Specifically at grocery stores.
This weekend I was grocery shopping, and it occurred to me whilst attempting to find the one or two whole bean offerings amid the sea of pre-ground coffee and k-cups that I haven’t seen coffee grinders in a grocery store in years. It feels like, growing up through the 90s and early aughts, most stores would have at least a few options to grind fresh, or at least the Bakers near my home did. However, at some point, they were seemingly removed everywhere.
Of course, my intuition tells me that it benefits stores to not have such specialized machinery in place so as to allow maximum flexibility with store layout, but I’m curious if anyone has an inside scoop.
This is interesting… I was not into coffee before COVID so I didn’t notice it before, wonder if it was indeed because of the pandemic as others mentioned
I don’t think Trader Joe’s is exactly a popular brand on Lemmy due to unrelated reasons, but if there is a Trader Joe’s near you, would you mind checking if they still have coffee grinders? I do vividly remember that my local Trader Joe’s store had one. Also I’m pretty sure most coffee roasters would still grind the beans for you (not that most serious coffee enjoyers ever use that service, but still)
I don’t shop at Trader Joe’s because it’s outside of my budget, but I have friends that do. I’ll be sure to ask them. Their niche as what I guess I’d call a “boutique grocery store” would seemingly allow for coffee grinders in-shop, if for no other reason than I think it appeals to what I’d imagine their key demographic is.
Sooo I guess since others mentioned this, I would like to clarify a few things…
TJ is indeed marketed as a “boutique” grocery store, and I think I heard somewhere that their founder made the store in a way where their ideal customer would be a rich kid who graduated from Harvard (not kidding). But they have been bought by Aldi a while back and follow a similar business model. Because of this, their prices are quite reasonable especially for how “high-class” they feel. Drawback is that TJs tend to have incomplete offerings, but are really well-stocked and reasonably priced on essentials and some trendy stuff (for example, vegan food: I’m not kidding they had more tofu than the nearby mainstream grocery chains)
I thought folks here would hate TJ not because the price, but because of their union busting practices (I won’t judge anyone for shopping there, but it’s just a good thing to know)
I wonder if you accidentally conflated Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Whole Foods is the $12.99 half gallon of milk and free-range virgin clover honeybee excretion that can’t legally be called honey.
TJ’s isn’t boutique, though. Before I actually shopped there, I conflated it with Fresh Market for years, but it turned out they were far and away the cheapest grocery option anywhere near me until we got Aldi.
I shop Aldi more now because our TJ’s is always so busy, but since they’re all store-brand, their prices are still usually on the low side (other than meats).
WTF you talking about? TJs is mid or even lower price grocery.