Prepping and Promoting Your Grab-and-Go

Marketing a grab-and-go offering encourages more sales.

CHAPTER 3

Prepping and Promoting Your Grab-and-Go

START SMALL AND BUILD YOUR MENU TO FIT YOUR CUSTOMER

The beauty of grab-and-go is that everything is fair game. Charcuterie in a portable cup, mini cheese plates, yogurt parfaits, English muffin sandwiches, housemade trail mix, and more. Some restaurants offer ready-to-heat casseroles, pizzas, and even pastries for consumers to enjoy later in the day. Scratch-made soups, salads, and sandwiches are popular, but they are just a jumping-off point.

Statistically, Gen Z and Millennials are more likely to purchase grab-and-go items than Boomers or Gen X.

When you’re first starting out with a grab-and-go offering, start small with a simplified menu. In fact, you can use a lot of what you already have on hand to create snack-size versions of salads, sandwiches, dips, snack mixes, and more. To attract more purchases, have a couple of signature items in the grab-and-go that your restaurant has become known for, such as a “famous” chicken salad or a “favorite” chocolate chip cookie.

If you present a nice-looking display that offers a good variety of tasty, convenient, and nutritious items at different price points, you’re well on your way to benefitting from a grab-and-go pantry.

Operators in high-volume foodservice facilities, such as hospitals, airports, and universities, often require quicker meal options. Adding frozen heat-and-eat options and prepackaged snacks to the product lineup in micro markets or deli cases can help operators offer an expanded selection, while reducing product waste and labor.

Operational Considerations for Grab-and-Go

1. What’s your cost of goods, packaging, and labor, and how will you price items to be profitable?

2. How will you package your offerings (clamshell, biodegradable, cups, etc)?

3. Will you have a dedicated kitchen space and staff for prepping grab-and-go items?

4. How will you maintain quality control?

Promoting Your Grab-and-Go Section

1. Post photos of featured grab-and-go items and the entire display on social media

2. Remind customers about your grab-and-go items in your email newsletter and/or app

3. Place tent card reminders on counters and tables, “Take Me Home!”

4. Post grab-and-go specials the same way you would with the regular menu

5. Show off the fresh factor with stickers that say, “Made Here!”

5 FAST TIPS

1. Offer a variety of savory and sweet options
2. Make it visually appealing
3. Price items appropriately
4. Make payment easy
5. Promote your offering

Explore more tips at How to Build a Grab-and-Go Restaurant Menu

OPERATOR SPOTLIGHT
The No. 1 seller inside Loma Linda University’s Troesh Medical Campus cafeteria is the whole wheat peanut butter and apple wrap with granola and agave nectar.

OPERATOR SPOTLIGHT
Housemade gelato, fresh-baked pastries, parfait, bagels, and specialty coffees are served daily at Sal Rosa Café + Scoops inside Tampa’s Le Meridien hotel.

_{^{Sources: Datassential, Snacking, Keynote Report (July 2023); Food Management, Grab and Go Goes Big in Loma Linda Medical Campus Cafeteria (February 2023); Datassential: Snacks Are Key to Consumer Satiety and Operator Sales (2023).}}

CONCLUSION
Consumers will always enjoy dining out, but there’s a time for convenience, too. So, whether you’re interested in boosting your existing grab-and-go business, experimenting with a new offering, or planning to add more grab-and-go selections in the future, the time to start planning is now.

Find out how Nestlé Professional can help.

About Nestlé Professional

Nestlé Professional is dedicated to being an inspiring growth partner that delivers creative, branded food and beverage solutions, enabling foodservice operators to delight their consumers. From Minor’s^®, Stouffer’s^®, Chef-mate^®, and Trio^® on-trend culinary items to innovative beverage systems under NESCAFÉ^®, Nestlé^® Vitality^®, and Coffee mate^® brands, Nestlé Professional meets the needs of foodservice operators while satisfying the tastes of the out-of-home consumer. Nestlé Professional is part of Nestlé S.A. in Vevey, Switzerland—the world’s largest food company—with sales of over $98 billion. For more foodservice product news and information, visit www.nestleprofessional.com.

^{The information provided is based on a general industry overview and is not specific to your business operation. Each operation is unique, and business decisions should be made after consultation with appropriate experts.}