Fresh Prepared Food with Portability: Is What’s for Dinner.

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Do you have time to eat, time for dinner or even time forcooking at home today?If you are"ready-2-eat" there is a very good chance you are looking for freshprepared multi-flavor, multi-ethnic Grocerant meal components. Heat-N-eat andready-2eat fresh prepared food with portability is driving retail food successin 2012. Where are you shopping for you food today is not the same place yourmother was nor is the meal prepared the same way.As long asmulti-generational family's gather for meals together, the demand for moredivergent flavors continues to permeate. Grocerant mix and match bundled mealcomponent offerings allow for increased family integration, understanding andacceptance in less time without a required cook from scratch skill set.In the 1940'scooking from scratch was the normal. The average home cooked meal took 150minutes to prepare. Everyone sat down at the table and enjoyed it or not butthey all ate the same thing. Today's "home cooked meal" takes onaverage less than 30 minutes to prepared. In most cases at least two differententrées are served.The average timespent inside a McDonalds in the 2,000 was 11 minutes. Today 65+ percent of allMcDonald's food is sold via the drive-thru. U.S. fast-food chains areincreasingly remodeling restaurants in an effort to garner additionaldrive-thru customers inside and increase sales, simple because the drive-thrucan't hold all the cars.According to the New York Times Magazine - McDonalds CameBack Bigger Than Ever McDonald's Corp.saw a 50% increase in sales during the first quarter of 2012 after opening aremodeled restaurant in Riverside, California, that features a new décor, solarpanels on the carport, and ceiling panels that contain L.E.D. lights. Duringthe first 12 months, sales at this restaurant increased 20% overall. Walgreens is creating and bundlingdistinctive differentiated food consumable's as an entity with identity by day part in a mix and match meal componentformat in select urban setting targeted at both the office worker for lunch andmeal components for them to take home for the family dinner. It is a successfulprogram. With over 7,550 units operating in the United States Walgreens has thepotential to become the most disruptive force in food retailing in 50 years.Walgreens with its modular mid-sized foot-print is garnering customers fromboth restaurants and grocery stores.Consumers Want Easy to Prepare MealsThe grocerant niche continues to grow with companies like Central Market,Whole Foods, Wegmans and 7 Eleven entering the fresh prepared better for youspace. Meal time is now becoming a time of convenient meal participation,with differentiation and individualization for the entire family.Safeway with its lifestyle stores are heading in the right direction howeverthe stores are so large consumers are forced to spend more time in them thanthey want.More often thannot the multi-generational family today is multi-ethnic as well. Creating ademand for more varied flavors and additional cooking skill set that is simplynot there. Grocery stores, Convenience Stores, Restaurants and Chain DrugStores are all selling ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food. Is yourfocus family dinning? Are you selling meals or meal components for Take-Out, delivery or Take-Away?Lacking the skillset to prepared fresh prepared multi-ethnic meal components at home coupledwith the time it takes to prepared a home cooked meal it is clear the buyinghabits of consumers will continue to evolve. Bundling mix and match mealcomponents into a meal is one key driver within the grocerant niche. Given thatmost American family are comprised of multi-cultural background. The fight forshare of stomach will only intensify.Restaurants menu'sat one time were very narrow in focus and have moved more upscale with offerings such as Oriental; Chicken Salad,Southwest Chicken Salad, along with a chef salads. Grocery stores on the otherhand are expected to sell complete lines of reay-2-eat multi-ethnic food. Thatplaces higher expectations on grocers than restaurants or a company likeWalgreens. Walgreens might just be in the perfect spot to expand fresh preparedfood offerings capturing customers from both restaurants and supermarkets.Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® a Tacoma, WA based retail foodserviceconsultancy has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. For product orbrand positioning assistance contact Steven A. Johnson or the Grocerant LinkedIn page or on Facebook at Steven Johnson, BING / GOOGLE: StevenJohnson Grocerants or Grocerant on Twitter