Rebecca Cook/ReutersFormer Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb said customer traffic to physical grocery stores may never return to pre-pandemic levels with demand for online grocery services surging.
report that he co-authored on the future of food. "COVID really just highlighted and accelerated this generational change in food retail." Robb said he expects grocery stores to generate 40% to 50% of their sales from digital channels within eight to 10 years, up from less than 10% today."I don't think the traffic is ever coming back to where it was before," Robb said, referring to pre-pandemic times.
One of the "cracks" that the virus has exposed is the vulnerability of some retailers' supply chains in times of crisis, which has led to widespread outages of products nationwide over the last several months. At the same time, food retailers should be preparing for a revolution in the kinds of food that shoppers are consuming, according to Robb.
I can't see the article, but I will say when I drive by certain supermarkets and I notice some of the folks coming out of the door with no mask on, I immediately decide that I will not shop there. I live in a mask mandatory state, so it's important to me.