Kansas City restaurants get into the grocery game to help survive COVID-19 shutdown

With its dining rooms shuttered due to the COVID-19 crisis, the De Soto, Kansas-based Goodcents Deli Fresh Subs chain pivoted to a carry-out and delivery-only operation — then quickly pivoted again by adding groceries to its lineup.

Goodcents’ “Stock the Fridge” promotion offers freshly-sliced meat for $5 a pound (including turkey, ham, oven-roasted chicken, salami, bologna and pepperoni), cheese at $5 a pound, and loaves of fresh-baked bread for 75 cents.

Goodcents president Mike O’ Toole said his customers want to make the most of each trip when they venture outside — pick up a sandwich to eat now, but also basics to make meals at home. The groceries also can be delivered.

The majority of U.S. restaurants are now affected by the mandated dine-in closures, with customer traffic dropping by 42 percent, on average, for the week ending March 29, compared with a year ago, according to the NPD Group’s weekly review of 70 chain restaurant transactions. Sales at full service restaurants, which aren’t typically set up for off-premise dining, declined 79 percent.

Retail experts said the grocery sales certainly won’t make up for all the lost sales during the shelter-in-place orders, but they will add a little to the coffers and help the restaurants stay in the minds of their customers. The grocery sales also are helping them keep workers on the payroll.

Some restaurants first started selling groceries to get rid of their well-stocked inventories. Now more and more restaurants are putting these staples on their menus.

Westport’s Snooze an A.M. Eatery has the “Provision Neighborhood Pack” with a gallon of milk, a gallon of orange juice, a loaf of sourdough bread, 12-ounce coffee, eggs, two avocados, butter and bananas for $45 — for pick-up or delivery.

Panera Bread’s new “Panera Grocery” has the tagline “From our pantry to yours.” Customers can pick up milk, a variety of breads, bagels and cream cheese, yogurt and some fresh produce such as apples, blueberries, avocados and tomatoes. The groceries are available at the drive-thru locations, curbside or delivery (free delivery though April 30).

Even upscale operations are opening their pantries.

Fogo de Chao Brazilian Steakhouse and The Capital Grille on the Country Club Plaza, as well as the four Hereford House locations (Independence, Leawood, Shawnee and Zona Rosa in the Northland), also are offering premium cuts of “ready to grill” meats.

Story restaurant in Prairie Village said customers are both ordering meals and picking up pantry items, such as freshly baked focaccia, its lemon vinaigrette, tomatillo sauce and coffee blends.

Fox and Pearl’s “provisions” focus on local vendors and include eggs, quail eggs, ice cream, coffee beans, hot sauce, salt roasted beets, white cheddar grits, ginger sage breakfast sausage and whole chickens.

Several restaurants also are rolling out “kits” to recreate the restaurant experience at home.

Spin Pizza has a Caesar salad kit for $10 —Romaine lettuce, Parmesan, croutons and house-made Caesar dressing for three or four small salads. Roasted chicken is $5 more.

Einstein Bros. Bagels’ “Take & Make Pizza Bagel Kit” has all the ingredients to make six cheese pizza bagel slices and six pepperoni pizza bagel slices for $9.99. Its bagel deli kit includes six fresh-baked bagels, turkey and ham, cheddar cheese, fresh-cut tomato, onion, lettuce and mayonnaise and mustard packets — $29.99 for six servings.

Restaurants also are giving liquor stores some competition.

Bristol Seafood + Steak + Social in Leawood and the Power & Light District, and Carmen’s Cafe in Brookside are among those opening up their wine cellars and offering bottled wine at discounted prices.

Coresight Research, which focuses on retail and technology research, said hotels, such as The Tiger Hotel in Columbia, Missouri, also have done pop-ups during the pandemic to sell cleaning supplies and bathroom essentials when some groceries are struggling to keep their shelves filled with these items. The hotel had about 10,000 rolls of toilet paper.

In another twist, local favorite Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue is supplementing grocery store meat departments by offering several of its products — including slabs, pulled pork and burnt ends — in about 60 area markets.

“Their suppliers were low on proteins, while we had plenty,” said Fiorella’s CEO Case Dorman.

As for Goodcents’ “Stock the Fridge,” it has been so popular that it might become a permanent option once the dining rooms reopen. And the chain plans to keep prices low.

“We wanted to make sure we were pricing honestly. We’re not trying to make a bunch of money doing this. It’s for our employees and customers,” company president O’Toole said.

This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 5:00 AM.