B0055TH572 EBOK by Bloom Jonathan

Author:Bloom, Jonathan [Bloom, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Cost of Convenience

Just as our busy lifestyle created the market for pre-cut produce, it has sparked an explosion of ready-to-eat foods at the supermarket. What began in the 1990s as a way to counter the Boston Market chicken fad has only accelerated in recent years. By 2008, 95 percent of supermarkets offered fresh, prepared foods for takeout.25 There’s a surprising amount of variety along the edges of most supermarkets : What was once the domain of rotisserie chicken and mashed potatoes now includes everything from apple-stuffed pork loin to roasted zucchini. That same 2008 report found that 23 percent of stores had a sushi station.

Supermarkets have steadily grown over the past decade, and as their footprints have ballooned, stores have devoted fewer and fewer square feet to the “center store” hard groceries, moving away from the many long rows that store designer Kelley called the “Model-T chassis”—an outdated “ingredient-based model” of shopping. Instead, the so-called “outside” of stores has expanded. Nothing’s been moved outdoors; the term refers to the edges of the store, where prepared foods, deli counters, and bakery departments get more real estate, said Wade Hanson, a senior manager at Technomic. Supermarkets have been happy to chase this new form of food sales, as prepared foods have gross profits roughly twice as high as the percentage for traditional groceries, although they require more labor.26

And as the International Dairy-Deli-Bakery Association reminds us in its What’s in Store 2009 report, there are a growing number of self-serve bars.27 Whereas the salad bar used to be the only supermarket self-service option for ready-to-eat items, many stores now have olive bars, chicken wing bars, taco bars, Asian food bars, and even dessert bars. As the report explains, “The size of food bars is expanding rapidly at many supermarket delis to meet the increased demand for an alternative to restaurants.” This is significant, because unlike the foods behind a counter, because of the health codes anything put out on a self-service buffet cannot be donated or repurposed. A shopper might have sneezed in the sag paneer, or maybe a kid reached into the kalamata olives trying to replicate the haunted house jar-of-eyeballs experience.

“Home meal replacement” is the wooden, industry term for explaining supermarkets’ new role in our lives—chefs. Stores such as Wegman’s, Whole Foods, Central Market, and some of the newer Publix, Safeway, and Kroger stores have ramped up their offerings. Even a salt-of-the-earth chain like Food Lion has a line of “ON THE GO Bistro” foods ready for reheating that it advertises as “faster and less expensive than takeout.” “Supermarkets had been losing market share to restaurants for some time,” Hanson said. “When stores saw what consumers were asking for, they saw an opportunity. Instead of only having rotisserie chicken and take-and-bake pizza, if they have a variety of fresh options, they could succeed. It has almost made some supermarkets look and feel like a restaurant.”

Phil Lempert predicts that in five years prepared foods will make up 50 percent of supermarkets’ offerings.

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