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I arrived at my sister’s house yesterday as she was unloading groceries from her car. I thought nothing of the bags of fresh produce that comprised the majority of her 15 bags of groceries. But it seemed that the amount of vegetables and fruit came to a surprise to the employee that bagged her purchases.

“Do you own a restaurant?”, asked the bagger to my sister. “Well, no.”,she replied.

As the bagger helped her take the groceries to the car he mentioned that he was a recent immigrant from Serbia. He had been working at this grocery store (outfitted with more upscale products due to its demographics) for one month and had yet to see anyone buy anywhere close to the amount of fresh produce as she had purchased.

“Everything frozen, frozen, frozen, or prepared.” said the bagger. “Where I come from everything is prepared from fresh everyday”. This is true in most of the world. The selection of frozen, prepared foods available world-wide, is nowhere near the amount as is it available in the U.S.
Many people’s diets world-wide is dictated by what is seasonal or by what they grow. Providing that there is enough food available.

For as much as I’d like to think that the growing trend in retail grocery is organic, fresh and healthy foods,the observation by a recent immigrant comes not as a surprise. I was jolted back into reality by the anecdote because as an avid observer of trends, I was rallying for the idea that American consumers were taking their health more seriously and eating healthier.

What I ignored,trendwise, is that frozen and prepared foods are growing businesses. Grocery stores are incorporating more prepared food stations in their locales. Independent retailers, or mom-and-pop grocery stores make their niche and profits by providing some specialized foods-to-go.

The next step for me, if I were truly interested in the grocery business, would be to check on actual data to see if the observation by the bagger was in step with the actual sales numbers.

The observation that most people seem to be eating more prepared foods reminded me not only to eat my fresh vegetables. But it reminded me, as an independent retailer, to not be as swayed in only adopting trends that appeal to me, as my personal ideals may not represent the full picture of what my customers want (or think they need).