Grocers Use Self-Service Prepared Foods to Bring More Shoppers In Store

This week in grocery, Giant and Schnucks add self-service meal options and Momofuku raises millions.

Ahold Delhaize subsidiary Giant Food, which spans 165 locations in the DMV area, announced Thursday (March 23) the launch of its first in-supermarket fast-casual restaurant, a Nalley Fresh location, with self-service ordering kiosks available. Consumers can also get meals delivered from the Maryland in-store location via third-party aggregators.

“We are thrilled to bring Nalley Fresh to our Ellicott City store and provide our customers with an unbeatable one-stop shopping experience,” Gregg Dorazio, director of eCommerce at Giant Food, said in a statement. “We know our customers will enjoy the convenient, healthy and delicious meal offerings, and we're proud to welcome this local concept right in-store at Giant.”

The news comes as consumers are buying more prepared meals at the grocery store. Research from PYMNTS’ study “Digital Economy Payments: Consumers Buy Into Food Bargains,” which drew from a July survey of a census-balanced panel of nearly 2,700 U.S. consumers, found that 37% of consumers had bought prepared food on their most recent grocery trip, up 7 points from the 30% of consumers who had done so back in November 2021.

Indeed, in a recent interview with PYMNTS, Atul Sood, chief business officer at Kitchen United, the ghost kitchen and virtual food hall company behind grocery giant Kroger’s in-store multi-brand pickup and delivery restaurants, spoke to the consumer demand for more hot food options at the supermarket.

“What we had as an initial hypothesis was that when consumers do shopping for the week, they don’t necessarily want to cook that night,” Sood explained. “That seems to be really clicking with consumers. As soon as they get educated about the option of ordering from restaurants in a grocery store, that repeat orders tend to be very high and consumer retention tends to be very strong.”

Schnucks Adds Self-Service Salad Bar

In similar news, Schnucks, the St. Louis-based grocery retailer operating 114 stores across four Midwestern states, is adding self-service ready-to-eat meal options as well.

On Monday (March 20), technology provider Picadeli announced that it is partnering with the grocer on in-store salad bars powered by artificial intelligence (AI), which will be available at 22 Schnucks locations.

“We know customers are looking for convenient, healthy food options, and they’re going to love the fresh new experience of Picadeli,” Ted Schnuck, executive vice president, supermarkets at Schnuck Markets, Inc, said in a statement. “With Picadeli’s AI technology, customers will have the freshest food available to them on the salad bar via its digital management and re-ordering system.”

The system enables the grocer to meet consumers’ demand for ready-to-eat foods without having to bear the labor cost of staffing a full restaurant, and the system’s AI automates much of the work around managing item availability.

Momofuku Goods Raises $17.5 Million Series A as Consumers Seek Affordable Luxuries

Despite economic pressures prompting many consumers to be more conservative in their food spending, David Chang’s luxury packaged foods brand, Momofuku Goods, is bringing in the dough.

The company announced via emailed press release that it has raised $17.5 million in its Series A funding round, which it will use to expand its product assortment and its operations.

“We spent a decade testing and developing our pantry essentials, ensuring that they were up to the standards we uphold in our restaurants,” Chang said in a statement. “With this investment, I’m looking forward to bringing even more flavor to home cooks’ kitchens.”

It is not a bad time to be in the premium pantry goods space. While inflation may prompt some consumers to cut back on food splurges, others are more open than usual to premium grocery products.

In a fall interview with PYMNTS, Daniel Doll, CEO of direct-to-consumer (D2C) condiment brand Bushwick Kitchen, noted that, as consumers cut back on dining out, many are more open than usual to springing for higher-quality condiments and seasonings.

“One of the side effects of something moving towards a recession is that people go out to eat less, and so, in a way, it’s helped us a little bit.” Doll said, “People will buy that sauce that’s maybe a little bit pricier, because buying a sauce and upgrading their food at home is far less expensive than going out for that meal.”