The world of fast-casual F&B is fast evolving, fuelled by new customer needs, accelerated by the pandemic, around safety and wellbeing, easy healthy choices, and ultra-fast convenience. Brands are now being challenged to reimagine their business models and expand their digital presence to create experiences that are simultaneously personal, fast, and super-efficient both on and offline.
In line with the trend, Sweetgreen, the US-based salad chain, is experimenting with new tech-enabled formats, announcing the plans to open its first digital-only pickup restaurant in Washington D.C. Staffed order points will be replaced with Sweetgreen’s mobile app, website, or participating third-party services; where customers can place their orders and then retrieve them from the pick-up shelves at the restaurant. The site will also include an outdoor patio for dining.
Starbucks and Amazon are set to expand their hybrid “Starbucks Pickup with Amazon Go” concept that combines their digitally enabled coffee pick-up format with a sharp edit of Amazon Go Just Walk Out cashierless retail, alongside dining and workspaces areas. Together, the brands will open two locations in the US this year, in addition to the one piloted in New York in late 2021.
Household takeout
To stay relevant in a saturated market, restaurant brands need to experiment with new formats that balance converging requirements for easy and nutritious food with outright convenience.
Get in touch if you would like to work with Household to redefine your experience proposition and format family to support a new era of digitally enabled dining.
Also in the news:
Retail:
Online luxury fashion retailer Moda Operandi enters the beauty market
Homewares e-retailer Made.com acquires online platform Trouva
Dyson unveils new retail concession in Harrods
Hospitality:
Vueling airlines opens a new sales channel in the metaverse.
Campaigns:
London’s top fashion designers make salad-inspired silk scarves for Pret A Manger
Initiatives:
Westfield to launch ‘Healthy Home’ pop-up
Klarna launches a Virtual Shopping offering
Tiffany and Co is to launch an exhibition in London’s Saatchi Gallery
Starbucks and Hubbub launch £1m fund to bolster reusable packaging
Image courtesy of Sweetgreen
