Kroger Fresh Eats MKT offers new type of quick stop
Like every retail behemoth, Kroger wants all of the customers. The Cincinnati-based grocer has its large Kroger stores, Turkey Hill convenience shops, a stake in Lucky’s Market, and a bonanza of banners coast-tocoast — from upscale Harris Teeter in the Southeast to mega-outlet Fred Meyer in the Pacific Northwest.
Attempting to claim another niche is Fresh Eats MKT, a sleek woodand-black-metal mix of Turkey Hill, Kroger and Starbucks. The first opened on Wednesday in Blacklick.
With its 12,000-square-foot footprint — a Kroger grocery is five to 10 times bigger — the store has a lot packed under its flat roof. There are 12 gas pumps, a small pharmacy with drive-through window, fresh produce, a full-service Starbucks and compact aisles of typical Kroger groceries, from Private Selection label foods to Tide detergent.
“It’s about having a Kroger solution for every shopping trip,” said Tara Mosley, a Kroger spokeswoman. “We want to capture every shopper.”
There’s also a fast-casual-style restaurant offering made-to-order sandwiches, burrito bowls, pizzas, ice cream and smoothies. There are garage doors that open onto a patio seating area because no restaurant or bar these days can be built without them. Checkout is either convenience-store style at a counter, or via a trio of self-service checkouts similar to those found at a Kroger.
“It’s a nice small store,” said Irina Itunina who was shopping at the store on North Waggoner Road Wednesday afternoon. “It’s like a tiny Kroger.”
Itunina wasn’t alone. Fresh Eats captured a lot of customers Wednesday afternoon as people walked its aisles, picked through its beers and wines, and ordered meals to go.
“I was really thrilled it opened,” said Trudy Vance, who works nearby. “It is more convenient (than going to a bigger grocery store).”
That’s what Mosley wants to hear. Fresh Eats isn’t meant to replace Turkey Hill, or Kroger, but instead make “fill-in” shopping trips, where one might just need some eggs, a jug of milk, a bag of charcoal, or pick up a prescription while filling up a tank of gasoline, easier.
“We’re all about the fillingin trips,” Mosley said.
U.S. grocery sales hit $649 billion last year and are projected to rise 12 percent by 2021, according to a report published in November by Mintel, a market-research firm. The market is so large that retailers are charging after it with a slew of new and old store concepts, from traditional grocers to discounters like Big Lots, warehouse chains like Costco, and convenience stores like Sheetz and Fresh Eats. The restaurant in Fresh Eats is important as well, because a meal eaten out equates to lost sales at a grocery store.
“Not only are grocers and other food stores competing with each other,” Mintel’s report said, “but they are collectively competing with restaurants in the broader food-and-beverage category.”
Kroger has small-store formats in some other markets, most notably its Main & Vine store that opened last year in Gig Harbor, Washington. The company has been testing these concepts to enable it to fit into more and more places, according
to chief financial officer Mike Schlotman during an interview Tuesday with investment firm Goldman Sachs.
“We have different-sized stores, we have a multitude of formats,” Schlotman said. “We try to dissect the market and try to put the right store in the right part of the city.”
He even called out Fresh Eats during the interview, which is available online at ir.kroger.com/event, calling it a small test and saying, “that’s a different kind of convenience store.”
The store will employ about 60 people and is open 24 hours a day, though the pharmacy and restaurant will not run around-the-clock. A second location in central Ohio will open in June. After that, Fresh Eats plans two or three more local stores.
The Fresh Eats concept was tested in Marysville at a Turkey Hill that opened in 2013. That store is smaller than the Fresh Eats MKT, but has many of the same features.
One new feature though is a sign serving up the new concept’s bright attitude: “Free high 5 with every purchase.”