When supermarkets get into the restaurant business — not just offering wrapped subs at the deli but setting up tables where customers can dine on burgers or panini — they quickly learn one reality: Customers will bring along their grocery carts.
That has been just as true at the 1-month-old Shop 'n Save store on Freedom Road in Cranberry as at the almost 2-year-old Giant Eagle Market District store in Robinson.
"They park their carts," said Jeff Sorbara, co-owner of six area Shop 'n Save stores as he showed off his newest one with an elevator-accessible balcony restaurant that seats more than 100 patrons, although perhaps not quite that many carts.
Supermarkets are ordering up restaurant spaces at a growing rate nationally, according to industry observers, and the trend has brought along a side dish of interesting lessons for an industry more used to dealing with the cleanup on aisle nine than providing an in-store dining experience.
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