Supermarket Made-in-their-Kitchen offerings

[chefmd]

Very expensive scallops in Pentagon City Harris Teeter at 19.99 a pound. Needless to say, those scallops did not come home with me.

 

[Shel_B]

1 hour ago, chefmd said:

Very expensive scallops in Pentagon City Harris Teeter at 19.99 a pound. Needless to say, those scallops did not come home with me.

 

 

 

Terrible looking scallops ...

[Ama]

Not in the US, but I've noticed more of these types of foods in Australia recently.  Often they are near the bagged salads--you could easily grab a salad pack, vegetables ready to roast (including pats of butter already placed, etc), and then a tray of some sort of oven/microwave ready main dish. The next section is refrigerated cakes (cheesecake, frosted/filled cakes), so "homemade" dinner in one aisle  Even saw cauliflower "rice" and zucchini "noodles" last week.

 

This is of course in addition to the prepared deli salads/pizzas/soups, and even sushi bar depending on the store. Haven't noticed breakfast yet, but that's also not my prime shopping time. 

 

[IndyRob]

About a year ago we had a store called Market District open near us.  They have *a lot* of store prepared items.  But are also a mega mart.  At the opening they had valet parking and golf carts in the parking lots to bring shoppers into the store from their packed parking lot.

 

A couple of phrases I was continually muttering as I first explored the store were "Ooh, that's interesting... Wow, that's expensive..."  Over and over again.

 

The bloom seems to be off the rose now.

 

Nonetheless, I think this semi-prepared segment will be a success.  Salad bars have been a major profit center at supermarkets for some time.  But we need smarter consumers to bring the prices down.

[lindag]

When I first met my DH, he was living in Seattle on Queen Anne's Hill.  He had a market nearby (I think it was a Thriftway) that had the most wonderful made-in-house products of all kinds.  I'd never seen anything quite like it and was very impressed.  They also had recipe demos.  And they had underground parking!

This was in 1997.

[liuzhou]

Recently, I've taken to avoiding the supermarkets anywhere near lunch time. Here, they have taken to selling deeply inferior dim sum items at noon or later along with various stir fried noodles and stir fried rice that I wouldn't feed my imaginary dog.

 

I worked it out when, in a rare moment of early wakefulness (I had a train to catch), I spotted that all this lunchtime delight was already laid out at 8 am, ready to sit there for 4 hours before being sold. I also overheard the banana stacking assistant being told to man (woman) the stir fried noodles stall, complaining that she didn't know how to stir fry noodles (must be the only one in China) and being told to "look like you do know!" (Most people assume I don't understand Chinese. I seldom enlighten them.)

Still it's better than the sushi counter with its samples which look like they may have been assembled pre-1945.

Edited November 13, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[chromedome]

On 07/11/2016 at 10:59 PM, kayb said:

Here in the Mid-South, Kroger is ubiquitous. Lately, they've started upgrading and/or building some new, more upscale stores in some locations.

 

 

They have a new, high-end fresh/local format they're playing with, outside Seattle.

 

Main and Vine

[MSRadell]

I wish we had great is everywhere.

Edited November 14, 2016 by MSRadell (log)

[MSRadell]

On ‎11‎/‎7‎/‎2016 at 9:59 PM, kayb said:

Here in the Mid-South, Kroger is ubiquitous. Lately, they've started upgrading and/or building some new, more upscale stores in some locations. They have a greatly expanded deli with, among other offerings:

• a sushi bar (decent sushi, not great but not bad)
• a Chinese take-out bar (beef and broccoli, General Tso's chicken, couple of other entrees, fried rice, noodles)
• a "Mexican" food bar (I use quotes because it appears to be only vaguely Mexican)
• a wings bar
• an extensive salad bar with four different soup offerings
• a hot counter with a couple of entrees and five or six sides, as well as fried chicken
• a cold case with all manner of salads, as well as grilled veggies, etc., that can either be eaten cold or warmed back up
• an expanded cheese section with a really good (for this part of the world) selection of cheeses, and they'll cut the size chunk you want
• a massive olive and antipasto bar
• and the sliced deli meat/cheese section will make you a sandwich to order and sell it to you by weight.

There are some packaged meals like premade sandwiches and salads. 

 

There's also a fairly decent, for this part of the world, seafood section, and a decent (for a supermarket) custom meat section.

 

There are some tables, but most people appear to be picking up stuff to take out. I've picked up lunch or dinner there more than a few times.

 

I agree that overall Kroger is upping their stores as far as as far as the deli section etc. goes and adding the Murray cheese shops etc. However while they are doing that I'm seeing an overall decline in their regular grocery items. They have more and more store brand items and fewer national brand items. While some of their store brand items are good there are certain items we definitely prefer the national brand and they no longer have them! The problem is that here in Louisville they are about the only game in town. We have a couple of Fresh Markets and a Whole Foods but other than that it's basically them or Walmart (both superstores and their standalone grocery stores). I grew up in Rochester New York, the home of Wegmans and would love to have 1 of them here!

[liuzhou]

6 hours ago, MSRadell said:

• a Chinese take-out bar (beef and broccoli, General Tso's chicken, couple of other entrees, fried rice, noodles)
• a "Mexican" food bar (I use quotes because it appears to be only vaguely Mexican)

 

You should use quotes on "Chinese", too, then.

Edited November 14, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[MetsFan5]

Kings is the local high end grocery store in NJ. The one in my town has a RAMEN BAR. 

  Yea. And they will make your own salad for you and chop it similar to Chop't or Hale and Hearty in NYC. 

    During lunch hours, the town has a cop directing traffic in and out of the parking lot. 

  I'm thinking I should swing by tonight and take pictures. 

 

  My local Shoprite is a "superstore" and has an oyster bar, artisanal pizza bar, sushi bar, etc and they deliver the food from these 'mini restaurants' on Grubhub. Basically like a Wegman's on steroids since they have a huge kitchen studio for classes, a daycare and yoga studio too. I could spend about 5 hours in there and never get bored. The sheer amount of prepped food is overwhelming for someone like me who really only leans towards a prepped rotisserie chicken on week nights. 

Edited November 30, 2016 by MetsFan5 (log)

[rotuts]

@MetsFan5  

 

Id love to see some picture.   Im pleased that large grocery stores w kitchens are being so creative.

 

their food you take home is better and even cheaper than major chain restaurants.

[MetsFan5]

@rotus this is the description of my local shoprite;

 

"

Store Features & Amenities: 

-Health & Wellness Center with pharmacy, registered dietitian services, fitness studio offering morning & evening classes and the Learning Center; education focused childcare. 
-Expanded Kosher selection 
-Ella Jane Beauty, cosmetics and jewelry lines including our in-store Beauty Advisor to help with all your beauty needs and product recommendations. From complimentary one-on-one consultations to beauty classes incorporating makeup application and skin care knowledge. Workshops, demos, events! 
-European Food Hall - inspired Village Food Garden. Featuring a traditional diner, BBQ joint, Lavazza Coffee Bar, Blueprint Subs and Salad shop, Juice Bar, traditional American, Italian, Japanese & Latin cuisines. Outdoor seating & delivery available. 
-Liquor department offering an expansive list of craft beer & fine wines 
-Top notch bakeries, produce, craft butcher & seafood departments"

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GRoston]

IMO, the only places to find good quality, reasonably-price, supermarket offerings is in local, ethnic markets. Here in southeast Michigan, we have quite a few. Most have fairly limited offerings, but what they have is usually quite good. For example, Dearborn Fresh (middle Eastern) has several entrees, salads, and baked goods. Their medium taboulli salad, for $5, weighs in at 1.5 lbs. Dos Hermanos Market, in Ypsilanti, has wonderful carnitas, barbacoa, and others (typically on the weekends only) for $5-7 per pound. Greenland Market (Dearborn, Middle Eastern), Honey Bee La Colmena (Detroit, Mexican), and Bozek (Hamtramck, Polish) are others that come to mind right away.

[quiet1]

I have to say I'd be delighted to see microwave packs like the ones @rotuts pictured - much as I like to cook some days I just can't, and it would improve the options tremendously if someone picking up something that was reasonable food ready to heat up was an easy option. (Not that frozen food isn't a great help, but we haven't managed to tame the 'cooking in advance at home' beast and so we end up mostly resorting to commercially frozen foods, which can be quite limiting in selection when you have special dietary needs like low sodium. So that ends up being mostly the same stuff all the time, which gets boring fast.)

[EatingBen]

On 08/11/2016 at 4:58 AM, Anna N said:

Our supermarkets of course offer similar things but I found most of them to be very unsatisfactory. Even Whole Foods proved to be so very disappointing in their ready to eat selections. Yet they seem to do a good business so perhaps it is something about my taste buds.  

It's you, it's also me and it's everyone else. 

 

I can do subtle flavours, I can pick up all kinds of things in food but even I find most supermarket foods bland and boring no matter how well cooked and I think it's intentional to appeal to the masses of people this is for who can't cook and "fear foods" that are different, interesting or unique to some people.

[GlorifiedRice]

Hey @gfweb  since you are familiar with my area (KOP/Valley Forge) did you see that KELLERS MARKET in Audubon/Oaks that occupied the old Genuardis? It popped up, then closed up. The owners are Korean, they have a Kellers in Philly and tried to open a mkt out here and it failed horribly.

They wanted to create a multi ethnic community market with fresh foods and live bands etc

But even at the Grand Opening they had no frozen section and many of the shelves were bare.

It just wasnt well thought out. I was really excited when I read the website, then the reality was

NOTHING!

They were talking about offering fresh foods that no other supermarket offered, shame.

[gfweb]

@GlorifiedRice What a shame. I'm still missing the Genuardi's in my area. Great store high quality foods.