Fast food in supermarkets

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pseudo3d
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Re: Fast food in supermarkets

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote:I do remember that several of the Fiesta stores in Houston have Church's Chicken franchises in them as well. They are simple units in the front of the stores.
They do. And Rice Garden does seem to have a few Albertsons locations. There's a Tony Luke's inside an ACME.

I guess that part of it is that it just doesn't work, and the only ones that have tended to survive are coffeeshops and Chinese food. Stop & Shop added outposts of four local eateries in one of its Boston-area stores, and an H-E-B Plus in the Houston area added an outpost of local Greek restaurant Niko Niko's.
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Re: Fast food in supermarkets

Post by Brian Lutz »

There is one QFC in Redmond that has a Panda Express in the store (and I believe had Cinnabon a long time ago, dating back to the store's origin as an Olson's) and Starbucks is ubiquitous in Fred Meyer, QFC and Safeway stores here. I also know of a couple of Safeways with Jamba Juice instead of Starbucks (at least one I know of has a Starbucks right next door) and one QFC here used to have a Noah's Bagels inside. The 365 by Whole Foods store at Bellevue Square also has Wild Ginger kitchen (based on Wild Ginger, a local Thai place with 2 locations) although that's not exactly fast food.

There are still some Fred Meyer stores with spaces leased out to other merchants that may have a few of these, but the most recent round of remodels has mostly seen the stores reclaim the spaces to expand their grocery departments. Most of the ones I have seen go to small businesses, but I have seen Papa Murphy's in a couple of those.
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Re: Fast food in supermarkets

Post by cjd »

I agree on the profit margins and quality being the driving factor.

On the Chester Fried chicken, I remember that happening here in the Publix deli in the early 2000s. The fryers behind the counter were branded with the Chester Fried logo, which obviously shows they were using their supplies, but the menu boards and chicken packing were all just the Publix Deli logo. A few years later they went back to Giles fryers which were the actual maker, which probably means they started supplying their own chicken and batter. I don't remember any change in the quality of the fried chicken when they stopped using Chester.

I would like to see more seating areas in grocery stores. Even with our brand new Publix and those around there is no indoor seating so if I want a sandwich for lunch I have to sit in my car or go back to work. One new Publix does have outdoor tables with umbrellas for some reason, but Publix reserves indoor seating only for their largest stores. I believe all of the Winn Dixies with the transformational prototype have seating areas indoors, but usually small and most only had just a free coffee area like any other store would, but a few got small staffed snack bars. Some Publix stores have a Starbucks but it's very rare, typically stores with seating have a Publix coffee and snack bar.

The Walmart here originally was just a "snack bar", then a Radio Grill, a Blimpie subs, and now is Dunkin Donuts. I haven't gone in that area in several years, but at a glance it often seems to be empty of customers. At one time there was a pretzel shop as well in another stall near the front but it has closed. Another Super Walmart I haven't been to in a long time I think had a McDonald's but could be wrong but it also has another seating area near the deli.
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Re: Fast food in supermarkets

Post by Alpha8472 »

The Whole Foods 365 in Concord, California has 2 restaurants inside. One is a vegetarian burger restaurant with fake meat, and the other is a salad restaurant. The Whole Foods runs a taco restaurant in the back, which is sort of like the third restaurant. I have tried the fake burgers and they are quite good. Business is booming at the fake burger place, but not at the other two places.
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Re: Fast food in supermarkets

Post by pseudo3d »

Alpha8472 wrote: August 27th, 2018, 11:07 am The Whole Foods 365 in Concord, California has 2 restaurants inside. One is a vegetarian burger restaurant with fake meat, and the other is a salad restaurant. The Whole Foods runs a taco restaurant in the back, which is sort of like the third restaurant. I have tried the fake burgers and they are quite good. Business is booming at the fake burger place, but not at the other two places.
That's not real fast food, hardly at all. 365 seems to have some sort of thing where they contract out local food companies to do food service.
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