Would You Grocery Shop in the Subway?

This post comes to us courtesy of food writer and editor James Schend, blogger at Dairy Freed. 

Over the years grocery shopping has evolved based on customers’ needs. Let’s start with Piggly Wiggly, which introduced shoppers to the idea of self-service. Then came large chain stores, like A&P and Kroger. They maintained stores that were fairly small and intimate but eliminated services like home delivery and onsite butchers. Supermarkets then took the country by storm, opening larger and larger facilities, which inevitably lead to warehouse stores. So what’s next?

Has British food giant, Tesco, taken the next step? After moving into the South Korean market, the company created an innovative way of increasing their business while offering customers an easier way to shop — in a virtual store. Using your smart phone, you shop by scanning a QR code of the item you want. When you’re done you simply select a delivery time and then catch the next train.

I, for one, would be thrilled to see this option in the San Francisco underground. But can it work in the United States? Would you grocery shop in the subway?

About the author: A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, James Schend’s culinary career began when he won his first cooking contest at 8 years old. He’s gone on to write and develop recipes for national magazines and culinary websites. His own blog Dairy Freed focuses on the challenges of dairy-free cooking.