A little while ago, I wrote about how the focus on “food for now” could create opportunities for food retailers to poach business from quick casual restaurants and other food service operators. Now I see that a food service market supplier is poaching off of supermarkets!
Consumer demand
In Sunday’s newspaper, I came across a circular for GFS Marketplace. It’s a small (2,600 SF), club-like retail operation run by Gordon’s Food Service, a regional food service distributor headquartered in Michigan. Their ad featured more than 40 food and food-related products in larger-than-normal retail packages, and most had a 50-cent to 2-dollar coupon. A couple of key features were:
- Fresh ground beef @ $2.99/lb. in 10-lb. tubes (81/19 lean-to-fat ratio)
- Sliced ham @ $3.49/lb. in 2-lb. packages
Clearly this retailer has established that there is consumer demand for these products and they are going for it.
What this means
GFS Marketplace now needs to be considered in a couple of new lights.
- As a competitor who may be taking business that otherwise could be going to the supermarket.
- As a signal that there’s an untapped market for high-quality food service products that could become a source of new business for food retailers who go after it.
Either way, if you’re in the food retail business, you’ll want to look at this channel and make up your own mind.
