Monday, October 2, 2017

Fast Casual Fame too Flame


Harkin back with me to 2012 when the team at Tacoma, WA foodservice consultancy Foodservice Solutions® identified, quantified, and qualified the undercurrents in food consumer migration patterns. At the time our Grocerant Guru® outlined the evolving consumer patterns while speaking at both the NRA Show and MUFSO. 
Johnson stated “Five years from now restaurant chain leaders will understand that packaging advances help create new points of non-traditional food distribution and have empowered customer choice. Well here we are five years later and Pie Five, a pioneer of the fast-casual pizza market, is shifting away from its roots after posting a 16.2% drop in same-store sales for the fourth quarter ended.  Pie Five Pizza on a two-year has a view, cumulative same-store sales that are down more than 26 percent.
Freshii recently announced that it is closing 18 units; Wahlberg’s Wahlburger’s is reportedly in trouble. Applebee’s and IHOP are closing 160 units.  Baja Sol Tortilla Grill closed all 7 locations are you getting the point.  Consumer food consumption patterns have evolved.
If you’re a restaurant doing what you have always done and doing it in the same way you growth may very well be stifled at best.  At worse you could end up looking like Ruby Tuesday selling off locations and having the new owners converting the location to a new brand or non-food location.
Consumers are dynamic not static and restaurant brands must be as well.  If your brand looks more like yesterday than tomorrow you just might want to consider repositioning within the grocerant niche.  If your waiting for the foodservice trade magazines to inform when to do so you just might be five years late. 

Are you Looking A Customer Ahead? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success.


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