http://www.roanoke.com/business/wb/242829Use of grocery salad bars wilting
Some Kroger stores are replacing them with convenience foods and expanding selections in the produce department.
An essential part of Dawn Bowles' lunchtime routine is missing from the Kroger store at Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke.
Bowles, a clinical research nurse at Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, used to stop at the store to load up a disposable container with leafy lettuce, vegetables and other items from the store's salad bar.
Her favorite was a taco salad. She'd pick up a taco shell and fill it with seasoned meat and other fixings.
But Bowles' lunch option has been replaced with packaged cheddar and bacon cobb salads, sub sandwiches and slices of lemon cake, stacked on a refrigerated cold island. Some of these prepackaged varieties are part of Kroger's new grab-and-go line, called Wholesome @ Home.
"I came in one day, and it [the salad bar] was gone," Bowles said. "I was like, 'What am I going to do?' It's a bummer."
The convenience-driven nature of most Americans is a factor forcing the slow obsolescence of salad bars at Kroger stores in the Roanoke Valley and at other supermarkets nationwide.
The growing presence of prepackaged meals in the grocery aisle is symbolic of an evolving mindset: American consumers want food convenient and at a value price.
Increasingly, grocers are eliminating salad bars, and in the case of Kroger, replacing them with prepackaged foods that they believe more people want. Some Kroger stores that once housed salad bars also expanded their produce departments with more vegetable and fruit offerings.
Also, Kroger has beefed up the presence of olive and gourmet cheese bars in many of its new or remodeled locations in the Roanoke Valley and nationwide, according to Meghan Glynn, a spokeswoman for the Cincinnati-based Kroger Co.
As for salad bars, some grocers say they no longer can keep up with these labor-intense bars, especially because they do not generate a high sales return.
Efficiency, cost savings
Ironically, the removal of salad bars at some supermarkets comes as federal legislators lobby to promote and add salad bars to the nation's schools in an effort to limit childhood obesity and encourage nutrition.
Essentially, the decision to oust salad bars at the supermarket is about efficiency and cost savings, food retailing experts say.
One grocery expert questioned whether the traditional supermarket salad bar ever gained traction in the first place. Frank Dell, president of Dellmart & Co., a Connecticut supermarket consulting firm, said that vegetable bars likely appeared in grocery stores in the late 1990s or early 2000s. At the time, they were a revolution of sorts for the grab-and-go consumer.
Salad bars were a "first generation home meal replacement," Dell said. But ultimately, they have not been profitable ventures and they carry a high potential for sanitary and health issues, he said, because "you've got to constantly clean it up."
To be sure, no health concerns have been raised for Kroger's salad bars in the Roanoke Valley, said Elaine Lidholm, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which inspects these bars.
Even so, changes in American eating habits are some of the reasons that some supermarkets are giving salad bars the boot. It's been at least six months since one of the last salad bars stood at a local Kroger, which was the Towers store, said Eric Williams, store manager.
Not enough people were using these bars, said Carl York, a spokesman for Kroger's Mid-Atlantic region, based in Roanoke.
"Our business is dictated by our customers' wants and desires," he said.
Not all Kroger stores nationwide are doing away with salad bars, though it's happening in parts of the country where customer demand is low, Glynn said.
The labor involved in maintaining a salad bar likely is killing the concept, retailers and grocery experts said. Employees are responsible for cleaning and preparing the produce and stocking the bar.
"You're constantly working it," York said. "It's not like grocery, where you put it on the shelves."
It makes sense that some grocers would shed salad bars if there's low return for the work involved, said Meg Major, an editor at Progressive Grocer, a supermarket industry publication.
However, not all grocery chains are eliminating salad bars. Some are adding unique bar concepts with increased gusto and usually as a result of a store remodel, Major said. They may range from salad concepts to wing or hot soup bars. Mostly, they've been added to grocery stores that have indoor seating or cafe environments, Major said.
Some of these remodels, however, have slowed because of the poor economic climate, said Wade Hanson, director of research and consulting with Technomic, a Chicago food industry firm.
Change in consumer
Some area Kroger stores added olive and gourmet cheese bars as part of upscale renovations in the past few years. That's largely to appeal to a growing nucleus of consumers who are turning to at-home cooking and entertaining, Glynn said.
But the elimination of supermarket salad bars reflects the evolution of a grocer's produce department. More fruits and vegetables are sold in containers or bags nowadays, rather than in raw versions, Dell said.
Kroger also is pushing a new brand of Fresh Selections bagged salads, mostly for its companion traceability system. Through HarvestMark.com, consumers can enter a salad bag's 16-digit code and trace its origin, ingredients, packing location, and date and time that the produce was packaged.
New salad bag revolutions reflect "the change in the consumer," Dell said. "They don't want to chop up a head of lettuce. They want to grab a bag."
Convenience foods appeal to some consumers who stop by the grocery store between 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on a weekday, which is the highest volume period of the day at most supermarkets, he said.
Most are asking, 'What am I having for dinner tonight?' " Dell said. "It has to be solved on the way home."
With the demise of salad bars, Kroger claims that it is appealing to these convenience-oriented consumers with its roll-out months ago of new prepackaged sandwiches and salads. Roanoke is one of several test markets for the chain's Wholesome @ Home products, which include a variety of packaged salads for $3.69.
On-the-go choices
Grab-and-go food is a small but growing part of some grocers' sales, including Kroger's.
In 2009, some supermarkets saw 6 percent to 8 percent increases in prepared food sales, said Hanson of Technomic. He characterizes prepared foods as ready-to-heat (in a microwave) or ready-to-eat meals.
Alisia Bender is particularly fond of Kroger's new prepackaged chicken salad croissants. She works as a nurse at Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem, and her time for dinner in the evenings typically is limited.
Bender never visited the salad bar at Kroger's store at Ridgewood Farms shopping center in Salem, because it didn't appeal to her. "It was salad, that was it," she said.
Bender said she likes the variety of prepackaged foods, from a $3.79 chicken salad croissant to a $2.99 roast beef and cheddar sandwich and $1.49 for slices of cherry pudding cake.
"It's easy to come in and grab something and go," said Bender, who lives in Salem.
Still, these on-the-go choices aren't for everyone.
David Huggett said he enjoyed buying vegetables from Kroger's salad bar on days when he planned to make stir-fry for dinner. With the salad bar, the Roanoke resident said he could purchase small portions, rather than a large bulk of vegetables.
"You don't have to buy more than you want," he said.
Now, Huggett's missing the grocer's salad bars.
And what about the prepackaged meal varieties?
"I will just walk right by," he said.
