Chocolate Cake Shots competing with cupcakes and SmashBurger, the better burgers taking a bite out of McDonalds
The Cupcake Wars may be running out of tasty ammunition. The trend toward small desserts, small plates is creating new product opportunities for cupcakery's around the country. Yum! Cupcakes in Cincinnati is pioneering expanding the "min dessert" phenomenon with Cake Shots. mini delectable cakes about the size of a shot glass. They are so small you just can't eat one and so you eat more and of course there goes the diet! Check out Instructables for a tasty example Cake Shots. Nation's Restaurant News recently reported on a new bakery concept, Fruute, that according to the founder, feels "Mini desserts are the next big thing,", no bigger than an egg and featuring exotic flavors.
HoneyBaked Ham Goes Beyond Their Stores
HoneyBaked Ham's grocery store kiosks The well known chain of HoneyBaked Ham Stores is rolling out branded kiosks in over 150 stores nationwide, the most recent are 7 kiosks in Kroger stores located in Ohio. According to a recent article, HoneyBaked Ham now generates over 12% of annual revenue through their kiosks. They are marketing as a triple multi channel marketing brand... their own stores, web enabled eCommerce and now grocery supermarket venue.
Top 100 Hot Retailers The 2011 Hot 100 Retailers published by the National Retail Federation includes several retail grocery stores. Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets is an innovator in the small foot print retail sector. "Small grocery stores" is a new grocery retailer sector consisting of stores that are approximately 10,000 square feet where the retail assortment is somewhere between 2,000 to 3,000 sku's. You might see this sector referred to as small format or limited assortment stores.
The small format, limited assortment stores, are much more convenient than a typical supermarket or the behemoth Walmart Supercenters. In fact, Walmart is rapidly rolling out Walmart Express to capitalize on the growing consumer interest in small footprint retail stores. Fresh & Easy came in at #3 with a 37.8% growth rate (2010 vs. 2009). Check out their video explaining their "simple store" concept.
Burgers in the News Five Guys Burgers ranked #3 in a list of 55 top fast food (Quick Service Restaurants) according to Nations Restaurant News.
Technomic, the leading fact-based consulting and research firm serving the food industry, has coined a new term, "better burger" segment in their Top 75 limited-service burger chains feature emerging brands, 'better burgers' report. These are fast-casual concepts that are a bit more upscale than McDonalds. The leading fast-casual chain (not burgers) is the well known Panera Bread chain. Better Burger chains are still a niche market at approximately 2.6% of total burger chain sales and according to Technomic are very focused on a limited menu vs. the expanding menu as illustrated by McDonalds McCafe expansions of extensive beverages.
My favorite at #2 is the Smashburger Brand. Why? Multi-grain buns, rosemary & olive oil fries and real hamburger in the bun!
SmashBurger
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