This grocery trend ended with COVID. Now Publix, Whole Foods, Sedano’s bet you’re hungry

Howard Cohen
·5 min read
17

Why would you eat inside a supermarket? Isn’t that what we did as kids when we found an open bag of licorice on a shelf and popped the candy in our mouths?

Eating is no longer just a sneaky thing going on in the grocery aisles. It’s an experience with its own space. And supermarket cafes are making a comeback after disappearing during the pandemic.

Grocery stores are rolling out seats, tables and bars — and freshly made, restaurant-like food. The supermarkets want you to stay and graze in their revived cafes, and not always shop and run.

“I think there’s a lot of options, you know?” Andrea Garcia, a customer at a Kendall area Whole Foods on U.S. 1, said about eating inside the grocery store. Garcia, 30, was dining inside the market’s cafe, seated with her young son and her mom, Teresa, on bar stools at Whole Foods’ El Bocadillo bar.

Some grocery stores are once again dedicating floor space to indoor cafes after COVID shut them down in 2020 — a decade or so after cafes first started appearing inside Publix and Whole Foods and other supermarkets. The spaces offer seating for customers who buy food in the store.

The cafes give parents a break to eat something with their kids, attract workers on a lunch break and offer a place to chill before or after tackling the grocery list. The seating areas are near specialty counters or grab-and-go shelves.

Andrea Garcia, her son, and her mom, Teresa Garcia, take a break while dining at Whole Foods’ cafe section on Dec. 7, 2023. The family shops for groceries at the Pinecrest location and for convenience brings food over from the hot and cold salad bars to get lunch and shopping done on one trip to the store.
Andrea Garcia, her son, and her mom, Teresa Garcia, take a break while dining at Whole Foods’ cafe section on Dec. 7, 2023. The family shops for groceries at the Pinecrest location and for convenience brings food over from the hot and cold salad bars to get lunch and shopping done on one trip to the store.

Many food choices

Whole Foods Market’s hot food bar in the foreground at its Pinecrest location on Dec. 7, 2023. Scott Bova, Whole Foods’ vice president of culinary, said the bars bring in seasonal selections.
Whole Foods Market’s hot food bar in the foreground at its Pinecrest location on Dec. 7, 2023. Scott Bova, Whole Foods’ vice president of culinary, said the bars bring in seasonal selections.

Garcia says she’s lured by the offerings at the Whole Foods hot and cold foods bars. The rows of steam trays and chilled counters brim with vegetables, pasta, lasagna, picadillo, Indian curry dishes, popcorn chicken. Customers can also order from a juice or wine-beer bar, a sandwich maker or the deli. Some markets even have pizza coming in and out of the oven, a feast for a family of four on a recent weekend.

Twenty of Sedano’s 35 markets in Florida — including stores in Miami-Dade, Broward and Orlando — have indoor cafes and seating where shoppers can order sandwiches, empanadas, milkshakes, pastries and croquetas. And more are coming. New or remodeled Sedano’s will have cafes or hot food service, according to the Miami-based grocer.

Twenty of Sedano’s 35 markets in Florida — including stores in Miami-Dade, Broward and Orlando — have indoor cafes and seating where shoppers can order sandwiches, empanadas, milkshakes, pastries and croquetas.
Twenty of Sedano’s 35 markets in Florida — including stores in Miami-Dade, Broward and Orlando — have indoor cafes and seating where shoppers can order sandwiches, empanadas, milkshakes, pastries and croquetas.

At Publix, some newer or redesigned stores with floor space feature cafe areas — just the place to to nosh a Pub Sub or something fancier, like a cooked salmon platter with veggies.

“It varies based on location as to if it will get a cafe venue,” said Publix spokeswoman Lindsey Willis.

She points to several Publix locations with cafes, in Hialeah and Cutler Bay. A new Publix in Hialeah Heights has a second-floor dining room with views of the shopping areas below. A Publix being built on the Intracoastal in Hollywood has plans for a waterfront seating area and a boat dock for customers to pull up to the store, according to the city’s mayor.

Publix’s GreenWise Market has taken grocery store dining to another level. At Publix Pours, shoppers can sit and sip draft beer and wine, premium coffee, espresso, fruit smoothies.

In South Florida GreenWise has locations in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton. Publix plans to eventually convert the specialty stores to regular Publix supermarkets, the Lakeland company said in May.

READ MORE: Publix just opened 9 new supermarkets — and more are on the way. Here’s where they are

“I like the concept of buying groceries and just having a cafe or a cookie or maybe eat some lunch,” Garcia said at Whole Foods with her family. All that shopping and commuting, she says, can eat up half a day.

“So in all of the running, you need to shop for groceries,” she said, “but you also need to eat so I think that’s a great convenience.”

This is what seating areas look like at the Publix at the Crossings in Royal Palm Beach. Many Publix locations have returned cafes to stores after the pandemic, including a group of stores in South Florida’s Hialeah and Cutler Bay neighborhoods.
This is what seating areas look like at the Publix at the Crossings in Royal Palm Beach. Many Publix locations have returned cafes to stores after the pandemic, including a group of stores in South Florida’s Hialeah and Cutler Bay neighborhoods.

The ‘grocerant’ trend

Phil Lempert, a national grocery industry analyst known as the Supermarket Guru, called supermarket restaurants a “grocerant trend” in an email interview with the Miami Herald.

“The grocerant trend started nationally over 10 years ago and was gaining popularity with shoppers who could combine their weekly shopping trip with a meal. Certain grocers like Hy-Vee, Schnucks, Whole Foods, Kroger, Wegmans, ShopRite built terrific food service operations, which typically included a cocktail bar. Most were separate areas that felt like a restaurant whether they be a fine dining experience or simply a quick casual format,” Lempert said.

“Then came the COVID-19 pandemic and, for the most part, many of these operations were closed. Over the past 12 months or so we have seen them re-opened and building momentum once again,” Lempert said.

Pre-pandemic, about 30% of grocery stores around the nation contained cafes, according to Lempert. That figure has fallen to about 10% to 15% as the trend makes a comeback.

“One of the drivers of grocerants is the fact that grocers want to capture more of the ‘food dollar’ away from restaurants and in many cases, especially against quick-serve restaurants like Chili’s and others, can compete very effectively food- and service- wise with the added convenience of combining the shopping with dining,” said Lempert, who also reports food trends on NBC’s “Today” show.

“The goal of the supermarket — especially those like Publix who pride themselves on quality and service — is to be shoppers’ No. 1 when it comes to all things food.”

A renewed strategy for supermarkets

Teresa Garcia eats at the customer El Bocadilla bar and cafe area at the Whole Foods Market in Pinecrest on a quiet weekday afternoon on Dec. 7, 2023.
Teresa Garcia eats at the customer El Bocadilla bar and cafe area at the Whole Foods Market in Pinecrest on a quiet weekday afternoon on Dec. 7, 2023.

The reach toward customers’ bellies, a captive audience, was behind Whole Foods’ strategy in starting a grocerant design companywide, said Scott Bova, Whole Foods Market’s vice president of culinary.

In September, Whole Foods’ prepared foods section launched a new sushi menu to focus on trending flavors and plant-based offerings. The hot and cold bars also get updated with seasonal selections.

The Whole Foods cafes run from diner-basic tables to comfy booths to stools around a bar that could be home in any fancy pub.

“The in-store experience, even beyond the grocery shop, is really important to us and we take great pride in our prepared foods department,” he said in an email to the Miami Herald. “All of our stores have hot bar and salad bar offerings, and many have both indoor and outdoor seating to encourage our customers to grab breakfast, lunch or dinner and enjoy it in the space.”

Customers dine inside a Whole Foods Market cafe and bar area in Pinecrest on Dec. 7, 2023.
Customers dine inside a Whole Foods Market cafe and bar area in Pinecrest on Dec. 7, 2023.
A welcoming board to the Sedano’s in-store cafe area inside its Doral grocery store.
A welcoming board to the Sedano’s in-store cafe area inside its Doral grocery store.