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As the adoption of online food shopping continues to grow, what lies ahead for grocery shopping? Food retail is in need of some change, but how exactly are grocery store chains adapting to this new wave of retail trends? Let’s take a look at five ways grocery stores are innovating for 2019 and beyond.

Grocery Stores Will Offer an Experience

In 2016 and 2017, consumers in America spent more money on food at bars and restaurants than they did at grocery stores. Supermarkets will need to think creatively to combat this. Some stores in smaller cities have transformed their space to combine groceries with entertainment. Kroger has plans to open a store in 2019 in downtown Cincinnati that will include a second-floor bar operated by third parties and ready-to-eat items by vendors.

Grocers Leasing Vacant Mall Space

Recently, Whole Foods opened a store in a former Sears location mall in Florida. As mall operators look to supermarkets to fill their anchor department spaces, ancillary merchants like spice shops, wine stores, and cooking suppliers will take adjacent vacant spaces as they open, to form little food hubs. Since the malls need the foot traffic and the grocers need the large blocks of space, the marriage of the two concepts is a truly innovative solution.

Auto Replacement

Many grocery store companies are feeling pressured by the convenience of fast replenishment services offered by Wal-Mart’s Easy Reorder or Amazon Dash. Because of this, grocers will include auto-replenishment on their online marketplaces. Currently, 47 percent of consumers in the United States said they would take advantage of auto-replenishment for household items like toilet paper and soap according to Accenture Strategy. These same consumers also said they would use auto-replenishment for fresh food items like vegetables.

Kiosk

Traditional supermarket operators will need to compete with Amazon as they continue to enter the grocery format. This is where freestanding grocery kiosks will come into the sphere. They will be installed in office buildings, train stations, and other convenient spots for commuters. This will allow for quick orders that can be picked up on their way home or can be delivered. While more expensive than mobile apps, these kiosks can serve as a way to advertise and alert even the busiest commuter of their immediate needs. A kiosk could also promote various items.

Collaboration

New technology will help grocery stores go on camera and sell products live. By collaborating with major household and food brands, grocers can create sponsored online programming that features cooking, cleaning tips and live entertainment along with cooking segments. Viewers will have the chance to click and order any of the products featured. For example, a guest chef could make a recipe using ingredients that the shopper can then order live and make that evening.

Grocery stores will need to adapt to all of the changes that are happening in the retail sector. These are just a few of the ways grocery stores will innovate for 2019 and beyond.

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In certain areas of the country, malls that used to be filled with shoppers are now disappearing and becoming large, vacant pieces of property. Many of these cities have converted these former shopping centers into residences, office space, fitness centers, etc. Let’s discuss seven uses for vacant mall space.

Data Centers

In certain cities such as Baltimore, vacant malls have become prime space for data centers. In the Marley Station Mall in Baltimore, a data center company purchased one wing and has found so much success that they now want to buy out the rest of the mall. Former big box stores in vacant malls in Indiana and Mississippi will also be transitioned to data centers soon. This model has worked well for data center company Rackspace, which has turned two former malls into use as office buildings.

Charter Schools

The amount of space available in vacant malls can be exceptional for charter schools. In Boise, an abandoned mall became a new home for a public charter school. The school had 550 students in kindergarten through tenth grade and plans to grow to over 1,000 students in grades kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Residences

The United States’ first-ever enclosed shopping mall has been transformed into dozens of micro-lofts, many of which are no larger than 225 square feet. The smaller residences in downtown Providence, Rhode Island had a waiting list of 4,000 people, partly because of the affordability since many units start at $550 per month.

Supermarkets

There are very few retailers that need the amount of space that big box stores need. Supermarkets are the exception and in addition to filling empty space, they can increase the amount of foot traffic in a mall.

Hotels

Adding a hotel to a mall can achieve many of the benefits that adding residences does. It may even be more convenient for travelers who need to eat out and take advantage of all the restaurants in the mall. Hotel visitors will also add foot traffic to the mall even if it is just to go grab a bite to eat or escape the hotel room for a bit.

Co-working Space

Vacant mall spaces are prime locations for co-working space because they offer plenty of parking and people utilizing this service can patronize the food court, coffee spots, restaurants, and mall shops in between working hours because it is so convenient.

Nonprofits

A short-term space is ideal for a non-profit and a great solution for malls that are struggling to keep retailers to avoid looking empty. By letting a local animal shelter set up a pop-up shop where people can adopt cats and dogs, the mall owners get to fill a vacant space with something that will attract people and other tenants won’t consider it competition.

There are plenty of different options to fill up vacant mall space. Whether it be to transform it into a data center or add in residences, the options are endless for this type of large space.

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