Issue date: Nov 14, 1999

Back to FOOD Special Report: Choices 2000

oday There's endless demand for variety, convenience, health and taste. Below are five distinct stores that specialize in meeting those demands. Four are newcomers, so none may be open in your neighborhood -- yet -- but all are banking on great growth.

And all are targeting people born after 1976. In 10 years, this generation will total 41% of the population and will likely cook at home more, inviting friends over for potluck meals from scratch. With items such as kiwi, basil and pine nuts commonplace, stores will race to stock an even greater variety of food. Produce sections once typically offered 40 items, now carry 400 and soon will stock 700.

Stores will rush to feed this info-hungry generation with product data and health updates, recipes for every item, and in-store nutritionists to guide shoppers through it all.

Here are 5 stores on the cutting edge.

1.The specialty:
Freshly prepared food
eatZi's Bakery & Market is takeout for people who want cooked-in taste. Think 1,800 choices each day. You enter through the aromatic kitchen and bakery; chefs prepare everything before your eyes, to opera music. (Warning: Shop for soap and staples elsewhere.) Takeout is the food industry's fastest-growing segment, with $62 billion in annual sales; that number will double by 2005. Today eatZi's has five stores (Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, New York and Rockville, Md.) and aims to have 1,000 in 10 years. For comparison, ubiquitous McDonald's has 24,500 stores worldwide.

Go to the top

2.The specialty:
Health
Wild Oats Markets is where natural products, vitamins, herbs and recycled packaging rule. Don't be surprised to see a masseuse in the aisles, soothing shoppers' aches. The staff in 80 stores in 20 states actually can answer your questions about the food.

Go to the top

3.The specialty:
Smart basics
A&P, the nation's 11th largest retailer, knows the average American goes to the grocery twice a week and spends $19.22 per trip. What we need, A&P says, is fewer trips, filled with adventure. "In the future, we will shop one time and have all of our needs met," says Christian Haub, the 35-year-old CEO of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Ahead: big flat-screen TVs that educate and entertain; self-scanning checkouts; interactive kiosks; and more product demos using fresh foods. Other future in-store choices: banking, dry cleaning. A&P has 577 stores, also known by seven other names.

Go to the top

4. The specialty:
Endless variety
Central Market is huge. On average, 70,000 square feet (twice the size of the average supermarket) with, for example, more than 500 varieties of produce, 2,000 wines, 700 cheeses and 170 brands of salsa. Says V.P. John Campbell: People are on a different "food schedule" Monday through Thursday (hurried) vs. weekends (relaxed). Whether you have two hours to read labels and pinch the produce or 10 minutes before the kids' homework, it's all here. Parent HEB launched the concept in 1997 in San Antonio; now there are three stores.

Go to the top

5. The specialty:
Cheap
U-Check Store is a Salem, Utah, prototype supermarket with no cashiers, but a debit-card system that uses 3-D fingerprint-identification technology. CEO Neldon Johnson envisions the world's first automated supermarket franchise (think automats for the 21st century), with 30,000 products on its shelves and a traditional layout. And lower prices: With no cashiers to pay (a 74% cut in labor costs), net profit is 8-10% vs. other supermarkets' profit of just over 1%. Shoppers save an average of 5%.

Go to the top