Welcome to The Lempert Report LIVE
Welcome to The Lempert Report LIVE
Welcome to the Lempert Report LIVE. Today we take a look at GreenWise, Walmart's most coveted shoppers. Yelps 2023 Food Forecast. Tinned Fish, is it a fad or is it a trend? And Florida of all places is leading the way in eatertainment. Now, just a reminder, check out Food News Today on SupermarketGuru.com for the m ost, up t o t he m inute newsfeed courtesy of our partnership with Cision. There's a terrific analysis of how the Ukraine-Russia War is having a global impact on the charcoal market and the growing popularity and new innovations in barbecue and how they're gonna be affected. Check it out. Let's get started. So, Sally, when we take a look at one of the biggest trends that you and I have been talking about for a number of years, we're starting to see smaller stores, smaller supermarkets. Tell us about what Publix is doing with GreenWise.
Sally:Well, Phil, they're not doing it in Tennessee, and I tell you I'm very disappointed in that. But they are in Florida. They have, in Florida and one in Birmingham, Alabama. These are eight alternative stores for pubs that are only 25,000 square feet. So it's a much smaller store. It's much more focused on organic. The health conscious shopper. They focus on what's called experience zones. So you can come to the store and you can taste wines while you shop or you can taste smoke sausages. They have different culinary experiences that they'll showcase in there.
Phil:So they're really cool. Lemme just interrupt you for a second. So that's what Bob Mariano did in Chicago with Mariano's. Yes. He was one of the first retailers that you could grab a glass of wine and go shopping. And, you know, at the time it was this huge hit in Chicago and it actually created Mariano's being the big pickup dating place in Chicago.
Sally:Yes, it sounds very similar to that. And I'm not sure why, what the strategy is for Publix, and maybe you have some thoughts on this, but even though these stores are really succeeding and they're showing that people are spending more time in a smaller format store than they are a larger format store, they are increasing their sales faster than the larger format stores. But for some reason, Publix doesn't have plans to really expand this format.
Phil:I know. And it's so weird cuz Publix is not alone. So if I look at Hy-vee, they've got a bunch of different smaller formats. If I look at Schnooks, they've got smaller formats. If I look at other stores like Target, Meier, they've all tried it. And I am shocked, that it hasn't rolled out because when you do look at the numbers, you've got less overhead, you've got less employees that are out there, all that stuff. So it just makes sense. And for me personally, I don't know about you, but for me personally, I like a smaller store. And Placer AI found that in 2001, sorry, September, 2022, compared to September, 2021, the Green Wise stores in Florida had foot traffic rise by 6.4%. Now that's significant. And the monthly visits to the GreenWise locations in Florida up by double digits in June, July, and August. So it's clear to me that this is a format that needs to be really focused on and and tuned up because also what they can do is they can stretch out their footprint to wider geography. They don't have to get, you know, as big of a store. And in fact, if I look at Hy-Vee, Hy-Vee built a downtown Des Moines[store] right across from the courthouse. I visited there once, right when it opened, and it was fabulous. And they've turned that into a health market store because it's more urban, it's younger people, they want exactly what you describe the GreenWise is doing. So talking about some retail trends, there's a new report that just came out about Walmart, that not only Walmart has an 8.2% increase over last year, and the shopper visits have increased 2.1%, their e-commerce sales rep, 16%. But according to John David Rainey, who's the executive vice president and CFO of Walmart, what he said is three quarters get this, three quarters of the share gain are coming from those shoppers who have a hundred thousand dollars in income or more. So I guess the question is Walmart now getting more upscale?
Sally:Well, we'll have to see, Phil, you know, if Walmart can hold onto these customers as inflation settles down if prices do go down, you know, a re the products that they a re offering there at Walmart, e nough to keep that higher income shopper. But what the good news is i s for Walmart is that they are seeing such an increase in their app downloads and their digital engagement. And you know, for me, Phil, that is where t heir p ro, that's probably where they're getting a lot of these new customers is, you know, they're just making it easy to find things online and making it easy to get good deals and, and offering a variety online.
Phil:And also, you know, you might not want to go into a Walmart store but shopping on Walmart or being a Walmart plus member you can get all those benefits without having to go into the store.
Sally:Absolutely. Those are good benefits that they have.
Phil:So 2023, it's time that we're starting to look at all these food trends that are coming out. Ours is gonna come out, in a few weeks from now. But Yelp does something interesting. What they do is they look at the millions of searchers to find the words, the phrases and the businesses that saw a significant increase between 2021 and 2022 across different categories. So I'm just gonna throw some of these out and I want reaction to it. Experiential dining, that was up significantly, but underwater restaurant searches we're up 263%.
Sally:Yes. I find this fascinating. I wanna know more. I wanna know how many of these there are. What I do know, Phil, is that we do have one here in Nashville. We are one of You're kidding. One. Yes. And it's called the Aquarium Restaurant. And it's just a couple of miles down the road from my house at the Opry Mills Mall, right by where they have the Grand Ole Opry and a lot of tourist attractions. But this is a, this is an experience, a restaurant experience where you are surrounded by an aquarium and it's really cool. The food's not amazing, but it is a cool experience.
Phil:So you have to go into the fish tank and get a fresh fish and have t hem cook it for you. O k. Slushy drinks are up 7 7% and it's not just s lushies for kids, but s lushies for adults, pickle flavored foods up 5 5% oxtails which is, you know the t ail of a cow, basically u p 4 5%. What of these, what do y ou think are f ads versus trends?
Sally:Oh, fads versus trends. You know, we've seen pickled flavored foods before. I know we've seen that before and we've seen dirty sodas, Hojicha, and I'm not sure if I'm saying it correctly, as a kind of Japanese green tea that is brewed a little bit differently than regular green tea. We have seen a lot of tea trends over the past few years, so that one sounds interesting to me. What I really found, fun in here, I think about when the Cronut was really popular or any kind of like galaxy pastries or you know, we always have some sort of pastry that is a big trend it seems and does well on TikTok. But at the Lafayette Bakery they have got something called the Supreme, which is a cream filled croissant. Now that sounds amazing to me.
Phil:See, you know, a croissant, a really good croissant, you know, is full of butter and really flaky. And then so you take that butter, you're really indulging the croissant, and then you stuff it full of cream. It's probably enough to eat for, you know, a week.
Sally:Not healthy.
Phil:Talking about trends, more trends for 2023. This one is interesting to me. It's about tinned fish. And when I think of tinned fish, you know, I'll think of sardines, I'll think of tuna fish and, and things like that. But obviously it's going a lot bigger than just that. Sardines are hot in sales, anchovies are hot, mackerel is hot. What do you think about tin fish? You gonna buy some tinned fish?
Sally:Yes. I mean, I have mixed thoughts on this. You know, I am a tinned fish eater. I like sardines, I like tuna and there are a lot of different varieties with different spices you can get in them in the store that I think people are just not aware of. But one of the reasons I see this becoming a big trend is that we have really gotten focused on our mental wellbeing, and we've gotten focused on what types of foods we can eat to take care of ourselves mentally. And, that being said, tinned f ish, these types of fish are generally very high in omega threes. They a re very good for our mental wellbeing and they're affordable. So you're not spending a ton of money getting that fish intake by going a nd spending loads amount of money on seafood, on fresh seafood. Now the seacuterie boards, I'm not sure I'm ready to open up tinned fish and put it on a board and serve it to my gu ests. I do n't k n ow i f they're ready for that either.
Phil:So, you know, let's go back into the supermarket aisles. I think that I agree with everything that you've said from a health standpoint, from a cost standpoint, I don't think that supermarkets have woken up to the opportunity yet. I look at those shelves that have the sardines and anchovies and tuna fish, they're really boring. I mean, there's no merchandising going on there whatsoever. And for the most part, you know, they're, they're like this, they're not even facing you where you can see what's on the front of the package. So if in fact, this is gonna gonna become a trend, and I agree with you, I think it, it can, and it should be supermarkets, wake up, learn how to merchandise tin fish and also, you know, get your registered dietitians involved. Do some more recipes with them. Don't just think of, you know, as sardine is something, you know, that, that, you know, you're gonna put either on a sandwich or on a salad or something. There's a lot more to do with it. But I think that's gonna be the biggest challenge. How do you merchandise these shallow flat cans in a way that's appetizing. And also, let's not forget about sampling. Now that sampling is back in supermarkets, you know, sample this stuff and you can increase sales. Talking about increasing sales and sampling, you know, eatertainment is the new word. A couple years ago it was edutainment, to educate and entertain at the same time. Now it's eating and entertaining and there's a whole bunch of new concepts that Sally, you found. Let's start with what's going on in Florida first, and then we can go to other parts of the country because some of these are cool and some of them are really strange.
Sally:Yes. I mean there are some opening up in Florida or that have already opened up. There's one called Sports and Social that is a 20,000 square foot dining and entertainment venue. That's going to be opening up in the Miami World Center. Now at this place, you can play ski ball, you can play foosball, you can get in on the arcade games. There's shuffleboard, there's beer pong. I know a lot of the people who went to college are probably gonna enjoy that. There's also one called the Putt Shack, a 27,000 square foot venue that is also opening up in Miami. That features a 3 x 9 hole competitive neon lit mini golf course. So we're seeing a lot of more socializing in these venues and then playing games.
Phil:Yeah. And you know, for me, when I go through this list, another one in Orlando is Camp Pickle. It's not about pickles. I'm sure they serve'em, but it's a planned pickleball themed complex. You know, this is Chuck E Cheeses all over again. That's all. It's, you know, where, you know, instead of the parents going there and having the kids have Chuck E Cheese and, you know, pizza and video games they've upped. So ACEs Eat, serve in Denver, Colorado is a ping pong hall, 10 tables of ping pong. And I guess the idea is more socialization than food. I think you could have, you know, some food and maybe you're burning off the calories, so you're gonna eat more, but this takes a lot of space for restaurant to do. And especially as we're having problems with labor, rents are going up. I question what's gonna happen here. There's Kaiser Tiger in Chicago. It's a two level beer hall. They have curling in the winter and bocce ball in the summer, and the menus filled with German delicacies. I'm sorry, BCI Ball is Italian. You're missing it. It can't be German delicacies. It's BCI ball here. And now here in LA they've got drag bingo complete with prizes, karaoke and live music. Urban putt in San Francisco and Denver, similar to what you describe with a multi hole golf course. 14 hole course in San Francisco. And Denver has two nine ones. I like this one. Foreign cinema, this is in San Francisco, and what they're doing is they're projecting 35 millimeter movies on a back wall while you're sitting there doing it. I like that. I've seen that in a lot of places. I've seen it in Palm Springs, I've seen it in Santa Monica. Right downstairs from our office, there's a great Italian restaurant called Via Venado and what they do at night, because now there's outdoor seating is they're playing old, you know, Italian movies on, on the side of the wall. And I think that that's, you know, really cool. There's another one, Lula Lounge and Toronto that gives private Latin dance lessons. The dressing room Bistro and Bar, by CanCan in Seattle, they've got zombie cheerleaders return. That's a show that, that they put on. The list goes on and on and, paint and pour in New York has professional painting instruction, art supplies, and an open bar with top shelf signature cocktails. This is just for adults. It's not like, paint Me Mine where it's kids, it's adults that go there and paint and it's, you know, prefe, you can drink all you want.
Sally:Yes. And, you know, and speaking of drinking, as we look at this, these younger generations come up, they are not drinking as much alcohol as the older generations are. And we're seeing mocktails as a big trend. We just, you know, saw that with the Yelp trends and, and that is continuing to happen. And so, you know, maybe the idea is that these younger generations, they prefer when they go out to drink less and to engage in some sort of activity more.
Phil:Yeah. And especially since the pandemic. Being able to socialize more and have a relationship and so on. But I think you can drink and socialize well. The CMA and SIMA hosted experts from Kantar to discuss determining the right product assortment online. Check out this fantastic example of the coffee category, where decision hierarchies are VERY different in-store vs. online. Members of the CMA can access the full replay of the webinar in the Resource Library, non-members can visit catman.global to contact the association about membership. Let's take a look.
Kantar:In many cases you can products potentially what you nationally, what we've identified here is a great opportunity where, how to identify those opportunities. I, it's really about understanding the consumer and the mission and the decisions and the hierarchies that they encounter both in store and online's fundamentally different how we shop different channels. The physical and space we've identified here are really good example that we've seen in the marketplace where you have a very different type of shopper experience. And the hierarchy is fundamentally different in the way that shoppers behave and the difference that they see with product attributes. So here's a good example of a brand, right? You can see on the left hand side that hierarchy or decision that they're through, they're in store. It's very, it's based more based on brand and PAC type. But that experience does change when somebody transitions to an e-commerce, in an e-commerce marketplace, right? So when it becomes e-commerce, they're more focused on different types of attributes, right? It's more around organic their trade, more around, you know, a nonorganic and then brand impact size. So that fundamentally how they're looking at those product attributes is different across channels. So if you're a coffee brand in this example, I think you would certainly wanna make sure that you have an offering or your assortment is based on what's most relevant to the during that experience. So having a product within organic bear trade is probably something you'll wanna pursue
Phil:On today’s Bullseye one food brand is spending 40% of its ad budget on TikTok. Chosen Foods, is a brand of avocado-based cooking oils and condiments is looking to stand out with an educational approach on the TikTok platform. The brand spent$6.1 million to date on advertising in 2022. Julian Cannon, marketing reporter at Digiday writes how Chosen Foods focused on organic growth on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest in the past year. But now he says that the brand shifted its marketing dollars and content strategy to focus on Gen Z who are spending more time on TikTok. The brand is producing its own long and short form videos on TikTok to target consumers 18-64 years of age looking for a healthier alternative to grocery shopping.“Our strategy is to seek out underpriced attention among our target consumer, which in 2022 dictates an emphasis on TikTok, a platform that increasingly helps drive forward culture while also functioning as a home for education and entertainment,” Sara Barnes, vice president of marketing at Chosen Foods told Cannon. Chosen Foods’ TikTok includes skits, recipe videos with popular foods that use avocado oil as a key ingredient, user-friendly content about the benefits of avocado oil and“Did You Know” content to help users learn more about how avocado oil can benefit their lives and they publish at least twice a day. The brand categorizes these potential consumers according to their passions and interests, demos and life stages, business opportunities and shopper journeys, as well as the greater tastes and drivers of culture they observe. Is it a smart strategy? Well, in less than eight weeks after launching content on TikTok in May 2022, the brand has grown from less than 500 followers to 100,000 followers with over one million engagements and 400 million impressions. Chosen Foods has over 230,000 followers on the platform. Yes, I think it’s a great move.Congratulations. Thanks for joining us. Be sure to head to Supermarket guru.com. Check out food news today as well as all of our archives, and we'll see you back here next week. And by the way, hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving.