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Some chains, like Mendocino Farms and Jimmy John’s (pictured), see a demand for bread and have started selling whole loves of it in addition to making sandwiches.
Other chains have offered much broader offerings, like Frisch’s Big Boy, which operates and franchises more than 100 family-dining restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. In late March, apart from bread, buns, dinner rolls and tortillas, the chain started selling bread, dinner rolls, five-pound bags of sugar, milk, single-serving breakfast cereals, produce, soda, toilet paper, ketchup and mustard as well as four-pound containers of its own tuna salad.
Subway (pictured) started testing a similar approach in Southern California in early April, and Panera Bread introduced Panera Grocery to its more than 2,000 locations. Panera already sold whole loaves of bread as well as apples, bagels and tubs of cream cheese, but it added more fruit, such as avocadoes and grapes, as well as milk, tubs of Greek yogurt and tubes of kids’ yogurt.
Tender Greens took a more curated approach with the introduction of grocery boxes at its 27 California locations in late March.
They include a $40 Morning Baking Box, featuring eggs, coffee, flour, 2% milk, white sugar, brown sugar, butter and baking soda; a Pantry Box for the same price, with bread, pasta, salami, tomato sauce, Pecorino cheese, yellow onion, grains, garlic, a bottle of wine and a roll of toilet paper; and a $25 Veggie Box (pictured) with potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, garlic, asparagus, sweet potatoes, ginger, turmeric, parsley, cilantro, Roma tomatoes and a roll of toilet paper, $25.
A premium option, the $65 Indoor Picnic Box, comes with a bottle each of Cabernet Sauvignon, Rosé and Sauvignon Blanc wines, grapes, crackers, baguette, salami, gouda, brie, cornichons, preserves, mustard, and olive oil, $65.
Other chains leveraged their expertise, such as Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Family Sports Pub, which apart from selling items like lettuce, tomatoes and limes at its roughly 150 restaurants, is selling raw chicken tenders, boneless skinless chicken breast, shrimp, fish and steak. Two 14-ounce bone-in rib eyes are $27.44.
Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Chão has launched a Freshly Carved by Fogo line at its nearly 50 locations, featuring its expertly sourced cuts of meat (pictured), such as fraldinha, or bottom sirloin, which is $16 for a 16-ounce steak, 1 5-pound beef short rib rack for $50 and a 20-ounce dry-aged wagyu New York Strip for $125, all sold raw.
Just Salad, TooJay’s Deli, Pollo Tropical, California Pizza Kitchen (pictured), Taziki’s and other chains have also started selling groceries.
