Food-to-go & eating out news

Following a successful pilot programme in Los Angeles, Uber Technologies and Serve Robotics are expanding their partnership to new markets. This will see up to 2,000 sidewalk delivery robots deployed on the Uber Eats platform. 30% monthly growth Since the launch of the partnership in Los Angeles in 2022, Serve’s robotic deliveries have grown by over 30% month-on-month, with over 200 restaur...

In late 2019, Longo’s, a leading Canadian grocery retailer, opened a flagship store in Toronto which broke new ground in hospitality and foodservice. We look at how the retailer has adapted its model in a post-pandemic environment by introducing a delivery kitchen model. A legacy of innovation Longo's has built a reputation for pioneering innovative store formats, and its Toronto flagship s...

John Mackey’s new venture, Love.Life, combines healthcare and hospitality to bring to life the food as medicine mandate. New restaurant with scientific approach to menu creation The first Love.Life restaurant opened this month in Culver City, California. The menu is plant-based and focuses on whole, minimally processed foods. “Optimised” menu choices, defined as the most health-promot...

We recently visited Toronto to see how the city showcases global leadership with prepared foods and food-to-go within grocery stores. We highlight the key learnings as retailers have made a strategic choice to invest in this area and redefine excellence. Global leadership Here’s our pick of the stores and banners to visit in the city, highlighting some of the strengths of their foodservice ...

The impact of factors affecting the performance of the UK eating out market continues to be complex and difficult to predict. Ahead of our new UK eating out market forecasts to 2028, which will be released on 21 st June, we have brought together data from multiple sources to analyse what their findings mean for the future of eating out this year and beyond. Retail Analysis subscribers ...

We review Loblaw’s Q1 results and the actions it’s taking as Canadian shoppers gravitate to value solutions. Q1 key numbers Total revenue increase 6.0% to $12,995m, with retail segment sales up 5.7% to $12,735m Food retail same-stores sales increased by 3.1%, including a negative impact of 1.1% related to the timing of New Year’s Day Drug retail same-store sales increased by 7.4%, ...

Despite only 31% of shoppers having set plans to celebrate the Coronation this weekend, food-to-go and eating out operators haven’t held back on their Coronation specials. Source: IGD ShopperVista. Coronation: are shoppers getting set to celebrate? While we have seen food-to-go customers start to cut back on missions, spend and frequency , the Coronation specials and limited...

Pret is expanding the offering of its loyalty scheme to include food, but the expansion comes with a price hike. The Pret Coffee Subscription was launched in September 2020 , offering customers up to five hot or cold barista-made drinks per day for a flat fee of £20 per month. In March 2022, Pret increased the price of the Coffee Subscription to £25 per month, citing increasing input costs ...

For a retailer that is renowned for its large format stores, it has put in an outstanding effort to develop a new convenience store concept. We look at what makes this different to other c-stores in the US and its role alongside HEB’s supermarkets and hypermarkets. Entire network to be updated with new look HEB has relaunched its convenience stores with a new banner and look and feel. The f...

Lawson, the world’s third largest convenience retailer in sales, saw its convenience store net sales grow by 4.2% to JPY2,545bn in FY2022 ending February 2023. Range expansion drives steady domestic growth Lawson’s domestic sales in Japan continued to grow, as it benefitted from an expanded range in several areas: Broadened range of food products including frozen foods Increased th...