A New Foodservice Model for Supermarkets

The Lempert Report
February 03, 2021

K2 restaurants have developed a new model in California.

It’s called SocialEats OntheGo. The concept has now been rolled out in 3 locations in Southern California, a flagship location at Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica another OntheGo outpost in Hollywood and a new one in Anaheim.

Here’s how it works. Four concepts owned by K2 Restaurants will offer menu items for pickup and delivery: Pop!s Burgers & Shakes, Azulé Taqueria, Supertoro and Street Noods. There is free local delivery on orders over $15 and is also available via Postmates, UberEats, Grubhub and Doordash. Over the past few years, with the rise of Grocerants in supermarkets, many have multiple offerings for their shoppers – Italian food, salad bar, oyster bars, juice and smoothie bars, pulled pork sandwiches and the list goes on and on. But for the most part, these offerings are not embedded in the stores’ app – so why not embed a takeout/delivery for these prepared foods? A single screen that would show the banners for all these restaurant offerings and then a shopper could choose which ones to order from. A single pick up or delivery of say, egg rolls for mom, spare ribs for dad, pizza for the kids and a big salad for all.

Not only would this satisfy the family from a convenience stand point, but also allow the supermarket to earn additional shops, and dollars, that takes sales away from the Grubhubs, Uber Eats and DoodDash’s of the world. It will also reinforce the food relationship between the store and the shopper. It would be easy to tie these offerings into the chain’s loyalty program and for the first time allow the store to see a more holistic view of what the shopper is eating from both foodservice and retail which would then allow the store to make more targeted recommendations based on past purchase behavior.