convenience, food tech, control and opportunity

The consumption of food is a cultural conundrum. Us Americans just can't figure it all out: diet, convenience, health, family-time, 6 small meals, 3 large ones, no breakfast, Kellogg's flakes for breakfast-lunch-and dinner, etc.
How does one make sense of it all? A recent article in Dallas News, has called it out: Convenience.

• Restaurants are in a bid to replace Mom as the family's primary chef.
• Today, consumers are eating more but cooking less. (ouch)

For some examples, look at California Pizza Kitchen, TGI Friday's, Wolfgang Puck and Marie Calendars. More from the article:

• Food technology has blurred the line between ready-to-eat food from a restaurant and ready-to-heat food from a grocer.
• Sales of frozen entrees are growing slowly > the challenge has set in.
• "Companies will be tempted to offer fresh - not frozen - prepared meals. And that will put the competition between grocery and restaurant take-out on more equal footing."
  

There is something to be said for being the brand on the shelf when the consumer says, I want convenience.

• "It all goes to the Starbucks strategy of giving the consumer 360-degree exposure to your brand."

Personally, I don't think restaurant take-out can viably compete with ready-to-heat frozen food. Both sound as in-convenient if I'm in a lazy mood. I propose we combine a delivery service with customer-service for a solution. These vehicles could be a chance to exhibit more sides of a brand personality: say an SUV with TGI Friday's comes to your door and a hybrid from California Pizza Kitchen pulls up at the neighbor's. I know some consumers would cringe to hear about advertising creeping into another area of their life but there already is advertising on the road - Billboards.

Delivery = Convenience. Brand that pulls through with the solution = Awesome. Let the races begin. Good lucK!