Bulk Foods and Self Serve Food Bars

[storewanderer]

A couple changes I noticed the past few days:

1. Bulk foods: WinCo now has bulk barrels again with dry pasta, dry rice, dry beans out loose and you dispense them with the scoop from the barrel. I am surprised by this - no other stores have opened loose bulk bins back up yet. I thought it was a health code issue. They must have determined since those items are needing to be cooked before consumption that they can open up the bins again. I wonder if the scoops are cleaned between customers or how that works (the department isn't staffed at all hours...). They have little bakery wax papers at the end of the bulk food aisles (not even in sight of these barrels) and a sign that says to use the tissue to touch the bins (most of which have pre-bagged items inside them).

2. Self serve food bar: Whole Foods reopened its self serve food bar and salad bar. It is operating 11-2 and 5-8 only. But they built a barricade of chip boxes around it and it is employee serve- there is a sign showing what they have and you tell the employee what you want and they package it up for you. You cannot really see what is in the food bar with how this is set up. I don't think this is going to work out. It will be interesting to see if they find this even worth running or if the waste plus added employee labor ends up exceeding the sales.

[Super S]

I will admit that I avoid bulk food bins after seeing kids sticking hands into containers and taking things out, only to be taken away by parents and thrown back in to the bins. I reported this to an employee who did nothing and have seen this more than once. I think bulk foods are not a good idea for high volume stores in the current situation when there is not an employee monitoring the area at all times.

Bulk may make sense for large quantities of pre-wrapped items like candy, but doing the math you can sometimes find the same items pre-bagged in the candy aisle for about the same cost. (I wonder if this is what led to the demise of the Brach's candy displays)

WinCo seems to be sticking with this concept though, where many others have either scaled bulk foods way back, or have done away with bulk altogether.

[klkla]

Whole Foods reopened its self serve food bar and salad bar. It is operating 11-2 and 5-8 only. But they built a barricade of chip boxes around it and it is employee serve- there is a sign showing what they have and you tell the employee what you want and they package it up for you. You cannot really see what is in the food bar with how this is set up. I don't think this is going to work out. It will be interesting to see if they find this even worth running or if the waste plus added employee labor ends up exceeding the sales.

They've been doing that for about a month here in LA. I'm sure it's temporary. It's not practical long-term.

[storewanderer]

WinCo re-closed its bulk foods area at some point in the past few days. Previously the "drop down" bins with dry unwrapped nuts and hard candies were open, and the barrels of rice/pasta had been opened up within the past few weeks which I found somewhat unbelievable. Now the bulk foods area is 100% closed. Everything (even the drop down bins which were previously open) is wrapped/taped shut so product cannot be accessed. The scoops and single use plastic gloves are gone.

[Bagels]

Not quite self-service but somewhat related....

The two Walmarts near me removed their full-service delis; they still sell hot food from the case, but now all deli meats & cheeses, salads, entrees, sides and desserts are now sold prepackaged only. The self-service chilled bakery cases were put in its place, and the bakeries are now sealed off, so this will likely be permanent.

[storewanderer]

Not quite self-service but somewhat related....

The two Walmarts near me removed their full-service delis; they still sell hot food from the case, but now all deli meats & cheeses, salads, entrees, sides and desserts are now sold prepackaged only. The self-service chilled bakery cases were put in its place, and the bakeries are now sealed off, so this will likely be permanent.

Does their prepack lunchmeat appear to be prepackaged by the store, or prepackaged outside the store?

What went into the spot where the bakery refrigeration was?

Wal Mart had switched to having only hot food and lunchmeat behind the service case in my area a couple years ago (no sides, salads, etc. by the pound from the service case); as a result a significant portion of the service deli cases was no longer being used (just had fake party trays etc.). In their newest supercenter in Reno on 2nd Street, it was built with a massive service deli case whenever it opened and at that one less than 1/3 of the service case is still merchandised.

Wal Mart is in the process of remodeling 3-4 stores around Reno so I am sure we will be seeing this change soon.

[pseudo3d]

Not quite self-service but somewhat related....

The two Walmarts near me removed their full-service delis; they still sell hot food from the case, but now all deli meats & cheeses, salads, entrees, sides and desserts are now sold prepackaged only. The self-service chilled bakery cases were put in its place, and the bakeries are now sealed off, so this will likely be permanent.

The bakery and the deli of Walmart aren't great (to say the least) but they do give a semblance to the whole "supermarket within a discount store" feature that the concept was originally supposed to embrace, and to see them close separates Walmart even further than the traditional supermarkets put on.

Connecting this with the significant loss of traffic in the evening hours to the supermarkets, I wonder if any Walmarts will end up "de-Supercentering" and close off the expanded food entirely.

In other news, my local H-E-B has yet to put donuts back in their display but does have a small display case with a few two-pack donuts and other products.

[TW-Upstate NY]

Not quite self-service but somewhat related....

The two Walmarts near me removed their full-service delis; they still sell hot food from the case, but now all deli meats & cheeses, salads, entrees, sides and desserts are now sold prepackaged only. The self-service chilled bakery cases were put in its place, and the bakeries are now sealed off, so this will likely be permanent.

I would think that's more to save on labor than anything else. Places like Aldi seem to get along just fine without a service deli or bakery.

[mbz321]

Not quite self-service but somewhat related....

The two Walmarts near me removed their full-service delis; they still sell hot food from the case, but now all deli meats & cheeses, salads, entrees, sides and desserts are now sold prepackaged only. The self-service chilled bakery cases were put in its place, and the bakeries are now sealed off, so this will likely be permanent.

I wouldn't be surprised if the full service Deli counters and a lot of the hot food items eventually go away. Maybe it is just my area, but they hardly seem to attract anyone, and even the hot/prepared food is minimal to non-existent except at their busiest locations.

[Alpha8472]

The hot food is mostly bought mostly by employees. The Walmart Neighborhood Markets near me do not have a service deli, but there is a small case of prepackaged hot foods. You might see some hot dogs ready to eat or some small packages of chicken wings. These look like items made for employees to buy for a quick lunch. No one goes out of their way to Walmart to buy a hot dog in a sleeve.

The Target Food Avenue was also mostly patronized by employees who were stuck there for lunch.