CFVG Menu Vision: Blending Tradition with Trend

“ We’ve got great assets, and what I’m doing is going to take some of our top 10 in the Bay Area, 10 of those locations, and I’m going to blow out made to order craft beverages, so primarily cold. So we’re going to take that to full bright, and I really feel like we can compete pretty good, really good. I know we can get the flavors and all the taste there right if we market it well. Brandon Frampton, Director of Fresh Food, Loop & Poppy

NOTABLE AND QUOTABLE

“ We’re going to go after the dirty soda trend from the angle like, ‘Hey, you don’t have to pay six, seven bucks at a specialty shop. Come on into Cliff’s and make up your own soda.’ Derek Thurston, Director of Foodservice, Cliffs Local Market

“ They found that they followed influencers initially and had their pulse of the Gen Z, but they found that by the time they had accommodated them or added them to the menu, they had moved on to something else. Eva Strasburger, President, StrasGlobal, CEO Compliance Safe, and Vision Group Network Co-Founder

“ So I think it’s just understanding what to call things in your market, understanding what’s there, experimenting through sauces and different carriers versus going to a protein purveyor and saying, “Hey, could you make me 10,000 cases of spicy Korean chicken?” That’s going to be really hard if it bombs to get through, but if you go to the sauce manufacturer and say, can you make me a sweet heat Korean sauce that you’re going to top the chicken with, it’s a little easier to get in and out of the sauce than it is to get out of the protein. So just for the group, just some things that we had done with the Datassential data to be able to say, “Hey, here’s how we can play in this and here’s how we can minimize our risk. Jon Cox, Vice President Retail Foodservice, McLane “ There are ethnic pockets that we have to address. What’s really cool is a lot of those ethnic items are seen as what’s trending in the seeker, which is the one out of five. They’re willing to try something new. Jac Moskalik, Vice President of Food, Innovation and Strategy, Global Partners, LP

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The reality is a lot of times you’re all faced with the inventory challenge. So it’s fun to experiment, however, inventory can be very expensive and that can eat into your profit. So I’m curious if any of you have tips or best practices for each other on at what point does that experimentation stop for you? How do you manage the inventory so you can still play and get these things out there, but you also don’t cannibalize all those great sales that you had? Sarah Jenk, Senior Director of Solutions Consulting, Upshop

“ As the day continues, people are more interested in trying something new. The area where you’re probably going to have the best luck is going to be that lunch daypart. That’s the takeaways. If you’re thinking of doing something truly innovative, I would lean towards lunch, and then there’s a little more support in a bit as to which parts of lunch might be the best options. Claire Conaghan , Trendologist and Associate Director for Publications, Datassential

“ For us, we will test some of the newer concepts and new flavor trends in some of our key locations, our super, super busy locations where we know we can pull it off easily just to see, get some initial key reaction and then if it’s worth it, then we’ll turn around and figure out how to get it into the rest of the stores. Barbara Kessler, Senior Director, Food & Beverage, The Wills Group (Dash In)

“ The percentage of people who always consider pricing when it is available on menus. And it’s the majority of people. But what’s key here is I think less that people check price, of course they check price on menus, but more that there’s not a big difference between the generations. Claire Conaghan, Trendologist and Associate Director for Publications, Datassential