Ready-2-Eat Home-style Fresh Food Success Up-Market and Coast to Coast

Walgreens acquisition of Duane Reade was a fresh re-start in New York City for the drug store leader. Today, Duane Reade is providing the innovation platform for the ever expanding Up-Market new footprint retail stores Walgreens is opening from Los Angles to Boston. 

Michelle Carnagio, Duane Reade’s perishables category specialist, talking about pharmacy’s customers “We’re bringing them in for the food and we’re keeping them there for the drugstore,”

Duane Reade today offers fresh foods at 56 of its 250 New York stores.  They have now opened a second “up market” concept in Manhattan with “home-style ready-to-eat prepared foods.”

The up-market stores have trained foodservice employees staffing chopped salad stations, a sushi bar, frozen yogurt machines, fresh bakery items and warm soups station.  

Carnagio when speaking with Supermarket news “We have some side dishes like mashed potatoes, a 1-pound container of mashed potatoes, that the ingredients in them are mashed potatoes, milk or cream, butter and a little bit of salt,” …“It’s like what you would make at home. So we’re offering customers an option — when they’re out and about in their work day— of convenience, but better than homemade because we made it.”

Walgreens via Duane Reade incorporates consumer relevance watching New York restaurant trends and incorporates them into prepared foods — including its sandwiches, soups, appetizers and sides including a new gourmet mac-and-cheese offering.  The retailer’s focus on fresh and premium ingredients extends even to grab-and-go sandwiches, which are made with artisan bread.

Success does leave clues and Walgreens Up-Market stores from Los Angles to Boston are finding it utilizing local sourced, fresh food and expanding the complement of offerings consumers can count on from Walgreens. Serving Mix and Match Meal component options that are fresh prepared is a hallmark of Grocerant niche success. 

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