Tired of comparisons to the much flashier internet, supermarkets are working hard to ditch their unsexy descriptor: big-box stores. These days you’ll find a Murray’s Cheese outpost in Kroger, a kombucha bar at Whole Foods and poke bowl counter at Albertsons. All these flashy foodie options are good distractions from what’s happening under the hood, which is that grocery stores — the physical four walls — are going digital.
Read MoreLocated in a gritty section of Manhattan called Hell’s Kitchen is a large grocery store stocked with everyday essentials — but it’s not open to the public. The building is leased by Fresh Direct, the largest online grocer in the northeast; it’s part of a new hybrid of on-demand shopping and is called a “dark store.”
Read MoreIn Everyday with Rachel Ray's July/August issue I went out and talked to experts to find out what the supermarket of the future would look like. Included are: Mike Lee, founder of Studio Industries, Marco Gualtieri, founder of Seeds & Chips, Dan Phillips, designer at Phillips Enterprises Inc, Collin Payne, Lisa Picard, EVP Skanska, and Phil Lempert, the Supermarket Guru.
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