Grocery stores as we know them have been in existence since 1916. (Thanks Piggly Wiggly) For detail on the history and potential future of grocery, I recommend this Atlantic article by by Ian Bogost.
As with any industry, there is always a lot of hype related to what’s coming next and how soon it will be here. For grocery stores this has been:
- online grocery is going to take off (was about 3% pre-pandemic)
- meal kits are going to take off (sort of, but not really)
- mega grocers will win the logistics game (which they are)
When you ask people why they don’t shop online you hear a few things:
- I want to review the quality of my produce
- Being in the store can sometimes inspire me to try new things
What if we broke the grocery store in two? Get your staples online. Amazon or Walmart will probably get this down to a science. Further, have you ever been to a grocery store full of Instacart shoppers? They are on a different mission from you, and you can feel it.
Let’s take the parts of food that people definitely want to experience: produce, meat, and food exploration, and build a store around that.
It’s pretty much a farmers market with a butcher. But the people there are experts. Never cooked lentils before? No problem. They help you pick recipes, they introduce you to local seasonal products.
Another concept: leave the ‘store’ setting altogether. What if your produce and meat were hyper-regional (your neighborhood). Perhaps a local farm stand with more consistent hours than a farmers market. Perhaps home delivery of produce brought to you by someone you know and trust. Perhaps you have access to text a real-life nutritionist as part of the service.
What if this were all managed by trained salespeople rather than gig workers?
There is a different future here. I think people will be willing to pay for this.