That means stores will offer things like cooking classes, wine tastings and restaurants. It will be a place where customers come to learn about their food and experience it in new ways instead of just buying it. Customers won’t choose the store because of the products they’ll choose it because it offers a convenient or beneficial experience. The grocery store of the future will be much more focused on experience than just things. The way that customers differentiate between brands is by their experiences, and that’s especially true in the grocery industry. Many products are the same and have become commodities. But this led to grocers like Safeway handing out hundreds of thousands of plastic bags, and often no alternative like paper - for people like me this is a mood killer. In California the grocery laws have become understandably stricter including the ban on reusable bags. Today grocery stores are still struggling with COVID as employees test positive for it. Trader Joe’s has wonderful products, but no delivery or digital option - making customers wait in lines for over an hour to get groceries. I always felt like I won the lottery when I was able to secure a delivery from Whole Foods. Being able to find a delivery window for a Whole Foods order online was similar to spotting a Unicorn. With COVID in March in the U.S., panic buying led to mass shortages of goods.

My own grievances with grocery stores today has much to do with simply the ease of shopping and the ability for grocers to pivot quickly which they struggle to do. For the first two months of COVID even getting a delivery at all was extremely hard to do. But many of my neighbors, who are busy working parents, even with delivery options, still prefer to go to a store - as online ordering often has flaws.

Grocery store checkout