The Ingenious Way This Grocery Store Is Repurposing Its Salad Bar
In the age of the pandemic, plenty of things have changed, and even mundane tasks like grocery shopping look a lot different than they used to. Costco now requires customers to wear face masks to enter stores, Aldi has installed plexiglas shields at registers, reusable bags are no longer recommended in favor of the previously-maligned plastic bag, and grocery chains whose employees put themselves on the front lines every day have thanked their workers by increasing pay rates.
Another thing you might notice in grocery stores these days is a limited stock of items. Though panic-buying seems to have slowed some, the country is currently facing a meat shortage, with some chains limiting the purchase of poultry, beef, and pork to prevent hoarding. The baking aisle, where the yeast and bags of flour previously lived, might still look a little slim. But one place in the grocery store that's probably completely empty is the salad bar. That's because, according to Marketplace, the FDA has recommended "discontinuing self-serving stations that require customers to use common utensils or dispensers, like salad bars and buffets."
With salad bars closed, grocery stores have to get creative
So what's a grocery store to do with an empty salad bar? Repurpose it into something useful, that's what. Twitter user @emzorbit recently posted a photo of how her grocery store is solving its lack of salad bar problem. "My grocery store has replaced the salad in the salad bar with.... liquor," she tweeted on May 19.
Indeed, each bin that was formerly full of greens, chopped veggies, and salad dressings is now full of bottles of booze. With bargain-basement airplane bottles for just a buck one side, and full size cans and bottles on the side, this buffet is likely a hit with plenty of shoppers. The Washington Post reported that alcohol sales skyrocketed by 55 percent in mid-March, so it's safe to say that this grocery store's new salad bar is what many customers want.
It's not just salad bars that are getting a new look
Okay, so the salad bar is looking a little boozier than usual, but it's fine — we're in the middle of a pandemic, after all. But keep pushing your cart towards the back of the store and another section might look a little different: the meat cases. Remember that meat shortage we mentioned earlier? One shopper took to Twitter to show how their grocery store is using the now-empty cases, and you can probably guess where this is going...
"Mine replaced the meat with beer," @frndlypeach said in response to their fellow tweeter's salad bar discovery. According to posted signs, the pork that formerly occupied the case has been moved down to live with the chicken, presumably because there's less product to stock. Hey, might as well use the space for something useful, right?