美国国家公共电台 NPR Grocery Stores Draw Millennials With In-Store Restaurants

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Imagine going to the grocery store for dinner, not just to pick up a bag of corn chips and cheese dip for dinner and eat it at home, but actually eating in the supermarket. Many markets are adding sit-down restaurants. Kristofor Husted of member station KBIA in Missouri reports.

KRISTOFOR HUSTED, BYLINE¹: At the Hy-Vee grocery store in Columbia, just past the produce aisle², in between the sushi and deli counters are glass doors marked with the words Market Grille.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

HUSTED: Inside, it's happy hour. There's music playing, and TVs showing sports. Thirty-year-old Rob Hunt grabs a booth with his friend and opens the menu featuring half-off appetizers³.

ROB HUNT: We've been coming almost every Wednesday this summer for our after-work beer.

HUSTED: All of the ingredients for the menu come from the store. They're cooked in the kitchen and served here. Hunt says the variety of food, the local craft beer on tap and, ultimately, the price are a big draw.

HUNT: You can't get $2 pints⁴ of beer anywhere else. And that's honestly (laughter) like the biggest thing. We tried a couple other places this summer. And they were fun. But it's just cheaper here.

JEREMY GOSCH: We just thought it was the next natural step to add restaurants that have, you know, a full-service bar.

HUSTED: Jeremy Gosch is an executive vice⁵ president with Hy-Vee.

GOSCH: You know, a seating area apart from the store - different ambiance, different lighting⁶, different atmosphere, different sound, different music, full service.

HUSTED: Across the country, supermarkets like Whole Foods have been offering sit-down dining and drink deals for years. The trend of adding full restaurants, sometimes called groceraunts (ph), falls in line with the uptick in prepared store meals, which has grown 30 percent since 2008 and driven $10 billion in sales last year, according to restaurant research groups. Jeremy Gosch says people are looking for more options in prepared foods. And the traditional center of the store with cans of beans and boxes of cereal has had to make room.

GOSCH: I think as you look long-term and we continue to roll out into existing stores, you know, from food service updates and expansion, especially on meals to go for consumption at home, I think you'll see a little bit of that compression.

HUSTED: A large part of this shift is thanks to millennials who are more likely to dine out than other generations. Millennials surveyed by a financial services firm, Morgan Stanley, were 10 percent more likely to have eaten out in the past week. Today, groceraunts are hiring Culinary Institute of America graduates as chefs and featuring seasonal⁷ menus. Food Industry Analyst⁸ Phil Lempert says that also appeals to millennials.

PHIL LEMPERT: So what these groceraunts can do is give them a convenient location where they can meet their friends, where they can have great food and have it at a great value. So that becomes, you know, a terrific formula to attract this generation.

HUSTED: Millennials are also turning away from slumping⁹ restaurant chains like Chili's and Applebee's, which plans to close up to 60 locations this year. That's forcing some chains to look toward grocery stores as potential partners. Think of Starbucks and Caribou¹⁰ coffee kiosks in grocery stores, except in this case, Wolfgang Puck wants his cafe to become the in-house restaurant.

LEMPERT: Now these restaurateurs want their space in the supermarket as well because they know that it's more convenient for people. It's more of a one-stop shop. And it's hurting their traditional restaurants.

HUSTED: Phil Lempert says the next step may be to add home meal-delivery options. Food marketers are looking at the Amazon purchase of Whole Foods and seeing both more groceraunts and groceries and dinner being delivered together. For NPR News, I'm Kristofor Husted in Columbia, Mo.

SIMON: And that story comes to us from Harvest Public Media, a public radio reporting project that focuses on agriculture and food production.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

3 appetizers   

n.开胃品( appetizer的名词复数 )；促进食欲的活动；刺激欲望的东西；吊胃口的东西

参考例句：

• Here is the egg drop and appetizers to follow. 这是您要的蛋花汤和开胃品。 来自互联网
• Would you like appetizers or a salad to go with that? 你要不要小菜或色拉？ 来自互联网

4 pints   

n.品脱( pint的名词复数 )；一品脱啤酒

参考例句：

• I drew off three pints of beer from the barrel. 我从酒桶里抽出三品脱啤酒。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Two pints today, please. 今天请来两品脱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

7 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

8 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

9 slumping   

大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的现在分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下]

参考例句：

• Hong Kong's slumping economy also caused a rise in bankruptcy applications. 香港经济低迷，破产申请个案随之上升。
• And as with slumping, over-arching can also be a simple postural habit. 就像弯腰驼背，过度挺直也可能只是一种习惯性姿势。

10 caribou   

n.北美驯鹿

参考例句：

• Afar off he heard the squawking of caribou calves.他听到远处有一群小驯鹿尖叫的声音。
• The Eskimos played soccer on ice and used balls filled with caribou hair and grass.爱斯基摩人在冰上踢球，他们用的是驯鹿的毛发和草填充成的球。