Finding the Synergies Between Foodservice & Retail
NEW YORK — There is no denying that technology is an integral part of a convenience store's operation. There is also no denying that foodservice is increasingly becoming integral to a c store retailer's success. And what has become abundantly clear over the past few years that technology is an integral part of foodservice.
That relationship is not exclusive to convenience stores, but all food retail and restaurants, agreed executives on the "Foodservice Innovation: Opportunities in Retail" panel at the National Retail Federation's (NRF) 2025 Retail's Big Show in January.
Joining Rob Grimes, CEO of IFBTA, a nonprofit professional association promoting and advancing technology and innovation for the global food and beverage industries, for the session on the Foodservice Tech Stage were Michael Verdesca, chief information officer at Murphy USA Inc.; Vikram Badhwar, director, International Retail Platforms at Starbucks; and AJ Francavilla, vice president, Digital & Innovation at Sodexo.
According to Verdesca, who worked in the restaurant business before joining Murphy USA, the technologies between food retail and restaurants are interrelated, the technologies are similar and there are a lot of synergies.
"We are doing the same things in loyalty," he pointed out. "We are all trying to get share of wallet and we are all trying to get to reach that consumer."
[Read more: Murphy USA's Core Categories Are Driving Long-Term Success]
Badhwar offered a similar take, partly driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. "The response to COVID and the complexity that came about with brands having to adopt delivery and mobile ordering at a rapid rate actually meant that there was a lot of great tech innovation that came out of the hospitality industry and now there is a greater opportunity for cross-pollination from a tech point of view."
Additionally, more brands are bringing together foodservice and retail to provide more of an experience, he said, adding that there has been some debate whether Starbucks is a hospitality brand or a retailer but internally the company refers to itself as a premium retailer.
You find a lot of that crossover outside the United States, added Grimes.
The perspective is slightly different at Sodexo, a provider of sustainable food and integrated facilities management with works with multiple brands. Across the journey from hospitals to schools to senior living facilities, the company takes a retailer approach to understand each one of those touchpoints, explained Francavilla.
"We see ourselves as having a retailer mindset with that strong food background, but we also create experiences," he said. "But how do you get all those back of house systems, how do you get all that loyalty and all that mapping across disparate systems 'doing business as' on behalf of our clients?"
For example, Sodexo has roughly 80 different national brands in its mobile ordering platform, he added.
Playing Catchup
The panelists agreed that foodservice has always lagged retail when it came to technology, something that began to change as a result of the pandemic five years ago. And now, according to Grimes, "people are following us."
Historically retail has invested more in the data and marketing, and now restaurants are catching up. "Right now, I see so much overlap. We are all dealing with distributive labor workforces and multiunit retail and distributive consumers, and how do you talk to consumers," Verdesca posed. "I think there is probably as much from each other that we are learning."
To that point, drive-thru is one area where retail learned from foodservice and restaurants, noted Grimes.
"For many years, [drive-thru windows] were a main business for McDonald's and all of a sudden you see them in convenience stores and pharmacies and grocery — and everywhere," he said. "That is probably a technology where we might have led from foodservice."
Key Word of the Year
Walking the NRF show every year, Grimes noted he would take in the key words — everything from artificial intelligence (AI) to data analytics. So, what do the panelists think the key word would be this year, he wondered.
- Badhwar: GenAI. "I think it's a really interesting space and from a hospitality point of view, something the industry is not tapping into as much as it could be."
- Francavilla: Big Data. "It's about how do you leverage it to start having those meaningful conversations; it is not just that we have the data."
- Verdesca: Personalization. "We've done a lot in the data space and the AI space, but it the end goal is personalization. For us, it's share of wallet. How do we make the right offers at the right time for those people to get them back in the store."
The 2025 Retail's Big Show took place Jan. 12-14 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. Drawing approximately 40,000 attendees, the event featured more than 1,000 exhibitors and 100-plus education sessions.
About the Author
