A new phenomenon has arrived in gastronomy, "the merchants". It is a union between supermarkets and restaurants, located in supermarkets. Customers can find a designated area within the supermarket itself to eat.
Many supermarket chains have taken the opportunity to open these new spaces, since it is normal for people to feel hungry when they see all those prepared dishes. The dishes are made with products that are displayed and sold in said supermarket. This great impact has generated that more and more people enjoy these places, which is why all supermarkets try to have this modality in their stores. In Spain, the Carrefour and Mercadona chains were the pioneers in creating these spaces for the consumer.
Merchants are here to stay, COVID-19 and confinement have helped this consolidation, due to their comfort.
Characteristics of a merchant.
A merchant offers comfort, eating good quality dishes while enjoying your favorite drink. It is ideal when you are in a hurry, since the dishes are prepared and you simply order what you want. It is a very fast service where the customer will have to wait just a few minutes to pick up their order and enjoy it.
It is also an advantage for people who do not know or do not like to cook, since as a general rule they are quite cheap prices. It is cheaper than a restaurant, since consumers pay the price of the food they choose and not their service. These competitive prices are one of the reasons that have increased the success of this new format.
Many people may come to liken this type of service to junk or fast food, but the reality is completely different. In these stalls there is a wide variety of healthy food, fresh products (from the supermarket itself) are used, they are not frozen dishes and they also offer vegan and vegetarian alternatives. In some stores, there is the possibility of making your own salad to taste with a wide variety of ingredients and options. Returning to the variety of all kinds of dishes, these prepared food spaces have Mediterranean food and traditional dishes such as lentils or paella, even pizzas, pasta, hamburgers or sushi.
Are they succeeding?
COVID-19 caused major problems for the hospitality service, which is why the consumption of hot meals and drinks outside the home decreased. As of today, according to the latest data from "The NPD Group", the sector foodservice monopolizes 4,2%.
Part of this increase is due to supermarkets that have boosted the merchant business. Some supermarkets have managed to bill 13% more than they did before the pandemic.
What is this success due to? One of the main reasons is that consumers avoid the task of cooking after having made purchases, saving a lot of time in their lives, since preparing a good meal is something that not everyone knows how to do. Before it was an innovative concept, today it has established itself as another option in the restaurant sector.
This trend has made its way into the restaurant industry by leaps and bounds. The future of the merchants is very optimistic, the supermarkets have high expectations, perhaps one day, they will open their own stores, far from the supermarkets.
Such is the fashion that not only supermarkets take advantage of this boom, but also the brands of some fresh products. In some supermarkets, we can come to see it as a kind of variant of these merchants, where only prepared dishes of certain brands are sold. They are usually products such as sushi, tortillas, croquettes, etc. Something more characteristic and unique. The only drawback is that you cannot consume them in the supermarket, since there is no space set up for it, as the merchants do.
