sparkling water, unsweetened flavored water, unflavored milk or qualifying nondairy milk the default beverage.

And in 2026, California lawmakers advanced SB 977, legislation concerning children's meals at chain restaurants. The measure would require qualifying large chains offering children's meals to provide at least one option meeting specified nutrition standards.

This follows the earlier SB 764, which would have required a qualifying healthy children's meal but was vetoed in 2025.

The marketing lesson is bigger than California:

Children's meals are no longer simply a value bundle with a toy.

They are becoming a strategic intersection of:

nutrition + affordability + convenience + choice + family experience.

And restaurants accepting SNAP through an authorized Restaurant Meals Program can potentially bring those same consumer values into a population that has historically had fewer prepared-food options.

Foodservice has already become mainstream

The restaurant industry should also recognize just how much American eating behavior has changed.

USDA reports that full-service and limited-service restaurants collectively accounted for more than two-thirds of U.S. food-away-from-home spending in 2023, with limited-service restaurants holding the largest share.

Limited-service restaurants are particularly relevant to SNAP and the Grocerant opportunity because they already specialize in:

speed + portability + predictable pricing + immediate consumption.

Those are precisely the attributes that define much of today's Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat consumer economy.

The restaurant industry has spent billions of dollars teaching America that food can be:

ordered, paid for and consumed immediately.

Now the industry needs to recognize that payment flexibility is also part of convenience.

SNAP acceptance can be a Grocerant strategy

Restaurants that operate in states with a Restaurant Meals Program have another potential strategic advantage.

They don't necessarily have to reinvent their menu.

They can examine the food they already sell and ask:

· Which meals provide strong value?

· Which meals are easy to order?

· Which meals travel well?

· Which meals work for individuals?

· Which meals can serve seniors?

· Which meals work for families?

· Which children's meals offer nutritional balance?

· Which menu combinations create a complete meal at a compelling price?

That is classic Grocerant thinking.

Mix-and-match meal component bundling can become particularly powerful here.

A consumer may want:

entrée + side + beverage

rather than a traditional restaurant "meal."

Or:

protein + vegetable + carbohydrate

rather than a conventional entrée.

Or even:

two smaller items

instead of one large meal.

The winning restaurant may ultimately be the one that stops thinking exclusively in terms of menu categories and starts thinking in terms of consumer food missions.

There is also a nutrition responsibility

There is an important caveat.

More restaurant access does not automatically mean better nutrition.

USDA research has found that food prepared away from home can affect children's calorie intake and diet quality. Earlier ERS research found particularly significant effects among adolescents.

That means restaurants participating in programs serving vulnerable consumers have an opportunity — and a business reason — to make their value propositions better.

Affordable doesn't have to mean nutritionally careless.

A strong SNAP-compatible restaurant strategy could emphasize:

affordable protein + produce + whole grains + water or milk + reasonable portions.

That isn't charity marketing.

It is good food marketing.

The biggest mistake would be thinking this is only about SNAP

It isn't.

The bigger story is the continued collapse of the artificial boundary between:

Grocery. Restaurant. Convenience Store. Delivery. Foodservice.

The Grocerant consumer doesn't care which industry association claims the meal.

The consumer cares about:

Price. Quality. Convenience. Portability. Availability.

And increasingly:

Can I get what I need, when I need it, where I need it?

The Restaurant Meals Program is currently a limited state option, not a nationwide SNAP restaurant entitlement. USDA says eligible SNAP clients must be in a participating state and meet the program's eligibility criteria; restaurants must separately obtain state approval and federal authorization.

But that limitation shouldn't obscure the larger strategic question.

Restaurants have spent years asking how to increase traffic.

Perhaps one answer is to become accessible to more consumers.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Access is the next dimension of restaurant value.

Restaurants have traditionally competed on Price + Quality + Service.

Today's consumer increasingly evaluates value through a broader equation:

Price + Quality + Service + Convenience + Portability + Access = Value.

Accepting an authorized payment method that expands access for eligible consumers can therefore be viewed as another component of the restaurant value proposition.

2. The future belongs to restaurants that sell meals, not menus.

The consumer isn't looking for a menu category.

The consumer is looking for breakfast, lunch, dinner, a snack, a mini-meal or something for the kids.

Restaurants that design affordable meal solutions around consumer missions — including seniors, singles, families and people with disabilities — can expand the market beyond traditional restaurant occasions.

3. For kids, inclusion is part of the meal.

The food on the tray matters.

But so does the experience.

A child who can sit with friends, choose from a familiar kids' menu and eat a meal that looks and feels like everyone else's isn't thinking about food policy.

They're just being a kid.

And perhaps that is the most important food-marketing lesson of all:

The best restaurant experience is the one that makes every consumer feel like they belong.

That is the Grocerant Guru® view.

If You Can’t Beat Costco, Join Costco: Walmart’s Rotisserie Chicken Copycat Strategy Shows Where Grocerant Growth Is Going

2026-09-15T00:15:00.000-07:00

There is an old business saying: “If you can’t beat them, join them.”

Walmart’s latest rotisserie-chicken marketing move may be one of the most entertaining examples of that strategy I have seen in food retail according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

But beneath the limited-edition $5.97 Chicken Purse, the bag charms and the social-media fun is a much bigger food-retailing story.

It is about Costco, packaging, price, prepared food, convenience, brand identity and the growing power of fresh-prepared meal components.

And from my perspective as the Grocerant Guru®, Walmart has learned an important lesson: when a competitor owns a consumer food ritual, sometimes the smartest strategy is not to invent a new ritual. It is to make your version better, cheaper, easier and more culturally relevant.

Costco Didn't Invent the Bag — But It Made the Packaging Change Strategic

Let's get one food fact straight.

Costco was not the first retailer to put rotisserie chickens into flexible bags. Walmart, Whole Foods and other grocers were already using similar packaging. When Costco began transitioning its famous Kirkland Signature rotisserie chicken from rigid plastic clamshells to flexible bags in 2024, it was actually following an established packaging direction.

But Costco did something much more important.

It made the packaging part of the conversation.

Costco said the flexible packaging could reduce its plastic use by roughly 75%, or about 17 million pounds of plastic annually, while eliminating the need for an estimated 1,000 freight trucks and reducing carbon emissions by approximately 4,000 metric tons.

That is not simply a packaging change.

That is food merchandising economics meeting supply-chain economics meeting sustainability.

And Costco had something most retailers don't have:

A $4.99 product with cult status.

The $4.99 Costco rotisserie chicken has remained essentially unchanged for years despite inflation and higher operating costs. In fiscal 2025, Costco sold approximately 157.4 million rotisserie chickens globally—more than 431,000 per day.

That is an extraordinary number for a single prepared-food item.

The lesson is equally extraordinary:

Packaging doesn't have to make the food more expensive. Packaging can actually become part of the value equation.

Why Costco Will Continue to Lead Whole-Rotisserie-Chicken Sales

I see three reasons Costco will remain exceptionally difficult to dislodge in whole rotisserie chicken.

1. Costco owns the value benchmark

At $4.99, Costco has created a consumer reference point.

Once consumers know they can purchase a large, ready-to-eat whole chicken for $4.99, every other retailer has to explain why its chicken costs more.

That is enormously powerful.

Costco isn't merely selling chicken.

It is selling a definition of value.

2. Costco has vertically integrated the chicken equation

Costco's Nebraska poultry operation was created specifically to help control the economics and supply of its rotisserie chicken program. The facility processes enormous volumes of poultry and gives Costco a level of supply-chain control that most supermarket competitors simply cannot replicate.

That matters because the real battle isn't just over the price on the deli sign.

It is over:

bird cost + processing + labor + packaging + transportation + shrink + merchandising + margin.

Costco has spent years building the infrastructure around the chicken.

3. The chicken is a traffic driver, not merely a deli item

This may be the most important point.

Costco doesn't necessarily need to make its money on the chicken.

The chicken gets the consumer into the warehouse, and the warehouse then gets the opportunity to sell everything else.

That is the classic loss-leader/grocerant traffic-driver strategy.

And it works particularly well because the product solves an immediate meal problem.

“What's for dinner?”

Costco has an answer.

For $4.99.

Walmart's Response: If You Can't Beat the Packaging, Join It

Here is where the story gets interesting.

Walmart has long had an enormous rotisserie-chicken business of its own. The retailer has reported selling 103 rotisserie chickens per minute, and Walmart says approximately one in every 12 Walmart customers purchases at least one rotisserie chicken each year.

So Walmart does not have a chicken problem.

It has a brand-positioning problem.

Costco owns the narrative of the inexpensive, oversized, iconic rotisserie chicken.

Walmart has the scale to compete—but it needs to make its own chicken culturally relevant.

And that is where the packaging—and now the purse—comes in.

Three reasons Walmart was effectively forced toward Costco-style packaging economics

First: cost pressure.

Flexible packaging can use substantially less material and occupy less space than rigid clamshell packaging. Costco's own packaging analysis demonstrates the potential scale of those savings.

For a retailer selling chicken at enormous volume, pennies matter.

Second: operational efficiency.

Flexible packaging is easier to store and transport and takes up less space than rigid containers. That can influence transportation, storage, handling and refrigeration economics.

When you are operating at Walmart scale, small efficiencies become big numbers.

Third: consumers increasingly want food that travels.

This is the larger Grocerant lesson.

Today's fresh-prepared food isn't necessarily eaten standing next to the deli counter.

It is taken home.

It is carried to work.

It is used in another meal.

It becomes sandwiches, salads, tacos, casseroles, soups and snacks.

FMI reports that 53% of consumers describe their typical meal preparation as a mix of scratch-cooked and semi- or fully prepared foods.

That is precisely where rotisserie chicken becomes more than dinner.

It becomes a meal component.

Walmart's Chicken Purse Is Actually More Strategic Than It Looks

At first glance, Walmart's new Chicken Purse is just fun.

The retailer launched limited-edition purses in Traditional and Lemon Pepper "flavors" for $5.97—the same price as its rotisserie chicken. It also introduced chicken-themed charms and Great Value hot-sauce and seasoning charms.

The purse reportedly generated enough demand to sell out quickly, creating a secondary-market buzz almost immediately.

But the real marketing genius isn't the purse.

It is this:

Walmart is taking a food product and turning it into a brand asset.

Walmart says its rotisserie chicken generated more than 15,000 social mentions during the previous year.

That is exactly what food retailers want.

A product that consumers don't merely purchase.

A product consumers talk about.

But Walmart Is Now Stuck in the Middle

And this is where I believe Walmart needs to be careful.

Walmart has successfully joined the rotisserie-chicken conversation.

But it risks becoming stuck in the middle.

There are three reasons.

1. Costco owns the extreme-value halo

Costco's $4.99 chicken is almost impossible to attack directly without attacking Costco's entire business model.

Walmart's $5.97 chicken is still an exceptional value, but it isn't the same value proposition.

Costco says:

“Look how much chicken you get for $4.99.”

Walmart says:

“Look how much fun our chicken is.”

Those are different messages.

2. Walmart cannot win the specialty-food experience simply by being cheaper

This is where Walmart encounters retailers such as Publix, Kroger and Albertsons.

These competitors can emphasize fresh-food quality, deli merchandising, meal solutions, regional preferences, prepared sides and broader supermarket meal occasions.

The battlefield is therefore moving from:

“Who sells the cheapest chicken?”

to:

“Who owns the entire meal occasion?”

That is a much more interesting battle.

3. Walmart risks becoming famous for the chicken without owning the meal

The chicken purse proves Walmart understands the power of the product.

But the next step is more important.

What does Walmart sell with the chicken?

Potato salad?

Fresh vegetables?

Macaroni and cheese?

Bakery rolls?

Salad?

Dessert?

Beverages?

A family meal bundle?

A two-person dinner?

A lunch solution?

A next-day sandwich solution?

This is where Walmart has an enormous opportunity.

Because the future of retail food isn't necessarily selling more whole chickens.

It is selling more meals built around the chicken.

The Real Grocery Battle Is Becoming Grocerant

FMI's research makes the opportunity particularly clear.

Its 2025 Power of Foodservice at Retail report found that consumers choosing deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals more than doubled from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. More than half of Americans—53%—now take a hybrid approach to meals, combining deli-prepared foods with items prepared at home. Retail foodservice dollar sales reached $52.1 billion, up 1.6% over the prior 12 months.

That is the Grocerant Revolution in one paragraph.

The grocery store is no longer simply competing with the restaurant for ingredients.

It is competing for the meal occasion.

And rotisserie chicken is one of the best weapons in that battle.

FMI also points directly to rotisserie chicken as an example of how consumers use a prepared food as the foundation for multiple meals—including salads, sandwiches and casseroles.

That is why I believe Walmart's Chicken Purse is amusing—but the real opportunity is sitting in the deli.

Three Grocerant Guru® Insights for Walmart

1. Stop selling the chicken. Start selling the meal ecosystem.

Walmart should build highly visible “Build Your Meal Around Our Chicken” merchandising.

The chicken becomes the protein anchor.

Then Walmart sells the sides, salad, bread, beverage and dessert.

That transforms a $5.97 transaction into a much larger basket.

2. Make the packaging part of the brand—not just part of the operation.

Costco demonstrated that packaging can influence cost, logistics and consumer conversation.

Walmart should make its rotisserie packaging instantly recognizable and use it consistently across its ecosystem.

The Chicken Purse demonstrates that Walmart already understands the power of visual recognition.

Now apply that thinking to the actual food.

3. Own the “tonight + tomorrow” meal occasion.

This is perhaps Walmart's biggest opportunity.

A rotisserie chicken should generate multiple consumption occasions.

Tonight: chicken + two sides.

Tomorrow: chicken sandwich.

Next day: chicken salad.

Later: chicken soup, tacos or casserole.

That is how fresh-prepared food becomes a grocery growth engine rather than simply a deli department.

The Bottom Line

The Walmart Chicken Purse may look like a novelty.

I see something different.

I see a retailer recognizing that food can become culture, packaging can become marketing, and a prepared-food item can become a brand.

Costco didn't invent the rotisserie chicken.

It didn't invent the flexible packaging bag, either.

But Costco did something more important:

It built one of retail's most powerful food-value propositions around the chicken.

Walmart now appears to be saying:

“If you can't beat them, join them—and then make it Walmart.”

The question is whether Walmart stops at the chicken purse.

Because the real money isn't hanging from a shoulder.

It is sitting in the shopping cart next to the chicken.

And that is where the next great grocerant battle will be fought.

Popeyes Lost Its Mojo: How the Chicken Sandwich Created a Monster—and Then Competitors Learned to Feed It

2026-09-14T00:14:00.000-07:00

There is a fascinating lesson buried inside the Popeyes story according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Popeyes didn’t lose it’s Mojo because the chicken sandwich failed.

It lost its Mojo because the chicken sandwich succeeded so spectacularly that competitors learned how to take the category momentum Popeyes created—and Popeyes did not consistently remain the brand defining it.

That distinction matters.

In 2019, Popeyes didn't simply launch another menu item. It created one of the most powerful foodservice marketing events of the past decade.

And then, over time, it allowed the rest of the restaurant industry to turn Popeyes' innovation into everybody's chicken opportunity.

That, in my view as the Grocerant Guru®, is the real story.

The Chicken Sandwich Was a Sales Rocket

When Popeyes introduced its Chicken Sandwich nationally in August 2019, the response was extraordinary.

The sandwich sold out in roughly two weeks. Traffic reportedly peaked at 256% growth on August 23, while the November relaunch produced a reported 299% increase in foot traffic on launch day.

The financial impact was even more impressive.

Popeyes finished 2019 with 12.1% comparable-sales growth, compared with just 1.6% in 2018. Fourth-quarter comparable sales jumped 34.4%, while systemwide sales increased 42.3% to approximately $1.3 billion.

And this wasn't simply a one-quarter phenomenon.

By 2020, Popeyes had added approximately $760 million in domestic sales over the preceding year, while system sales had increased roughly 42% over two years, or about $1.3 billion. Average unit volumes reportedly climbed from approximately $1.4 million to $1.8 million.

That's not a successful LTO.

That's brand transformation.

The sandwich gave Popeyes something every restaurant brand desperately wants:

A reason to visit.
A reason to talk.
A reason to switch.
And a reason to come back.

Popeyes Didn't Just Sell a Sandwich—It Owned the Conversation

Here's what made the 2019 launch so powerful.

Popeyes didn't have to spend years explaining why consumers should care.

The product itself became the story.

A social-media exchange with Chick-fil-A helped ignite the so-called chicken sandwich wars, while media comparisons turned the sandwich into entertainment. Apex Marketing estimated the launch generated approximately $65 million in earned media value in its first 15 days.

That is an extraordinary return on a menu innovation.

But there was another important ingredient:

Popeyes had a point of view.

The brand wasn't trying to be everybody's chicken restaurant.

It had Louisiana roots.

It had Cajun flavor.

It had attitude.

It had personality.

And suddenly it had the chicken sandwich.

The brand's own retrospective describes 2019 as the tipping point for a broader Popeyes renaissance, with U.S. comparable sales reaching 37.9% in Q4 2019 and 29.2% in Q1 2020.

Popeyes had Mojo.

Big Mojo.

Then the Industry Did What the Industry Always Does

It copied the opportunity.

The Popeyes sandwich helped turn the chicken sandwich from a secondary fast-food offering into a major restaurant battleground.

McDonald's eventually launched the McCrispy.

Wendy's expanded its chicken-sandwich platform.

Burger King expanded its chicken offerings.

Wingstop entered the sandwich game.

Taco Bell created chicken-sandwich-adjacent innovations.

And dozens of other restaurant brands joined the battle.

The result?

Popeyes created the category moment, but competitors increasingly monetized the category.

That's an important difference.

The 2025 Atlantic analysis of the chicken-sandwich phenomenon noted that sandwich consumption increased substantially from 2019 onward and that the product had migrated far beyond traditional chicken chains. McDonald's reportedly now generates roughly $1 billion annually from its McCrispy, while other major chains have expanded their chicken-sandwich portfolios.

Even more interesting is Wingstop.

Wingstop introduced its chicken sandwich in 2022 and subsequently reported that the product was bringing in a younger customer base, including Gen Z and millennials. Many first-time visitors came specifically for the sandwich and then explored other menu categories on subsequent visits.

That's exactly what Popeyes should have wanted its Chicken Sandwich to do for Popeyes.

Instead, competitors learned how to use the sandwich as a customer-acquisition platform.

The Bigger Problem: Popeyes Lost the Narrative

This is where I believe Popeyes lost some of its Mojo.

A great restaurant brand needs more than a great product.

It needs a repeatable narrative.

Popeyes had that narrative in 2019:

We have the chicken sandwich everybody is talking about.

But the marketplace eventually moved on.

Suddenly everybody had a chicken sandwich.

So the question became:

Why Popeyes?

And that is a much harder question.

Popeyes' challenge wasn't necessarily that its food became bad.

The problem was that its competitive differentiation became less obvious.

The brand that had once disrupted the chicken category increasingly found itself participating in the category it had disrupted.

That's a dangerous transition.

Then Came the Value Problem

This is where the story becomes even more important in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Consumers became increasingly price-sensitive.

Restaurant brands responded with value platforms, bundles, meal deals and increasingly aggressive entry-price messaging.

Popeyes, however, was slower to respond.

Restaurant Dive reported that Popeyes' sales pressure began in the third quarter of 2024 as competitors leaned into value while Popeyes was not sufficiently focused on the consumer's growing price sensitivity.

And that matters enormously in today's restaurant environment.

The consumer doesn't evaluate a chicken sandwich in isolation anymore.

They evaluate:

Sandwich + fries + drink + convenience + speed + price.

That's a grocerant lesson as much as a restaurant lesson.

Consumers are increasingly shopping for the meal occasion, not merely the entrée.

McDonald's understands this.

Grocery deli understands this.

Convenience stores understand this.

And increasingly, successful chicken chains understand this.

The competitive question isn't:

"Who has the best chicken sandwich?"

It is:

"Who gives me the most compelling meal for the money, with the least friction?"

Popeyes Also Has an Execution Problem

There's another uncomfortable issue.

A powerful brand promise is only as good as the restaurant experience that delivers it.

By 2026, Restaurant Brands International was acknowledging the need to improve Popeyes' operational consistency, including speed, accuracy and reliability. The company was also moving toward simplifying the menu and strengthening value.

That is critical.

Because the original Popeyes Mojo wasn't created by advertising alone.

It was created by the intersection of:

Great food + cultural relevance + scarcity + social conversation + value + discovery.

When execution becomes inconsistent, the brand loses another piece of that equation.

And when the menu becomes too complicated, the restaurant can become slower precisely when consumers are demanding greater convenience.

The Chicken Sandwich Became Bigger Than Popeyes

This may be the most ironic part of the entire story.

Popeyes helped make fried chicken sandwiches culturally important.

The sandwich became one of the defining handheld foods of modern foodservice.

And that created enormous opportunity for restaurants, convenience stores, grocery prepared foods and other food channels.

From a Grocerant Guru® perspective, this is exactly what happens when a food innovation crosses channels.

Once consumers understand the occasion, the food can migrate.

Chicken sandwiches moved from:

Chicken restaurants → burger restaurants → fast casual → convenience → grocery prepared foods → virtually everywhere.

The innovation became democratized.

Popeyes had created the lightning.

The industry built power lines.

The 2025 Sales Number Should Get Popeyes' Attention

According to Nation's Restaurant News, Popeyes' U.S. sales declined 0.5% in 2025, compared with 3.9% growth in 2024. By contrast, Wingstop grew sales 11% in 2025 after an extraordinary 36.8% increase in 2024.

That comparison is revealing.

Popeyes essentially invented the modern chicken-sandwich moment.

Yet another chicken brand is demonstrating how to turn chicken innovation into sustained traffic and customer acquisition.

That's the Mojo gap.

And the answer isn't simply another chicken sandwich.

Popeyes needs to rediscover what made consumers care about Popeyes.

Three Insights to Help Popeyes Get Its Mojo Back

1. Stop Marketing the Chicken Sandwich—Start Marketing the Popeyes Meal

Popeyes shouldn't abandon its Chicken Sandwich.

It should demote the sandwich from being the entire story to being the gateway into the Popeyes ecosystem.

Build powerful meal architecture around it:

Chicken Sandwich + Side + Beverage + Louisiana flavor = Popeyes occasion.

The objective should be to increase frequency, attachment and perceived value—not simply sandwich transactions.

That's where Popeyes can reconnect with the grocerant consumer who increasingly thinks in terms of complete meal solutions.

2. Make Louisiana the Differentiator Again

The biggest mistake would be trying to out-Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A, out-McDonald's McDonald's or out-Wingstop Wingstop.

Popeyes already owns something those brands don't: Louisiana.

The brand should aggressively reconnect food, flavor, storytelling and merchandising to its Louisiana culinary DNA.

Not artificial Cajun theming.

Real culinary authority.

Popeyes needs more food people can talk about—not simply promotions people can redeem.

The next Mojo moment should make consumers say:

"You can't get that anywhere else."

3. Rebuild the Brand Around Three Words: Flavor, Value, Speed

This is the most important lesson.

Popeyes needs a new operating equation:

FLAVOR — Give consumers a compelling reason to choose Popeyes.

VALUE — Give them a compelling reason to choose Popeyes today.

SPEED — Give them a compelling reason to choose Popeyes right now.

The original Chicken Sandwich solved the first problem spectacularly.

Today, Popeyes has to solve all three simultaneously.

Because in 2019, consumers were willing to wait in line for the sandwich.

In 2026, consumers want the sandwich, the meal, the value—and they want it without the wait.

That's the new restaurant battlefield.

And my advice to Popeyes is simple:

Don't try to recreate 2019.

Recreate the thinking that made 2019 possible.

Find something uniquely Popeyes. Make it craveable. Make it culturally relevant. Make the value obvious. Make the experience reliable.

Then give consumers a reason to talk about it.

That's how Popeyes gets its Mojo back.

Rutter’s Takes Happy Hour From the Restaurant to the Grocerant

2026-09-13T00:13:00.000-07:00

For decades, restaurants—particularly full-service restaurants—have understood something that convenience stores are now exploiting exceptionally well:

Consumers don't simply buy food. They buy occasions.

Happy hour is one of the classic examples.

Restaurants created an entire marketing occasion around a traditionally slow period of the day by combining time, price, beverages, food and socializing into a simple consumer proposition according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Now, convenience stores are taking that legacy restaurant marketing tool and rebuilding it for the grocerant era.

Rutter’s latest promotion, “Take Home Your Happy Hour,” is a good example.

Beginning August 31, Rutter’s Pennsylvania locations began offering 10% off select 12- and 15-packs of beer and selected wine sizes during designated happy-hour periods—4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

But I believe there is something much bigger happening here than a 10% alcohol promotion.

Rutter’s Is Turning Happy Hour Into a Take-Home Meal Occasion

From my perspective as the Grocerant Guru®, Rutter’s isn't really selling “discounted beer and wine.”

It is selling consumers permission to build their own happy hour at home.

That distinction matters.

The consumer can walk into a Rutter’s and potentially assemble an occasion around:

· prepared food

· pizza

· sandwiches

· snacks

· beverages

· beer

· wine

· dessert

· packaged grocery products

The retailer doesn't necessarily have to dictate the entire meal.

Instead, it can empower the consumer to mix, match and complete the occasion themselves.

That is the essence of the grocerant model.

Full-Service Restaurant Marketing Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight

Full-service restaurants spent decades teaching the industry how to merchandise occasions.

Happy hour.

Family meals.

Early-bird specials.

Dinner for two.

Kids-eat-free promotions.

Appetizer combinations.

Bottle-and-food pairings.

Game-day packages.

Weekend brunch.

Restaurant marketers learned that bundling isn't merely about discounting individual products.

Bundling creates a reason to purchase more than one thing at the same time.

That is precisely where convenience stores have a growing competitive advantage.

A restaurant has to sell the consumer a meal.

A c-store can sell the consumer the ingredients for an occasion.

And increasingly, it can sell the prepared food, beverage and take-home component at the same time.

The Casey’s Example Is Particularly Important

Casey’s General Stores has been doing versions of this for years.

The company has deliberately expanded beyond the traditional “gas, snacks and cigarettes” convenience-store model into a broad prepared-food ecosystem.

Its assortment includes pizza, sandwiches, wraps, wings, tenders, breakfast foods, bakery items and dispensed beverages, while its stores also carry thousands of packaged food and beverage products.

More importantly, Casey’s consistently markets combinations and occasions, rather than simply individual menu items.

For example, Casey’s has promoted meal deals combining pizza with beverages, including a $4 pizza-and-Dr Pepper promotion in 2025.

Its 2026 matchday marketing goes even further by asking consumers to identify their occasion and then build the appropriate combination of pizza, beverage and snack.

That's not traditional convenience-store merchandising.

That's restaurant occasion marketing adapted to the grocerant.

And it is precisely the direction the industry should be watching.

The C-Store Has a Leg Up on Restaurants

Here's where I believe the competitive threat becomes particularly interesting.

Convenience stores increasingly have three structural advantages over traditional restaurants.

1. Price

Restaurants have been fighting higher food, labor, occupancy and operating costs while consumers have become increasingly price conscious.

Reuters reported in August 2026 that even major fast-food chains were discovering that inexpensive menu items alone weren't enough; consumers were increasingly evaluating overall value, including quality, convenience and experience.

C-stores have an opportunity to construct a different value equation.

Instead of:

Entrée + side + beverage = restaurant meal

they can offer:

Prepared food + beverage + snack + take-home grocery + alcohol = consumer-created meal occasion.

That gives consumers more control over how much they spend.

2. Meal Bundling

The c-store sector has become increasingly sophisticated at taking the restaurant industry's most effective merchandising weapon—the combo meal—and making it more flexible.

Circle K, for example, sold more than 13 million meal-deal bundles in one quarter, with more than half priced at $3, according to reporting from IFMA. Its tiered $3, $4 and $5 approach demonstrates how aggressively c-stores are using restaurant-style value architecture.

ARKO likewise introduced $3, $4, $5 and $6 meal deals across its hot and cold grab-and-go food locations in 2026.

The important point isn't simply the low price.

It's choice architecture.

Consumers can select the combination that fits their appetite, budget and occasion.

That is consumer migration fuel.

3. Beer and Wine

This may be the most underappreciated competitive advantage.

Rutter’s is a particularly interesting case because its Pennsylvania stores have been able to sell beer and wine for both on- and off-premises consumption for about a decade through its restaurant licenses.

Now the retailer is taking another classic restaurant occasion—happy hour—and moving it into the consumer's home.

That's powerful.

A restaurant can sell you dinner.

A c-store can potentially sell you dinner + beer + wine + dessert + snacks + tomorrow morning's breakfast.

That is a fundamentally different transaction.

The Grocerant Advantage Is Consumer Assembly

The next generation of foodservice competition will not necessarily be about who has the biggest menu.

It will be about who makes it easiest for consumers to assemble the meal they want at the price they want to pay.

That is why mix-and-match merchandising matters so much.

Casey's demonstrates the opportunity with pizza, beverages, snacks and daypart-specific occasions. Rutter's is now demonstrating how an alcohol promotion can become part of that same occasion-building strategy.

And the consumer gets something restaurants have historically struggled to provide:

control.

Control over:

· what they eat

· how much they eat

· what they drink

· how much they spend

· whether they eat immediately or later

· whether the meal is for one person or a group

That is the heart of consumer migration.

This Is Bigger Than Happy Hour

Rutter's shouldn't be viewed simply as running another promotional discount.

It is experimenting with occasion migration.

Happy hour used to mean:

Go to a restaurant between 4 and 7 p.m.

The grocerant version becomes:

Stop at the convenience store between 4 and 7 p.m. and build your own happy hour.

That's a profound shift.

The same architecture can be applied to:

Friday Night Pizza Night

Game Day

Family Dinner

Movie Night

Lunch for Two

Breakfast on the Go

Sunday Football

Road Trip

Backyard Gathering

The retailer isn't required to own the entire meal.

It simply needs to make meal assembly easier, faster and more affordable.

And that is where convenience stores increasingly have a leg up.

Three Insights From the Grocerant Guru®

1. Stop thinking “combo meal” and start thinking “occasion bundle.”
Restaurants taught consumers to accept predetermined combinations. Grocerants can go one step further by allowing consumers to build the combination themselves. The more flexible the bundle, the more occasions the retailer can capture.

2. The next battleground isn't food versus food—it's price versus occasion.
A consumer comparing a $13–$15 restaurant meal with a c-store food-and-beverage solution isn't simply comparing entrées. They're comparing the total experience, convenience, flexibility and perceived value. C-stores have an opportunity to win that equation.

3. Restaurants created happy hour. Grocerants can make it portable.
Rutter's “Take Home Your Happy Hour” illustrates the larger opportunity: take the best marketing mechanisms developed by full-service restaurants and redesign them around the consumer's home, car, workplace and immediate-consumption occasions. That's not copying restaurants. That's evolving the restaurant model for the grocerant age.

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Handheld Protein Is Becoming the New Currency of Foodservice Convenience

2026-09-12T00:12:00.000-07:00

Why Restaurants, Grocery Stores and Convenience Stores Need a Handheld Strategy for Every Daypart—and Every Takeout Occasion

From the perspective of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA-based Foodservice Solutions®

Consumers are dynamic, not static.

That simple fact is becoming increasingly important to foodservice operators in 2025 and 2026. Consumers are changing not only what they eat, but when, where, why and how they eat it.

And one of the clearest winners in that behavioral shift is the handheld protein food.

Think breakfast sandwiches, burritos, wraps, tacos, chicken sandwiches, sliders, stuffed flatbreads, handheld pizzas, protein-packed snacks and other foods designed to be eaten with one hand while consumers are moving through their increasingly busy lives.

This is not just about convenience.

It is about the intersection of protein, portability, speed, value, daypart expansion and takeout.

And foodservice operators that fail to connect those dots are missing one of the most practical opportunities in today's food marketplace.

The 2026 Food Fact: Protein and Convenience Are Colliding

Circana's August 2026 Eating Patterns in America report provides a powerful framework for understanding what is happening.

Circana reports that 48% of American adults are seeking more protein, up seven percentage points from the prior year. Among adults using GLP-1 medications, that number rises to 65%.

At the same time, Circana reports that 12% of commercial foodservice meals are now described as "high protein," with those occasions growing 11% year over year.

That is a remarkable combination.

Consumers want more protein.

Consumers want convenience.

Consumers are increasingly looking for food that fits into smaller windows of time.

And they increasingly want food that can travel.

Circana also reports that half of all meals now take less than five minutes to prepare, including 65% of breakfasts, 56% of lunches and 35% of dinners.

That should get the attention of every foodservice operator.

The opportunity isn't simply to create another high-protein entrée.

The opportunity is to create high-protein food that can be purchased quickly, carried easily, eaten conveniently and still deliver an acceptable price/value equation.

That is where handheld food becomes strategically important.

Protein Has Moved From Trend to Consumer Expectation

The International Food Information Council's 2025 research reinforces the protein story.

IFIC found that 35% of Americans said they had increased their protein consumption during the previous year, while eight in ten Americans said they prioritize protein during at least one eating occasion every day.

Even more interesting, "good source of protein" has become the most common way consumers define a healthy food.

And IFIC's 2026 research says protein continues to dominate how Americans think about healthy eating.

That means protein is increasingly becoming a marketing shorthand for value, satiety, energy and wellness.

For foodservice marketers, that creates an important opportunity:

Don't simply sell the sandwich. Sell what the sandwich solves.

A chicken wrap can represent lunch.

A breakfast burrito can represent breakfast.

A smaller chicken taco can represent an afternoon snack.

A substantial steak or chicken burrito can represent dinner.

The format remains familiar while the occasion changes.

That is powerful menu architecture.

Handheld Food Fits the Way Consumers Eat Now

Consumers are not necessarily sitting down for three traditional meals at three traditional times.

Circana's 2026 research reports that consumers are snacking less strictly between meals and increasingly consuming snacks during or instead of meals, with those occasions increasing by 11 versus the previous year.

That blurs the line between:

meal and snack.

It also blurs the line between:

restaurant food and grocery food.

And increasingly:

foodservice and takeout.

A handheld item can live in all three spaces.

That is one reason handheld protein deserves considerably more strategic attention than it receives.

Takeout Changes the Definition of a Good Menu Item

Here is where the original conversation about handheld protein needs to be updated for 2026.

Foodservice operators cannot develop food strictly for the dining room anymore.

They have to develop food for the journey from kitchen to consumer.

The National Restaurant Association reported in 2025 that nearly 75% of restaurant traffic occurs off-premises.

Its research also found that 47% of adults pick up takeout at least once a week, 42% use the drive-thru weekly and 37% order delivery weekly.

For younger consumers, the numbers are even more compelling.

More than six in ten younger adults reported using takeout, drive-thru and delivery more often than the prior year.

This changes the product-development question.

Instead of asking:

"Will customers like this entrée?"

operators should also ask:

"Will customers want to carry it, eat it and reorder it somewhere other than our dining room?"

That is a very different question.

The Takeout Test for Handheld Food

A successful takeout handheld should pass at least five tests:

1. It must travel well.

A beautiful sandwich that becomes soggy in 15 minutes is not a successful takeout product.

2. It must be easy to eat.

Consumers should not need a fork, knife, table and five napkins to eat a product marketed as convenient.

3. It must maintain perceived value.

Consumers are increasingly scrutinizing what they receive for the money they spend.

4. It must have strong flavor after travel.

Flavor needs to survive the trip, not just the kitchen.

5. It must be recognizable.

Consumers ordering takeout want to understand what they are buying quickly.

This is one reason sandwiches, wraps, burritos, tacos and other handheld formats have such staying power.

Packaging Is Part of the Menu

One of the most overlooked elements of handheld food is packaging.

In 2025, the National Restaurant Association reported that 90% of off-premises customers said they would be likely to order a greater variety of food if upgraded packaging helped preserve temperature, taste and quality.

More than half said they would be willing to pay extra for takeout or delivery if packaging helped maintain food quality, including 60% of Gen Z and millennial adults.

That is a major food-marketing lesson.

Packaging is not merely operational. Packaging is part of the consumer experience.

For handheld food, that means the package should protect:

· temperature

· texture

· structural integrity

· portability

· appearance

· ease of opening

· ease of eating

A great handheld product inside a bad package is still a bad takeout experience.

Daypart One: Breakfast

Breakfast may be the most obvious handheld daypart.

Consumers increasingly want breakfast that is fast enough to fit between waking up, commuting, dropping children at school and starting work.

Circana reports that 65% of breakfasts take less than five minutes to prepare.

That makes breakfast sandwiches and burritos natural fits.

But operators should think beyond the traditional egg-and-cheese sandwich.

Consider:

· sausage and egg burritos

· bacon-and-egg wraps

· chicken breakfast sandwiches

· egg-and-potato tacos

· high-protein breakfast wraps

· breakfast quesadillas

· portable oatmeal or egg-based products

· smaller breakfast handhelds for snack occasions

The opportunity is to make breakfast portable without making it feel disposable.

Daypart Two: Lunch

Lunch may be the ultimate handheld opportunity.

The consumer doesn't necessarily want a complicated meal.

They want something satisfying, fast and affordable that can be eaten at work, in a vehicle, between appointments or at home.

Circana reports that 56% of lunches take less than five minutes to prepare.

That supports the continued importance of:

· chicken sandwiches

· burgers

· wraps

· tacos

· burritos

· flatbreads

· quesadillas

· protein bowls designed for portable eating

· snackable lunch combinations

But lunch also creates an important pricing opportunity.

Operators should consider good/better/best handheld architecture.

For example:

Good: one handheld.

Better: handheld + side.

Best: handheld + side + beverage.

This allows consumers to manage their spending without forcing the operator into across-the-board discounting.

Daypart Three: Afternoon

The afternoon may be the most underdeveloped handheld daypart.

The traditional restaurant industry tends to think about lunch and dinner.

Consumers increasingly think about "I'm hungry right now."

That creates an opportunity for smaller handheld protein products.

Examples include:

· mini tacos

· chicken sliders

· small wraps

· protein bites

· stuffed flatbreads

· smaller quesadillas

· chicken skewers

· egg bites

· savory snack wraps

The key is portion architecture.

Consumers don't always want a full meal.

They may want enough food to bridge the gap until dinner.

That is precisely where the distinction between a snack and a mini-meal becomes less important.

The consumer simply wants the right amount of food at the right price at the right moment.

Daypart Four: Dinner

Dinner handhelds are particularly important for takeout.

Consumers may not want to sit down and cook.

They may not want to spend restaurant-level money on a traditional entrée.

They may want something they can pick up on the way home and eat immediately.

That creates an enormous opportunity for:

· larger burritos

· premium chicken sandwiches

· steak wraps

· handheld pizza

· loaded quesadillas

· tacos

· grilled chicken sandwiches

· specialty burgers

· protein-rich flatbreads

The product needs to feel substantial enough to be dinner while remaining portable enough to be consumed outside the restaurant.

That is the sweet spot.

Grocery Stores Are Now Competing for the Same Occasion

This is where foodservice operators should pay close attention to the grocery channel.

FMI reported in 2025 that consumers choosing deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals more than doubled—from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025.

FMI also found that 53% of Americans now take a hybrid approach to meals, combining deli-prepared foods with items prepared at home.

That means the grocery deli is no longer simply selling "prepared food."

It is competing for the restaurant occasion.

A consumer who buys a prepared chicken wrap, sandwich, burrito or other handheld from a grocery deli is making a choice that could otherwise have gone to a restaurant, QSR, c-store or delivery platform.

This is the Food Channel Blurring phenomenon in action.

Convenience Stores Are Showing Operators What Works

Convenience stores provide perhaps the strongest real-world evidence for handheld food.

NACS reported that foodservice represented 28.5% of convenience-store in-store sales in 2025 and 38.9% of in-store gross profit dollars.

Prepared food accounted for 73.9% of c-store foodservice sales.

And there is an especially relevant statistic for this article:

Technomic's 2025 C-store Food Multi-Client Study found that 88% of convenience-store operators offer handheld items such as sandwiches and wraps.

That is not an accident.

Handheld foods fit the c-store mission:

fast + portable + familiar + filling + immediate consumption.

The opportunity for restaurants is to learn from that behavior rather than simply compete with it.

The Real Opportunity: Design Food for Immediate Consumption

I believe the next evolution of foodservice menu development is moving away from thinking primarily about menu categories and toward thinking about consumption occasions.

The consumer may not care whether an item is technically:

· breakfast

· a snack

· lunch

· dinner

· an appetizer

They care that it is:

good, affordable, satisfying, portable and available now.

That is the foundation of what I call Immediate Consumption Food.

Handheld protein is almost perfectly engineered for that need state.

Three New Grocerant Guru® Insights for Takeout

1. Takeout Should Be Designed Around "The First Bite," Not the Menu Description

Operators spend enormous amounts of time developing menu descriptions, photography and promotions.

But takeout food has another critical moment:

the first bite after the package is opened.

If the bread is soggy, the tortilla is broken, the filling has shifted or the product has lost its temperature, the marketing promise has failed.

The takeout menu therefore needs to be engineered backward from consumption.

Can this product still deliver the intended experience 15, 20 or 30 minutes after leaving the restaurant?

If not, it needs to be reformulated or repackaged.

2. Build a Takeout Handheld Ladder Instead of One "Signature" Sandwich

Consumers have different levels of hunger, budgets and occasions.

So why offer only one size?

Develop a ladder:

Snack → Mini-Meal → Full Meal → Premium Meal

That allows one protein platform to generate multiple occasions and multiple price points.

A chicken platform, for example, could become a small snack wrap, a regular lunch wrap, a dinner-sized burrito and a premium takeout entrée.

That is not simply menu variety.

It is menu productivity.

3. The Best Takeout Menu May Be Smaller, Not Larger

The restaurant industry often responds to consumer demand by adding menu items.

But 2026 consumers are increasingly demanding value, speed and convenience.

Technomic's 2026 State of the Menu research notes that consumers remain financially cautious while restaurant margins remain compressed, making value and distinctive menu offerings increasingly important.

That suggests a different strategy.

Don't create 50 handhelds.

Create a focused handheld platform with several highly productive proteins, sauces, formats and price points.

Fewer ingredients.

Fewer operational steps.

Faster production.

Less waste.

Better consistency.

More marketing power.

And more opportunities to sell the same core food across multiple dayparts.

The Bottom Line

The handheld protein menu item is no longer merely a convenient alternative to a fork-and-knife meal.

It sits directly at the intersection of several of the biggest foodservice forces shaping 2025 and 2026:

Protein.

Convenience.

Value.

Portability.

Immediate consumption.

Takeout.

Daypart expansion.

Food Channel Blurring.

And the data is increasingly difficult to ignore.

Nearly three-quarters of restaurant traffic is now off-premises.

Nearly half of American adults are seeking more protein.

Foodservice high-protein occasions are growing 11% year over year.

Eighty-eight percent of convenience-store operators offer handheld sandwiches or wraps.

And grocery deli-prepared foods are increasingly replacing restaurant meals.

The question for foodservice operators is therefore no longer:

"Should we have handheld protein?"

The better question is:

"Do we have enough of the right handheld protein products for every daypart, every price point and every takeout occasion?"

Because consumers are not static.

Their schedules aren't static.

Their budgets aren't static.

Their eating occasions aren't static.

And increasingly, their meals don't require a table.

That is why the future of foodservice may be held in one hand.

About Foodservice Solutions®

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development, foodservice strategy, menu development, food marketing and identifying emerging opportunities across restaurants, grocery, convenience stores and the growing Grocerant niche.

The opportunity is to identify, quantify and qualify new food retail segments, menu-product opportunities and brand integration strategies.

Steven Johnson, the Grocerant Guru®, is based in Tacoma, Washington, and focuses on the intersection of restaurants, grocery, convenience stores, prepared food, Ready-2-Eat, Heat-N-Eat and the rapidly evolving foodservice consumer.

Are Snacks Really the New Mini-Meals? The Price, Portability and Flavor Battle for Immediate-Consumption Food

2026-09-11T00:11:00.000-07:00

The restaurant industry has spent years talking about the “snackification” of America. But in 2025 and 2026, Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® based Foodservice Solutions® in Tacoma, WA thinks we need to be much more precise.

Consumers are not simply replacing meals with snacks. They are fragmenting meals into more frequent, smaller, portable and price-sensitive eating occasions.

That distinction matters.

A traditional snack is generally consumed because a person wants something between meals. A mini-meal is different. It may look like a snack, but functionally it replaces part of—or sometimes an entire—traditional meal.

Think breakfast sandwich, chicken wrap, loaded fries, tacos, a small burger, dumplings, wings, a protein box, a slice of pizza, a prepared deli bowl, a handheld breakfast item or a combination of two smaller items.

The common denominator is increasingly immediate consumption.

And that puts restaurants, convenience stores, grocery delis and other foodservice operators into a new battle for what I call the Immediate-Consumption Food Occasion.

The Price of a Meal Has Changed the Definition of a Meal

The biggest mistake foodservice marketers can make is looking at snacking only through the lens of flavor.

Price has become part of the product.

Circana reported that consumer-perceived value-menu traffic increased 1% in the quarter ending June 2025, even while total restaurant traffic declined 1%. Circana also found that 50% of consumers who had not recently dined out said lower prices would encourage them to visit restaurants, increasing to 54% among households earning less than $75,000.

That tells me something important:

The mini-meal isn't winning simply because it is smaller. It can win because it gives consumers a lower-priced entry point into restaurant food.

The consumer may not want to spend $15, $18 or $20 for lunch.

But $5, $7 or $9 for something flavorful, filling and portable can feel considerably more manageable.

That changes the restaurant value equation.

The question is no longer simply:

“What does a meal cost?”

It becomes:

“How much satisfaction can I get for the next $5, $7 or $10?”

That is a very different marketing question.

Snack vs. Mini-Meal: Don't Confuse the Two

Here is how I see the distinction.

A snack satisfies a craving.

A mini-meal satisfies a need.

A snack might be chips, fries, a cookie, a pastry or a small dessert.

A mini-meal might be a breakfast sandwich, chicken tender basket, taco trio, wrap, quesadilla, small pizza, rice bowl or protein-forward handheld.

But there is an increasingly important gray area.

A consumer can take two or three snack-like components and create a meal.

This is one reason the grocery deli, convenience store and restaurant worlds are converging.

FMI highlighted this phenomenon in 2025 when examining the popularity of “girl dinner”—an informal meal constructed from foods traditionally considered snacks, such as cheese, olives, crackers, fruit and prepared deli items.

That is not really snacking.

It is meal assembly disguised as snacking.

And that is a powerful concept for food marketers.

The New Consumer Doesn't Always Want a Meal

The traditional restaurant menu was built around a relatively simple structure:

Breakfast → Lunch → Dinner → Snack

Today's consumer is increasingly operating on:

Hungry → Convenient → Affordable → Portable → Eat Now

The clock matters less.

The occasion matters more.

Circana's 2026 analysis of 2025 foodservice performance found that U.S. foodservice traffic declined just 0.3%, while spending increased because average checks continued to rise. In the fourth quarter of 2025, average spend per visit increased 3%.

At the same time, Circana's research points toward continued growth in convenience-oriented occasions, while its longer-term outlook expects delivery and on-premises traffic to outperform carry-out and drive-thru through 2028.

The message for operators is clear:

Consumers still want restaurant food. They are simply becoming much more selective about how much they buy, what they buy and how they receive it.

Takeout Changes the Mini-Meal Equation

Takeout is particularly important because the consumer doesn't have to commit to the full restaurant experience.

They can order one handheld item.

They can order two small items.

They can share.

They can eat in the car.

They can eat at work.

They can eat while shopping.

They can eat while traveling.

Or they can take the food home and combine it with something already in the refrigerator.

That makes the mini-meal extraordinarily flexible.

McKinsey's 2026 analysis found that pickup orders increased 14% in frequency over the prior year while maintaining relatively stable basket sizes. At the same time, delivery's average basket value declined 6% and spend per unit fell 12%, highlighting the growing pressure consumers feel around delivery pricing.

This is why I believe takeout and mini-meals belong in the same strategic conversation.

The consumer is looking for restaurant-quality food without necessarily paying the full economic and time cost associated with a traditional restaurant meal.

Handheld Food Has a Structural Advantage

There is something else operators should not overlook:

Handheld food is infrastructure.

A hamburger, sandwich, taco, wrap, breakfast sandwich, chicken tender, quesadilla or handheld pizza doesn't require a fork.

It doesn't necessarily require a table.

It can be packaged efficiently.

It can be carried.

It can be eaten quickly.

And it photographs well.

Most importantly, it fits fragmented consumer schedules.

For Gen Z and Millennials in particular, food is increasingly integrated into other activities rather than isolated into formal eating occasions.

Technomic's research has repeatedly focused on the importance of convenience, generational differences, starters, small plates, sides, sandwiches and value/pricing as important foodservice decision factors.

In 2025, Technomic's Donna Hood Crecca described snacking for Gen Z as effectively a 24-hour daypart, emphasizing that younger consumers are looking for food that provides functionality, nourishment, energy and convenience.

That's a profound change.

The restaurant doesn't necessarily have to sell a meal.

It has to sell the right food for the moment.

Flavor Still Matters—But Price Gets Consumers Through the Door

Flavor remains one of the most powerful reasons consumers purchase food.

But in today's environment, I would put the equation this way:

Price gets attention.
Flavor gets trial.
Convenience gets consumption.
Quality gets repeat business.

This is particularly important with mini-meals.

A $7 handheld with an interesting sauce, seasoning or global flavor profile can become a low-risk way for consumers to experiment.

Instead of asking consumers to spend $18 on a completely unfamiliar entrée, restaurants can introduce a new flavor through a smaller item.

That is why limited-time offers remain so important.

Technomic's State of the Menu research identified bite-sized and mini items among notable LTO trends, along with multiprotein dishes and familiar classics with a twist.

The opportunity is to take familiar formats and make them new.

For example:

· A familiar chicken sandwich with a globally inspired sauce

· A taco with an unexpected protein

· A breakfast sandwich with an international flavor profile

· A small burger with a premium topping

· A handheld wrap built around a new flavor combination

· A snack-size portion that becomes a mini-meal when paired with another item

The format remains familiar.

The flavor does the innovation work.

The $5–$10 Foodservice Sweet Spot Deserves More Attention

The restaurant industry has become obsessed with the value meal.

But I believe there is another opportunity hiding underneath it:

the value mini-meal.

Instead of discounting an entire meal, operators can create a lower-priced food occasion.

That is strategically different.

A consumer may say:

“I'm not paying $15 for lunch.”

But the same consumer may say:

“I'll spend $7 for a chicken wrap.”

Then perhaps add a $2 beverage.

Or a $3 side.

Or purchase another handheld later.

The operator has created another transaction without forcing the consumer into a traditional meal architecture.

This matters because Circana found that 29% of all commercial foodservice traffic during the most recent 12-month period measured was associated with a deal—the highest level recorded in its 50-year historical analysis.

Price competition is no longer an occasional tactic. It has become part of the consumer's foodservice mindset.

But Don't Start a Mini-Meal Price War

Here's the danger.

If every restaurant simply lowers the price of smaller food, the industry creates another race to the bottom.

Restaurants already face elevated food, labor, occupancy, technology, insurance and other operating expenses.

The National Restaurant Association's 2026 industry outlook projects $1.55 trillion in restaurant and foodservice sales, but it also emphasizes persistent cost pressures, uneven traffic and elevated operating expenses.

Therefore, the goal should not be:

“How cheap can we make it?”

The goal should be:

“How much perceived value can we create at a price the consumer considers acceptable while still protecting restaurant-level economics?”

That is a much harder—and much more important—question.

Mini-Meals Can Increase Menu Complexity—So Be Careful

There is another trap.

Restaurants may see the mini-meal opportunity and respond by adding 20 new items.

That's the wrong answer.

Every new item creates potential ingredient complexity, training requirements, prep requirements, packaging requirements, inventory exposure and service challenges.

The best mini-meal strategy is often built from existing ingredients used differently.

One chicken protein can become:

· a taco

· a wrap

· a slider

· a small bowl

· a snack box

· a handheld breakfast or lunch item

One sauce platform can cross multiple products.

One tortilla can support several occasions.

One protein can create multiple price points.

That's menu engineering—not menu inflation.

The Grocerant Is Already Playing This Game

The grocerant niche has an inherent advantage.

Grocery delis, convenience stores and other retail foodservice operators can sell food that looks like a snack but functions as a meal.

A consumer can purchase:

· a hot chicken item

· a sandwich

· sushi

· a prepared bowl

· a protein box

· a side

· a bakery item

· fruit

· a beverage

And construct their own eating occasion.

Technomic's retail foodservice research specifically identifies grab-and-go, made-to-order, bowls, globally inspired flavors, breakfast sandwiches and customizable prepared foods as important areas of consumer and operator interest.

That is the essence of the grocerant opportunity:

Consumers don't necessarily want a predefined meal. They want food that fits the moment.

The Future Isn't Snacks vs. Meals

I believe the question “Are snacks the new mini-meals?” is actually too narrow.

The larger shift is this:

Consumers are moving from meal occasions to eating occasions.

That means the winning foodservice brands will stop thinking only in terms of breakfast, lunch and dinner.

They will think in terms of:

Need state + price point + portability + flavor + convenience + immediate consumption.

The consumer might want 300 calories at 10:30 a.m.

600 calories at 1 p.m.

A handheld at 4 p.m.

A small indulgence at 8 p.m.

A late-night mini-meal at 11 p.m.

Those are not necessarily traditional meals.

But they are all foodservice opportunities.

Three New Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. The New Value Proposition Is “Affordable Enough to Buy Now”

Restaurants should stop assuming that consumers are choosing between eating out and eating at home.

Increasingly, consumers are making smaller purchase decisions throughout the day.

That creates an enormous opportunity for affordable handhelds, mini-meals and snackable foods that deliver immediate gratification without requiring a full meal commitment.

The next value war may not be about the cheapest meal—it may be about the most satisfying food under a consumer's immediate spending threshold.

2. Handheld Is Becoming a Foodservice Format, Not Just a Menu Category

A handheld isn't simply a sandwich.

It is a consumption platform.

It allows food to travel, fit into schedules, minimize utensils, support takeout and provide portion flexibility.

Restaurants should therefore design handheld food with the same seriousness they apply to entrée development.

If the food doesn't travel well, hold well and taste great in the consumer's hands, it may not belong in the modern immediate-consumption foodservice portfolio.

3. The Real Battle Is for the Next Eating Occasion

The biggest opportunity isn't necessarily stealing someone's lunch from another restaurant.

It may be creating an eating occasion that didn't previously exist.

A $6 breakfast sandwich.

A $7 afternoon chicken wrap.

A $5 late-night snackable mini-meal.

A $9 two-item combination.

A grab-and-go protein box.

These products can create incremental traffic rather than simply discount existing traffic.

The Grocerant Guru® sees the future of foodservice as less about selling three meals a day—and more about winning the consumer's next eating occasion.

That is where Price + Flavor + Takeout + Handheld + Immediate Consumption come together.

And that may be the most important menu innovation opportunity for restaurants, convenience stores and grocers heading deeper into 2026.

**The snack isn't replacing the meal.

The eating occasion is replacing the meal.**

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru®, is a foodservice consultant, multi-unit restaurant operator, brand/product positioning expert and speaker based in Tacoma, Washington. Through Foodservice Solutions®, he focuses on the intersection of restaurants, grocery, convenience stores, prepared foods and the rapidly evolving grocerant niche.

For corporate presentations, regional chain presentations, educational forums and keynote engagements, contact Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru®.

The Restaurant Price War Is Becoming a Value War: Food, Labor, Shipping and Rent Are Colliding

2026-09-10T00:10:00.000-07:00

The restaurant industry is no stranger to pricing wars. But in 2026, the problem is more complicated than restaurants simply deciding whether to raise or lower menu prices according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Restaurants are caught in a four-way squeeze: food costs, labor costs, shipping and supply-chain expenses, and increasingly turbulent occupancy costs are colliding with consumers who are becoming more selective about where, when and how they spend their food dollars.

That is why I believe the restaurant industry is entering a new kind of competitive battle.

It is not simply a restaurant price war.

It is becoming a restaurant value war.

And the restaurants that understand the difference may be the ones that protect both customer traffic and profitability.

As the Grocerant Guru®, I have watched the relationship between food-at-home and food-away-from-home prices change dramatically over the past two decades. Today, that relationship is particularly important because consumers can easily compare the cost of a restaurant meal with grocery purchases, Ready-2-Eat food, Heat-N-Eat meals, convenience-store food and other forms of convenient meal participation.

The consumer's question increasingly is not simply:

“Can I afford to eat out?”

It is:

“Is this restaurant meal worth what I am paying compared with all my other food options?”

The Price Gap Still Matters — But the Story Has Changed

The original version of this article focused heavily on the widening gap between food-at-home and food-away-from-home prices.

That remains important.

But the latest government data shows something interesting.

In December 2025, food-at-home prices were up 2.4% year over year, while food-away-from-home prices were up 4.1%. That was a 170-basis-point gap.

By July 2026, the gap remained significant: food-at-home prices were up 2.7%, while food-away-from-home prices were up 3.4%. That represents a 70-basis-point difference.

So the 2026 story is not that the restaurant/grocery price gap has simply continued exploding.

It is that restaurant prices remain structurally higher while the restaurant operator's underlying cost structure remains under extraordinary pressure.

That distinction matters.

Restaurants cannot simply look at grocery inflation and conclude, “We have room to discount.”

Their costs tell a different story.

Food Costs: The Pressure Has Not Gone Away

The National Restaurant Association's 2026 State of the Restaurant Industry research reports that food costs are approximately 34% above pre-pandemic levels. In 2025, 82% of restaurant operators reported higher average food costs than in 2024, while only 6% reported lower food costs.

And food inflation is not affecting every ingredient equally.

Beef supplies remain constrained. Pork supplies are also limited. Poultry and eggs continue to face supply risks, while dairy markets remain mixed. Coffee, cocoa and other globally traded commodities remain vulnerable to international supply and trade disruptions.

This is important because a restaurant does not buy “food inflation.”

It buys beef, chicken, eggs, cheese, oil, produce, coffee, flour, packaging and hundreds of individual SKUs.

Each one has its own supply chain.

Each one has its own freight component.

Each one has its own labor component.

And each one ultimately contributes to the menu price.

The National Restaurant Association reported in 2025 that wholesale food costs had increased nearly 5% over the prior year, while warning that tariffs could add additional pressure to food and beverage costs.

In other words, the food-cost battle did not end when headline inflation moderated.

Shipping Is an Expense Hiding Inside the Food Cost

One of the most overlooked elements of the restaurant cost equation is shipping.

Restaurants do not simply pay a supplier for a case of food. That food has to move from farm, processor, importer or manufacturer through distribution networks and ultimately to the restaurant.

Transportation is therefore embedded throughout the foodservice supply chain.

And when transportation costs rise, restaurants can feel the impact even when the commodity itself has not dramatically changed in price.

The issue became particularly visible in 2025 and 2026 as trade policy, tariffs and global transportation disruptions complicated sourcing.

The National Restaurant Association has emphasized that restaurants depend on stable year-round supply chains and that Canada and Mexico are particularly important sources of imported food and beverages. In 2024, restaurant-industry food and beverage imports from Canada were valued at approximately $22.8 billion, while Mexico supplied approximately $27.8 billion. (

That makes transportation and trade policy much more than a back-office issue.

They are menu issues.

They are pricing issues.

They are margin issues.

And ultimately, they are consumer-value issues.

As transportation costs rise, the restaurant operator faces an unpleasant choice:

Absorb the expense, substitute the ingredient, reduce the portion, change the menu—or raise the price.

None is free.

Labor May Be the Bigger Problem

Food costs get most of the headlines.

Labor may be the more persistent structural problem.

The National Restaurant Association's 2025 Operations Data Abstract, based on data from more than 900 operators, found that salaries and wages, including benefits, represented a median 36.5% of sales for full-service restaurants and 31.7% for limited-service restaurants in 2024.

The difference between profitable and unprofitable restaurants was even more revealing.

Full-service restaurants reporting a pre-tax profit had median labor costs of 34.2% of sales, compared with 42.9% among operators reporting a loss.

For limited-service restaurants, the corresponding figures were 30.0% for profitable operators versus 34.1% for operators reporting a loss.

That tells restaurant operators something important:

Every additional percentage point of labor cost matters.

And the industry is not going back to its pre-pandemic labor-cost structure simply because inflation moderates.

The National Restaurant Association estimates that average hourly earnings for restaurant employees have increased 41% since pre-pandemic levels, while average wholesale food prices have increased approximately 35%. Total restaurant expenses are estimated to have increased 36% between 2019 and 2026.

That is an extraordinary increase for an industry that traditionally operates on very thin margins.

Then There Is Rent

Rent is another expense consumers rarely see—but operators see every month.

According to the National Restaurant Association's 2025 Operations Data Abstract, occupancy costs represented a median 5.7% of sales for full-service restaurants and 5.2% for limited-service restaurants in 2024.

Location matters.

For limited-service restaurants in urban or city-center locations, occupancy costs reached a median 6.0% of sales, compared with 5.0% in suburban areas and 3.2% in small communities or rural areas.

That means the same menu, same food cost and same labor model can produce radically different financial results depending upon the real estate equation.

And rent does not operate alone.

Restaurants also face property taxes, insurance, common-area maintenance, utilities, repairs, technology expenses, credit-card processing fees and other occupancy-related costs.

The restaurant operator is therefore not simply negotiating rent.

The operator is negotiating the cost of access to a consumer location.

The Margin Math Is Getting Brutal

Here is where the discussion becomes especially important.

The National Restaurant Association describes the pre-pandemic restaurant model as roughly:

· 33% food

· 33% labor

· 29% other expenses

· 5% pre-tax profit

That leaves very little room for error.

Now consider what happens when multiple costs increase simultaneously.

Food goes up.

Labor goes up.

Freight goes up.

Packaging goes up.

Insurance goes up.

Utilities go up.

Rent increases at renewal.

Credit-card fees continue.

And the consumer says:

“Your sandwich is too expensive.”

That is the restaurant industry's fundamental 2026 dilemma.

The operator cannot simply raise prices enough to recover every increase because consumers have alternatives.

Consumers Have More Food Choices Than Ever

This is where the Grocerant perspective becomes particularly important.

Restaurants are no longer competing only against other restaurants.

They are competing against:

grocery deli food, supermarket prepared meals, convenience stores, warehouse clubs, meal kits, delivery, takeout, Ready-2-Eat meals and Heat-N-Eat meals.

The food channel continues to blur.

Circana reported that U.S. foodservice traffic declined 0.3% in 2025, even as consumer spending increased because average checks rose. In the fourth quarter, average spending per visit increased about 3%.

That is a critical distinction.

More dollars do not necessarily mean more customers.

A restaurant can grow sales because customers spend more per visit while simultaneously losing traffic.

That is not the same thing as healthy demand.

And in July 2026, the National Restaurant Association reported that 49% of restaurant operators said customer traffic was lower than a year earlier, while only 40% reported higher traffic. July marked the 17th month in the last 18 months in which operators reported a net decline in customer traffic.

That should get every restaurant marketer's attention.

Consumers Still Want Restaurants

This is where the story becomes more nuanced.

Consumers have not abandoned restaurants.

Far from it.

The National Restaurant Association projects restaurant and foodservice sales will reach approximately $1.55 trillion in 2026, with real, inflation-adjusted sales growth of 1.3%.

And 61% of adults surveyed for the 2026 industry report said dining out remains essential to their lifestyle, even as tighter budgets make value more important.

That means the opportunity remains enormous.

But consumers are becoming more selective.

Circana found that consumer-perceived value-menu traffic increased 1% in the quarter ending June 2025 while overall restaurant traffic declined 1%. Half of consumers who had not recently dined out said lower prices would encourage them to visit restaurants.

The lesson is not necessarily:

“Lower your prices.”

The lesson is:

“Make your value easier to understand.”

That is a very different marketing strategy.

The Coming Battle Is a Value War—Not Necessarily a Price War

I would now modify the premise of my original article.

A restaurant price war is not inevitable.

A value war is.

There is a difference.

A price war asks:

“Who can sell this for less?”

A value war asks:

“Who can give the consumer the strongest reason to spend the next food dollar here?”

That reason could be price.

But it could also be:

· Better food

· Larger perceived portions

· Convenience

· Speed

· Loyalty rewards

· Meal bundles

· Unique flavors

· Better ingredients

· Better digital ordering

· Better takeout

· Better Ready-2-Eat options

· Better Heat-N-Eat options

· A more compelling experience

That is why the strongest restaurant operators will not necessarily be those with the cheapest menu.

They will be the operators who engineer the best perceived value while protecting the underlying economics of the business.

The Restaurant Industry Is Being Forced to “Get the Math Right”

The National Restaurant Association says exactly that in its 2026 outlook: restaurant operators need to “get the math right” in an environment characterized by uneven traffic and elevated costs.

I agree.

The restaurant business has always been a math business.

But in 2026, the math has become multidimensional.

Food cost + labor + shipping + occupancy + utilities + technology + fees + consumer price resistance = the new restaurant equation.

And that equation changes every time the operator changes the menu.

That is why menu engineering is becoming more important.

A restaurant should not ask only:

“What will the customer pay?”

It should also ask:

“What does it cost us to produce, ship, prepare, package, market and serve this item—and how much traffic does it generate?”

That is the real question.

The Opportunity: Engineer the Meal, Not Just the Menu

This is where I believe the Grocerant niche offers restaurant operators a strategic opportunity.

Instead of thinking exclusively in terms of individual menu items, operators should think about meal participation.

A customer may not want to spend $25 on dinner for one.

But that same consumer may see greater value in a carefully designed meal solution that provides an entrée, side and beverage—or a family meal that solves multiple eating occasions.

The winning proposition is not necessarily the lowest price.

It is the clearest solution.

Convenience becomes part of value.

Speed becomes part of value.

Portion size becomes part of value.

Packaging becomes part of value.

Customization becomes part of value.

And increasingly, the ability to take the meal home and eat it when convenient becomes part of value.

Three New Insights From the Grocerant Guru®

1. The next restaurant price war will be fought on the income statement before it is fought on the menu.

Restaurants cannot sustainably discount their way out of rising food, labor, shipping and occupancy costs.

Before creating another $5 or $10 value offer, operators should understand the fully loaded cost of delivering that offer.

The winning restaurant will know precisely which products create traffic, which create margin and which do both.

2. Shipping has become part of menu engineering.

The restaurant industry has historically treated food cost and transportation as separate conversations.

Consumers do not care.

If the cost of moving an ingredient increases the delivered cost of a menu item, it is part of that item's economics.

The future belongs to operators who understand ingredient sourcing, distribution, freight, packaging, labor and menu pricing as one interconnected system.

3. Value is becoming the new restaurant brand currency.

Consumers are not simply looking for cheap food.

They are looking for a reason to believe that what they are buying is worth what they are paying.

That means the future of restaurant marketing is not:

“We are cheaper.”

It is:

“Here is why this meal is worth your money, your time and your attention.”

That is a much bigger—and much more interesting—marketing opportunity.

The Grocerant Guru® Bottom Line

The restaurant industry is not simply facing inflation.

It is facing cost-stack inflation.

Food costs have risen.

Labor costs have risen.

Shipping and supply-chain uncertainty remain.

Occupancy remains expensive in many markets.

And consumers have become far more sophisticated about comparing restaurant prices with every other way they can obtain a meal.

At the same time, restaurant demand remains enormous. The industry is projected to reach $1.55 trillion in sales in 2026, while restaurant operators continue to face persistent traffic and profitability challenges.

So I would not bet on a simple race to the bottom.

I would bet on something more powerful:

A race to create the most compelling value.

The restaurants that win will understand that price is only one component of value—and that profitable value must be engineered from the supply chain all the way to the consumer's table.

Don't overreach.

The future of restaurant marketing does not look like yesterday.

It looks like convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization—built on better mathematics.

Are your food marketing ideations creating tomorrow's restaurant customer, or simply trying to win back yesterday's?

Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?

Email Steve Johnson at Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit Foodservice Solutions® on social media.

Amazon Food Finally Finds Its “Day 1”: The Grocery Giant Learns That Saving Money May Be Its Most Powerful Food Message

2026-09-09T00:09:00.000-07:00

For years, Amazon has talked about food through the language of selection, convenience, technology and speed.

Now something important is changing, according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Amazon appears to be discovering that its most powerful food message may be much simpler:

Save money on Amazon.

That is a potentially important strategic shift because food is different from virtually every other category Amazon sells. Consumers buy groceries frequently, compare prices constantly and have a strong memory for what milk, bananas, chicken, eggs, snacks and other everyday staples cost.

And Amazon now has something it did not have when it purchased Whole Foods Market nine years ago: a much clearer food value proposition connected to the enormous Amazon ecosystem.

In my view, it looks as if “Day 1” for Amazon food took four or five years to actually arrive.

Actually, the timeline is even more revealing.

Amazon announced its acquisition of Whole Foods Market on June 16, 2017, for approximately $13.7 billion, and completed the acquisition on August 28, 2017.

That means Amazon has now owned Whole Foods for roughly nine years.

So the question isn't whether Amazon has had enough time to figure out grocery.

The question is whether Amazon has finally figured out what it wants grocery to mean to the consumer.

And that answer increasingly appears to be:

Food + Value + Convenience + Delivery + Amazon.

The Amazon food message is getting much clearer

The material Amazon is publishing in 2026 is noticeably different from the old Amazon grocery story.

Amazon is increasingly talking about:

· everyday low prices

· competitive prices

· meeting or beating major retailers

· Prime savings

· grocery deals

· free Same-Day Delivery on qualifying orders

· putting groceries into the same cart as everything else

· saving money through Prime

· and making grocery shopping more affordable.

Amazon now says that when customers shop groceries, they will find everyday low prices with prices that “meet or beat” other major retailers.

That is not just a grocery message.

It is an Amazon message.

Amazon is effectively saying:

You already come to Amazon to save money and get convenience. Why shouldn't you buy your food here, too?

That is much more powerful than simply saying, “We deliver groceries.”

Whole Foods may finally become part of the price story

This is where the 2017 acquisition becomes fascinating.

When Amazon bought Whole Foods, the companies immediately announced that they wanted to make high-quality natural and organic food more affordable. Amazon and Whole Foods also began lowering prices on selected grocery staples after the acquisition closed.

But almost a decade later, Amazon is now making competitive pricing a much more visible part of its overall grocery strategy.

Whole Foods itself now prominently markets:

· Prime member deals

· 30+ exclusive deals each week

· an additional 10% off sale items for Prime members

· “Low Price” signs on popular items

· 365 by Whole Foods Market value products

· Tuesday and Friday food savings

· and $0 grocery delivery fees for qualifying Prime members using its grocery-delivery subscription.

So I have a question for Amazon:

Is Whole Foods finally going to become Amazon's competitive-price grocery weapon?

Not inexpensive food.

Not cheap food.

Competitive food.

There is a significant difference.

Whole Foods doesn't need to become Aldi.

It doesn't need to become Walmart.

It doesn't even need to abandon its natural-and-organic positioning.

But Amazon can use its enormous purchasing power, data, Prime ecosystem, private brands, digital pricing capabilities and logistics network to make Whole Foods increasingly credible when the consumer asks:

“Where can I get the food I want without overpaying?”

That would be a very different Whole Foods value proposition than the one consumers carried around for decades.

Amazon has discovered that food can drive the delivery business

This may be the biggest insight in Amazon's new grocery strategy.

Amazon isn't merely using delivery to sell groceries.

Groceries may be helping Amazon make its delivery network more valuable.

Consider the numbers.

Amazon says its grocery business generated more than $150 billion in gross sales in 2025, making it the second-largest grocer in the United States.

Amazon also says that in 2025 it delivered more than 13 billion items worldwide the same or next day. In the United States, Prime members received more than 8 billion such items, with groceries and everyday essentials representing half of the total.

Think about what that means.

Food isn't necessarily just another category Amazon delivers.

Food can help create the frequency that makes the entire delivery network more productive.

Consumers don't buy a television every week.

They don't buy a laptop every week.

They don't buy a vacuum cleaner every week.

But they buy food constantly.

That makes grocery one of the most powerful potential frequency generators in retail.

Then Amazon put perishables into the same cart

This may be the breakthrough Amazon was looking for.

In 2025, Amazon began putting thousands of fresh grocery products—including produce, meat, seafood, dairy, baked goods and frozen foods—into its Same-Day Delivery network.

By August 2025, the service had reached more than 1,000 cities and towns, with Amazon planning to expand to more than 2,300.

By 2026, Amazon says fresh grocery Same-Day Delivery is available in more than 2,300 U.S. cities and towns.

But the really interesting statistic isn't geographic coverage.

It is basket behavior.

Amazon says customers ordering perishables through Same-Day Delivery build larger baskets, adding nearly three times as many items and spending more than 80% more than customers who don't purchase perishables.

That's enormous.

It suggests Amazon isn't simply acquiring grocery customers.

Grocery may be increasing the economic value of the Amazon customer.

And Amazon says perishables sales through the Same-Day network have grown more than 40 times since their introduction in early 2025. Fresh groceries now represent nine of the top 10 most-ordered items for Same-Day Delivery where the service is available.

That is what I call a Grocerant wake-up call.

Food may be Amazon's new traffic engine

Here's the strategic possibility I see.

Amazon has historically trained consumers to think:

“I need something. I'll get it on Amazon.”

Now Amazon wants consumers to think:

“I need food. I'll get it on Amazon.”

That is a much bigger behavioral opportunity.

If Amazon can get a household to order:

· bananas

· milk

· chicken

· bread

· snacks

· frozen foods

· household products

· paper towels

· toothpaste

in the same cart, Amazon doesn't have to convince the consumer to make a separate grocery trip.

It is collapsing shopping missions.

That is extraordinarily important.

Amazon itself describes the proposition as bringing fresh groceries together with millions of everyday items in a single, fast order.

The consumer isn't thinking about Amazon's fulfillment architecture.

The consumer is thinking:

“I need these 17 things.”

Amazon's job is to make the answer:

“Put them all in one cart.”

But can Amazon actually make money doing this?

This is the question that shouldn't get lost in the excitement.

Revenue is not profit.

A bigger grocery basket is not automatically a better grocery business.

Perishables introduce costs Amazon doesn't encounter with a box of books or electronics.

Fresh food requires:

· temperature control

· specialized storage

· shrink management

· quality inspection

· labor-intensive picking

· careful packaging

· substitutions and refunds

· tighter delivery windows

· spoilage management

· and a much greater risk of customer dissatisfaction.

Amazon says its perishables operation uses ambient, cooled and frozen temperature zones, with specialized facilities and quality-control procedures. It also says every perishable item undergoes a six-sided check for characteristics such as ripeness, discoloration, wilting, mold and bruising.

That's impressive operationally.

But it costs money.

The bigger question is whether Amazon can spread those costs across a much larger basket.

And that is where Amazon's model gets interesting.

If a customer orders only a $7 bag of strawberries, delivery economics can be ugly.

If that same customer orders strawberries, milk, chicken, bread, cereal, frozen pizza, paper towels and toothpaste, the economics become considerably more attractive.

The basket is the business.

Amazon may be redefining what “grocery delivery” means

Traditional grocery delivery often asks:

“How do we deliver a grocery order profitably?”

Amazon is asking a different question:

“How do we make grocery part of an already enormous delivery ecosystem?”

That is a much bigger idea.

Amazon says more than half of the customers who try fresh grocery delivery return within 30 days.

And Amazon's own 2026 data says monthly active perishables customers grew more than 50% during the first part of the year, while Same-Day orders containing perishables averaged more than three times the units of nonperishable Same-Day orders.

Those aren't simply grocery metrics.

They are customer-frequency metrics.

And frequency is one of the most valuable assets in retail.

The Whole Foods question becomes even more important

This brings me back to Whole Foods.

Amazon has more than 550 Whole Foods stores, with another 100 planned over the next several years.

Amazon also announced in 2026 that it was closing its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores and converting various locations to Whole Foods Market stores.

That suggests something important.

Amazon appears to have stopped trying to create an entirely separate physical grocery identity and is increasingly building around Whole Foods + Amazon + delivery + Prime + value.

Now the strategic question becomes:

Can Amazon make Whole Foods competitive enough on price to become a mainstream weekly grocery destination?

The company is already moving in that direction.

But the opportunity is much larger than another 10% discount.

Amazon could potentially make price transparency itself part of the Whole Foods brand.

Imagine a consumer knowing that Amazon is constantly comparing prices, adjusting promotions and using its enormous digital platform to demonstrate value.

That could change the psychological equation of shopping Whole Foods.

The Amazon food strategy is finally beginning to look like Amazon

For years, Amazon's grocery initiatives often looked like separate experiments:

Amazon Fresh.

Whole Foods.

Amazon Go.

Prime grocery delivery.

Local grocery partners.

Fresh delivery.

Same-Day Delivery.

Now the pieces are starting to look less like separate businesses and more like one Amazon food ecosystem.

And that is why I say:

Amazon's “Day 1” for food may have taken four or five years to actually arrive.

The irony is that Amazon has been in food for much longer than five years.

But the Amazon food proposition—selection + value + Prime + convenience + delivery + one cart—is only now becoming clear.

The Grocerant Guru® Bottom Line

Amazon doesn't need to beat every grocery store at everything.

It needs to make the consumer believe:

“I can save money, get what I want, get it quickly and avoid another shopping trip.”

That is an extremely powerful proposition.

And the grocery industry should pay attention because Amazon is no longer asking consumers to change where they shop.

It is asking them to change how they shop.

The old grocery trip was:

Go to the store → find the food → check out → drive home.

The Amazon model is increasingly:

Think about what you need → put everything in one cart → save money → get it delivered.

That's not merely grocery delivery.

That's a new food-shopping operating system.

And Amazon finally appears to understand that the strongest marketing message isn't necessarily:

“We have fresh food.”

It is:

“Save money on Amazon—and get your food while you're at it.”

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Food could become Amazon's frequency engine.

The strategic value of groceries isn't simply grocery revenue. It is the frequency of grocery purchasing that can bring consumers back to Amazon repeatedly—and increase the size of the entire Amazon basket.

2. Whole Foods' next chapter should be about competitive value.

Amazon bought Whole Foods on August 28, 2017. Nearly nine years later, Amazon has the technology, Prime membership, data and logistics infrastructure to make competitive pricing a much more visible part of the Whole Foods proposition. The question is no longer whether Whole Foods can be more competitive on price. The question is how aggressively Amazon wants to make that happen.

3. The real Amazon grocery KPI may be profit per delivery route—not profit per grocery order.

If groceries increase basket size, delivery frequency and utilization of Amazon's logistics network, Amazon can potentially justify food economics that look less attractive when viewed in isolation. The grocery order doesn't have to carry the entire economic burden if grocery makes the entire Amazon ecosystem more productive.

My prediction as the Grocerant Guru®: Amazon's next great food battle won't be about whether it can deliver groceries. It already can. The battle will be whether Amazon can convince millions of consumers that Amazon is one of the places they should check first when they want both food and value.

That is when Amazon food stops being an experiment—and starts becoming a habit.

7-Eleven’s BiG Flavor Bar: When More Flavor Could Mean Less Convenience

2026-09-08T00:08:00.000-07:00

The Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson examines why 7-Eleven may have created a customer-experience idea that looks delicious on the marketing board—but could create a service bottleneck in the real world.

There is an old foodservice lesson that convenience retailers sometimes forget:

Customers don't go to a convenience store because they want more things to do. They go because they want fewer things to do.

That is why I believe 7-Eleven's new BiG Flavor Bar™ could become a classic example of a good food idea that is operationally in conflict with the very word convenience.

7-Eleven launched the BiG Flavor Bar on September 3, 2026, at participating 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes stores. The station allows customers to customize foods with sauces, condiments and crunchy toppings. The initial sauce lineup includes spicy teriyaki, garlic parmesan, honey mustard, honey garlic, sweet chili, buttermilk ranch and smoked-black-pepper BBQ.

On paper, this sounds terrific.

In practice, however, I see a potentially significant problem:

Every additional customer decision—and every additional physical step—can add friction to a business whose competitive advantage is built around speed.

The BiG Flavor Bar creates a second line

Consider the typical 7-Eleven food mission.

A customer walks in.

They select a Big Bite hot dog, pizza slice, sandwich, roller-grill item or snack.

They pay.

They leave.

That is the convenience-store foodservice proposition.

Now introduce a flavor station.

The customer must potentially:

1. Decide whether to customize.

2. Decide which sauce to use.

3. Find the sauce.

4. Determine how much to apply.

5. Apply it.

6. Decide whether to add another sauce.

7. Choose a topping.

8. Apply the topping.

9. Potentially return for another topping.

10. Clean up or navigate around another customer doing the same thing.

That is no longer simply buying food.

It is becoming building food.

And there is a huge difference between those two experiences.

7-Eleven is explicitly promoting the idea that customers can "Top It. Sauce It. Mix It. Max It." It even provides a secret menu of combinations such as Garlic Parm Loaded Tots and other multi-sauce creations.

That is excellent engagement marketing.

But engagement and throughput are not always friends.

The Paradox of Choice walks right into the BiG Flavor Bar

This is where Barry Schwartz's The Paradox of Choice becomes particularly relevant.

Schwartz's famous discussion of the jam experiment demonstrated something counterintuitive: more choice can attract attention while simultaneously making people less likely to make a purchase.

In the well-known experiment, consumers encountered either six or 24 varieties of jam. The larger assortment attracted more attention, but among those who stopped, 30% purchased when six choices were presented versus only 3% when 24 were displayed. Schwartz used the research to illustrate how excessive choice can create decision difficulty rather than freedom.

There is an important caveat here.

The "paradox of choice" is not a universal law saying that more choices always reduce sales. Later research has found that choice-overload effects depend on factors such as complexity, the consumer's preferences and how difficult the decision is.

But that actually makes the BiG Flavor Bar question more interesting.

Because the problem isn't simply seven sauces.

The problem is the combination of sauces + toppings + foods + combinations + personal experimentation + other customers waiting behind you.

Seven sauces can quickly become dozens of perceived combinations.

And the consumer doesn't necessarily see seven choices.

They see:

"Should I put ranch on this?"

"Maybe garlic parmesan?"

"What about sweet chili?"

"Could I mix two?"

"What topping goes with that?"

The choice architecture has changed.

Convenience stores are winning with food because convenience still matters

This is where 7-Eleven needs to be particularly careful.

The convenience-store food business has become increasingly sophisticated.

CSP's 2026 State of Foodservice research found that 93% of surveyed convenience retailers make food on-site, while 88% offer dispensed beverages and 85% offer packaged foods. Foodservice is increasingly being treated as a growth engine rather than merely an add-on to gasoline and packaged goods.

And consumers are increasingly treating retail food as a legitimate alternative to restaurants.

FMI reported in 2025 that the share of consumers using deli-prepared foods instead of restaurant meals had more than doubled—from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. More than half of Americans, 53%, were taking a hybrid approach to meals, combining deli-prepared foods with food from their own kitchens.

That means convenience-store operators are no longer simply competing against other convenience stores.

They are competing with:

· QSRs

· fast casual

· supermarkets

· restaurants

· delivery

· prepared-food retailers

· and increasingly, the consumer's own kitchen.

The winner is increasingly the operator that makes eating easy.

Speed is not an old-fashioned metric

The 2025 American Customer Satisfaction Index convenience-store study provides a particularly important warning.

Customers gave convenience stores an 83 for store hours, 82 for location and 79 for speed of checkout. Hot-food quality and freshness scored 80.

Those numbers tell me something important.

Speed hasn't become irrelevant because food quality has improved.

It remains part of the value proposition.

Imagine a customer buying a hot dog during a five-minute stop.

Customer A gets the hot dog, pays and leaves.

Customer B gets the hot dog, walks to the BiG Flavor Bar, studies the choices, waits behind another customer, adds two sauces and crunchy onions, then returns toward the checkout area.

The difference might only be 20 or 30 seconds.

But multiply that across dozens or hundreds of transactions.

An illustrative throughput example

Suppose a store processes 60 food-related transactions during a busy hour.

If customization adds an average of only 20 seconds of customer activity to each transaction, that's:

60 × 20 seconds = 1,200 seconds

That's 20 minutes of additional customer activity per hour.

If the incremental activity is 30 seconds, it becomes 30 minutes.

That doesn't mean every BiG Flavor Bar transaction will take that long. It won't.

The point is that small increments of friction become operationally meaningful at scale.

And the biggest danger isn't necessarily the customer using the station.

It is the customer waiting behind the customer using the station.

The hidden problem: customer-created variability

Foodservice operators spend enormous amounts of money trying to eliminate variability.

Standard recipes.

Standard portions.

Standard assembly.

Standard cooking procedures.

Standard packaging.

Standard service.

Why?

Because variability makes labor, food cost, quality control and throughput harder to manage.

The BiG Flavor Bar introduces a new variable:

the customer becomes part of the assembly line.

One customer puts on a little ranch.

Another floods the product with three sauces.

Another wants five toppings.

Another doesn't know what anything tastes like.

Another wants to create the "secret menu" combination.

Another customer simply wants ketchup.

Now add a family with two or three people.

The station becomes a miniature customization counter.

That can be fun.

It can also become a bottleneck.

And then there is the "what should I choose?" problem

This is where 7-Eleven's own secret menu presents an interesting contradiction.

The company wants customers to become "flavor creators."

But most convenience customers aren't necessarily looking to become chefs.

They are looking for dinner.

They are looking for lunch.

They are looking for a snack.

They are looking for something to eat on the way somewhere else.

That distinction matters.

The 2025 Technomic C-Store Food research specifically examines consumer motivations and decision drivers for prepared foods, including speed, value, taste and brand trust.

So I would ask 7-Eleven a simple question:

Is the BiG Flavor Bar solving a consumer problem—or creating a new decision consumers didn't know they had?

The best customization is invisible

There is another way to achieve the same objective.

Instead of saying:

"Here are seven sauces. You figure it out."

7-Eleven could say:

"Try these three."

For example:

Classic:
Big Bite + ketchup + mustard

Sweet Heat:
Big Bite + Sweet Chili + crispy onions

Garlic Parm:
Tots + garlic parmesan + crispy garlic

Now the customer can simply choose.

Want to customize further?

Absolutely.

But the retailer has created a default path.

That's important because choice architecture can reduce the mental work required to make a decision.

The customer gets personalization without having to become a flavor strategist.

The 2026 foodservice battlefield is about frictionless food

Circana's latest foodservice analysis found that U.S. foodservice traffic declined just 0.3% in 2025, while consumer spending increased, helped by higher average checks. Circana also reports that convenience-driven delivery is growing and projects delivery and on-premises traffic to continue growing through 2028.

Meanwhile, prepared food continues to be an important competitive weapon for convenience stores. CSP's 2026 research found that retailers have been able to grow or maintain food sales in part through continually refreshed prepared-food programs.

That tells me the strategic opportunity for 7-Eleven isn't simply:

"Give customers more choices."

It is:

"Give customers better food with less effort."

Those are very different strategies.

The BiG Flavor Bar could still work—but it needs guardrails

I am not suggesting 7-Eleven eliminate it.

Quite the opposite.

There is a potentially powerful idea here.

Sauces have high perceived flavor impact.

Toppings create visual appeal.

Customization can create social-media content.

Secret menus can generate trial.

And consumers increasingly expect foodservice operators to offer personalization.

The mistake would be allowing personalization to become operational chaos.

The BiG Flavor Bar needs to be engineered around throughput, not simply designed around flavor.

That means measuring:

· average time spent at the station;

· queue formation;

· transactions per minute;

· sauce usage per transaction;

· topping usage;

· waste;

· replenishment frequency;

· cleanliness;

· employee intervention;

· and, most importantly, whether customized transactions actually produce higher sales or repeat visits.

If customers love the station but stores become slower, dirtier and more difficult to operate, 7-Eleven has created a marketing success and an operational problem.

The Grocerant Guru® Bottom Line

7-Eleven deserves credit for recognizing the growing importance of fresh, prepared food and customization.

But here is the paradox:

The more 7-Eleven asks customers to participate in preparing their food, the less "convenience" the experience may become.

The company doesn't need to eliminate choice.

It needs to curate choice.

Barry Schwartz's lesson isn't that consumers hate choices.

It's that more choices can require more mental work—and more mental work can become friction.

In a supermarket, that may be tolerable.

In a restaurant, it can be managed.

At a convenience store, where the brand promise is embedded in the name itself, convenience has to win.

The BiG Flavor Bar should make food better.

It should not make getting food harder.

Three Insights from the Grocerant Guru®

1. Don't confuse customization with convenience.
Consumers increasingly want food customized to their preferences, but the retailer—not the customer—should do as much of the work as possible. The winning formula is personalization without participation.

2. Turn the seven sauces into three signature solutions.
Give customers three highly visible recommended combinations and let them customize beyond those defaults. That preserves discovery while reducing decision time and potentially preventing the "What do I put on this?" bottleneck.

3. Measure the line, not just the likes.
7-Eleven should track the BiG Flavor Bar like a foodservice production system: transaction time, throughput, abandonment, repeat purchase, waste, labor intervention and customer satisfaction. If the flavor bar creates excitement but slows the food operation, the bar is eating into the very convenience equity 7-Eleven is trying to monetize.

The Grocerant Guru®'s final thought:
In 2026, foodservice consumers don't necessarily need more choices—they need better choices, faster. The future belongs to retailers that can make food feel personally made without making customers do the making.