Table of orders: grocery retailers scale the restaurant business

Retail chains are striving to go beyond the sale of food and explore the catering market. Lenta is discussing the launch of restaurants in hypermarkets, and Perekrestok presented a supermarket with a digital cafe and a gastronomic studio in October. This format allows retailers not only to receive additional revenue, but also to stimulate sales of the main product range, creating new reasons for customers to visit the store, experts say. Izvestia investigated whether catering could become a sustainable source of income, rather than another experiment with the use of space.

Why do retail chains open restaurants

Lenta is considering the possibility of opening restaurants in its hypermarkets, a top manager of a large chain, two consultants in the retail real estate market and a restaurateur familiar with the discussion of the project told Izvestia. According to the two interlocutors, the retailer is exploring the possibility of cooperating with a large restaurant holding company to create a space where visitors can not only shop, but also spend their free time. In addition, the company allows for independent development of the restaurant business and, according to the top manager, is "thinking" about forming its own team.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Eduard Kornienko

Since 2023, the retailer has been developing the concept of a "center of gravity" for hypermarkets, a company representative said. It assumes that visitors will be able to buy ready-made food, have lunch at the store or spend time with family and friends over a cup of coffee. In addition, the retailer rents out space and develops its own formats — storefronts with ready-made food and the Lenta Fresh cafe.

The retailer has already attempted to launch a restaurant format, Mikhail Lachugin, the founder of the Product Media channel and an independent consultant to retail chain suppliers, recalled. In the summer of 2023, the company opened the Lenta Fresh Restaurant, a self-service establishment with an area of 590 square meters, in a hypermarket on Bukharestskaya Street in St. Petersburg. m for 120 seats. The project was supposed to increase the store's attendance and increase sales of its own products.

However, the company did not scale the format, because "it could not figure out how to profitably replicate it" in the regions, said a top manager of a large chain. At the same time, in September, Lenta opened a hypermarket with the Lenta Fresh cafe in the Marino district of Moscow, a company representative said. The retail area of the store was 2,544 square meters. m is half the size of a typical hypermarket chain.

How restaurants can improve the efficiency of retail facilities

The cafe at the store is the European standard, said Vyacheslav Korkin, project manager of the Shop of Shops. For example, Globus restaurants have been operating in all Russian hypermarkets of the chain since its launch in 2006, a company representative said. According to him, catering now accounts for more than 5% of the turnover of hypermarkets, and each restaurant on average serves about 160 thousand receipts per month. In January–September 2026, the number of items sold in Globus restaurant areas increased by 1.4% year-on-year, while the average receipt decreased by 5.5%.

Photo: Global Look Press/Roman Denisov

On October 9, Perekrestok, part of X5, opened an updated supermarket in Moscow's Afimall City shopping center. The digital cafe "Perekrestok Select" and a gastronomic studio with an open kitchen "Select Taste Studio", created jointly with the Hurma Group restaurant holding, appeared in the store. Tastings and cooking classes are held here, during which participants can prepare dishes from the products presented in the store. The retail area of the facility is 1.6 thousand square meters, said a representative of X5. One of the objectives of the project is to "marry" the restaurant business and retail, Dmitry Levitsky, the founder of the holding, explained at the opening.

Catering allows chains not only to receive additional revenue, but also to stimulate sales of the main product range, said Vladislava Brillyan, Senior Consultant at CMWP Retail Real Estate Department. Today, consumers have become less likely to visit stores, added a top manager of a large chain. In such circumstances, retailers are looking for new ways to attract customers by offering them more complex interaction scenarios than just buying goods. Restaurants help to retain an audience, stand out from competitors and increase sales in sales halls, the Globus representative agrees.

According to CMWP, in the first half of the year, the turnover of food retail increased by 4-6% year-on-year, while in catering the figure increased by 6-7%. As Vladislava Brillian explained, retail chains are trying to take advantage of this dynamic to increase profitability.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Bednyakov

In the case of Crossroads, a gastronomic studio can become a tool for studying customer preferences, Mikhail Lachugin believes. However, it will not be easy to turn a supermarket, where visitors come primarily for shopping, into a platform for fine cuisine and tastings, according to a top manager of a large retailer. Consumers are unlikely to go to the stores for new experiences, Vyacheslav Korkin agrees.

The economics of the restaurant format depend on the type of store, says the development director of a large retail company. In hypermarkets, catering can be placed in areas that do not generate sufficient revenue from the main trade. In small supermarkets, on the contrary, the restaurant can reduce the space for the product range. In addition, this area requires additional personnel and equipment costs, so an increase in store attendance does not guarantee a payback for the project. Using products from the store's assortment, including those that are nearing the end of their shelf life, can reduce costs in a cafe or restaurant, Vyacheslav Korkin added.