Walmart just opened its first ghost kitchen store in the U.S. UU. Search Winsight Grocery Business for Walmart customers who want a cinnamon and cinnamon roll on their trip to stock up on Saturday morning will soon be in luck. A Walmart supercenter in Rochester, NY.
The store will launch the takeaway and delivery service from Canadian ghost kitchen specialist Ghost Kitchen Brands. An agreement between Walmart and Ghost Kitchen Brands will allow the latter company to be established in at least 30 U.S. Walmart stores over the next two years, offering Walmart shoppers a variety of restaurant brands, including Cinnabon, for takeout and home delivery. Other brands showcasing at the Rochester branch include Shaquille O'Neal's Quiznos, Saladworks and Big Chicken, which debuts on the East Coast.
Customers can order a combination of items for delivery or collection while shopping, either through the mobile app or through the on-site kiosks. Ghost Kitchens operates all of its locations through licensing agreements with brands. Each kitchen has about two or three employees who receive cross-training in the different concepts, President Marc Choy said in an interview in April. Ghost Kitchens expects to finally have 800 locations in the US.
It targets non-traditional, high-traffic sites in retailers and shopping malls, as well as independent stores. At some of its Walmart locations, it's replacing McDonald's. A version of this story was previously published on Restaurant Business, a sister site of the WGB. Additional reporting by Jon Springer of the WGB.
The latest from Winsight Grocery Business, delivered straight to your inbox. Listen to WGB's flagship podcast, 10 items or less, with ideas from retailers and industry professionals. Exclusive industry information and information direct to your inbox Your go-to resource for everything related to food Winsight is a leading B2B information services company focused on the food and beverage industry, providing information and market intelligence to business leaders across all channels consumers purchase food and beverages (convenience stores, grocery retailers, restaurants and non-commercial food services) through media, events , data products, advisory services and trade fairs. The Canadian provider of off-site kitchen space only opened its first national branch on Wednesday, inside a Walmart in Rochester, NY.
Ghost Kitchens has an agreement with the retail giant to open at least 30 such outlets here in the next two years. The Rochester branch has 25 brands including restaurants such as Quiznos and Saladworks, along with packaged products such as Red Bull and Kraft Mac %26 Cheese. Quiznos and Saladworks, and their sister concept, Frutta Bowls, meet that requirement. Other options, such as Nathan's Famous, Wow Bao and Dickey's Barbecue Pit, have also made ghost kitchens and licensing agreements part of their growth strategies.
Ghost Kitchens employees receive cross-training on all 25 branch concepts. Other brands on Rochester's list are Cinnabon, the Cheesecake Factory bakery concept, and Shaquille O'Neal's Big Chicken, which debuts on the East Coast. The selection also includes a handful of international concepts. Canadian chains BeaverTails and Yogen Fruz are involved in the mix, as are U, K.
The concepts include Costa Coffee, a competitor to Starbucks owned by Coca-Cola. It's not the only ghost kitchen company that adopts that strategy. Kitchen United recently introduced an agreement with Kroger that will take its operation to grocery stores. And digital restaurant company C3 is looking for locations in non-traditional environments, such as apartment complexes and hotels.
The latest from Restaurant Business, sent straight to your inbox. Winsight is a leading B2B information services company focused on the food and beverage industry, providing information and market intelligence to business leaders across all channels where consumers purchase food and beverages (convenience stores, grocery retailers, restaurants and non-commercial food services) through media, events, data products, advisory services and trade shows. Walmart has entered the frenzy of the ghost kitchen market. The company has partnered with Ghost Kitchen Brands in Canada on several ghost kitchen projects.
The first, located at the Walmart in St. Catharines has now opened and additional locations are planned in Woodstock, Toronto, Lachenaie and Saint-Constant. The retailer opened its first branch of Ghost Kitchen Brands in Rochester, New York, starting an expansion in several states. Ghost Kitchens allows customers to use touchscreens inside Walmart to order freshly prepared meals at restaurants to deliver or pick up while they shop.
The opening comes after Toronto-based Ghost Kitchens revealed in March an agreement with Walmart to launch its omni-channel food service concept at dozens of Walmart stores in Canada and the United States. Walmart this week opened its first Ghost Kitchen Brands virtual “food court” store in Rochester, N. Ghost kitchens operate with minimal person-to-person interaction, allowing restaurants to operate with two or three employees per location. Ghost Kitchens sites also serve as delivery centers for restaurant and food service brands through third-party delivery services, such as DoorDash and Uber Eats.
Ghost Kitchens operates all restaurant concepts in its locations, instead of leasing space to other operators. The Ghost Kitchens service allows Walmart shoppers to select food and beverages from the menus of up to 25 national and regional restaurant and CPG dining concepts and combine them in a single order. The founder of Ghost Kitchen Brands, George Kottas, has been working with Uber Eats and other delivery services for five years to develop food delivery in Canada. An agreement between Walmart and Ghost Kitchen Brands will allow the latter company to set up shop within at least 30 U.
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