Grocery stores are evolving into more than just a place to pick up meat, bread, and vegetables. While offering prepared meal selections had already been set in motion pre-pandemic, grocers hit the accelerator during the last two years. Before the coronavirus pandemic, consumers were decreasing their meals at home and increasing their restaurant visits. But currently, restaurants and supermarkets are nearly splitting the market 50/50–and ready-to-eat meals are forecasted to report the fastest compound annual growth rate of 5.7% through 2028.

Today, grocery stores of all sizes offer some sort of ready-to-heat, ready-to-eat or ready-to-cook meal to pick up while they are shopping or to have delivered to their door. Grocers are placing more importance on hiring talented chefs in order to prepare creative, restaurant-quality meals customers will crave.

In addition to creating competition for meal delivery companies, Kroger partnered with Kitchen United to get in on the popularity of third-party app delivery. Ghost kitchens were constructed inside select stores to offer local, regional or national restaurant brands and can be ordered through mobile apps.

With changing customer demand, comes a need for safer, more efficient foodservice equipment. Where the majority of shelves used to simply hold boxes of produce ready to be displayed, now grocers need to allocate more space for containers of prepared food and ingredients that will be used on-site. So, how are grocers supposed to make more out of less?

Camshelving® Premium Series utilizes shared posts and open corners in order to expand your storage without adding any square footage to your space. It also comes with a rust and corrosion-free guarantee for life.

“Personally, my favorite part is in the corners. Instead of having two posts, where you lose a little bit of that corner, Camshelving opens up in corners more and you can reach back there a little easier,” said Ariel Garcia, Deli Manager at Kowalski’s Markets.

Based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, Kowalski’s switched out the metal shelving in two of their locations in favor of Camshelving because they “were having rust problems and some of the shelves were broken.”

In addition to breaking the cycle of replacing metal shelving, Garcia decided to get rust-free Ultimate Sheet Pan Racks.

“What I really liked about [the Ultimate Sheet Pan Racks] is how lightweight they were; they’re really easy to move. If you put them in the freezer, the wheels don’t lock up like the metal ones that we currently have at other stores do,” said Garcia. “With the touch of like your pinky, you could turn the rack, even if it was full; it’s just super smooth.”

The combination of Camshelving and Ultimate Sheet Pan Racks gives grocers a peace of mind that they are storing prepped food on the most sanitary foodservice surfaces possible. Contact your local Cambro sales rep to get started on transforming your kitchen today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ADRIANA DESIDERIO IS THE DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER AT CAMBRO.