Grocers Increase Offerings of Prepared Foods

(MoneyWatch)  Last week as I was getting on the elevator on my way out of Whole Foods (I know, I know, I'm crazy to shop there), three other people got on with me. Only one, like me, had a cart, which in her case held just one small bag, a 12-pack of bottled water, and a sack of something that smelled really good ?€" fresh roasted chicken, I thought. The other two had nothing. I jokingly asked if they were scared off by the high prices, and they said, no, they were there for lunch. The woman with the chicken said she had stopped in just to pick up dinner for the evening.

For some reason, it never occurs to me to eat at the grocery store, even though I half-notice when I'm shopping that a lot of other people seem to do it. And unless I'm bringing something to a potluck, it also never occurs to me to buy those ready-to-eat meals they sell.

But apparently, a lot of people are doing that, too. In a tight economy, a large number of Americans are avoiding restaurants. But decades of being trained to avoid the kitchen means that a lot of them are opting instead to pick up prepared foods at the grocery store for the family dinner. That's generally pricier than cooking at home, but it's still less expensive than eating out.

Some supermarkets are hoping that's a growing trend. Chris Serres at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that more chains are offering more prepared foods. They include Supervalu, the owner of Cub Foods, Albertson's, and Jewel-Osco, which this week introduced a line of 150 prepared-food items. They include chicken (a staple of the genre), salads, and pasta dishes.

But, Serres writes, "It's no longer enough for a supermarket to offer rotisserie chicken and potato salads. Now, a chain isn't competitive unless shoppers can walk out with gourmet soups, sauces and fresh bread -- which carry higher margins than a box of cereal." Supervalu has all those, too.

The company says the meals are priced 20-25 percent below casual-restaurant fare.

Other chains ?€" including, notably, Target ?€" are doing similar things.

The trend is driven largely by gas prices. Saving a trip to a restaurant -- and combining a grocery run with a dinner run -- saves both time and money.

But, Serres warns, if the economy turns around, people are likely to flock back to restaurants. " Though people are eating out less than they were two years ago," he writes, "the past 25 years has been marked by a steady, upward increase in the number of meals eaten at restaurants."

He quotes Harry Balzer, a vice president at NPD Group (and on whose name I choose not to comment), saying that in terms of food, "Americans are cheap and they are lazy. As soon as the economy improves and people have more money in their pockets, they will go right back to their old habits."

And it's not as if shifting resources and floor space to prepared foods is something that can be done ?€" or undone ?€" on a whim. It's difficult and expensive. In cities, it makes sense. In suburban areas, it might not.