Specifically at grocery stores.
This weekend I was grocery shopping, and it occurred to me whilst attempting to find the one or two whole bean offerings amid the sea of pre-ground coffee and k-cups that I haven’t seen coffee grinders in a grocery store in years. It feels like, growing up through the 90s and early aughts, most stores would have at least a few options to grind fresh, or at least the Bakers near my home did. However, at some point, they were seemingly removed everywhere.
Of course, my intuition tells me that it benefits stores to not have such specialized machinery in place so as to allow maximum flexibility with store layout, but I’m curious if anyone has an inside scoop.
I think your intuition is probably right, but also Amazon happened. You can get a grinder delivered to your house in a day or two for like $10. Nobody who cares about fresh-ground coffee is going to hesitate to invest in a grinder when it costs less than a bag of beans.
That’s a bean slicer though, go the full mile and buy a burr grinder, a used pro one will last a lifetime too.
I can think of a lot of reasons for it.
- The machines take up a lot of space, and create a lot of mess.
- Pods have taken over a huge chunk of the pre-ground market.
- More people than ever have grinders at home.
- Packaging of pre-ground coffee is better than it used to be - better sealing containers, and fresher coffee to start with.
- The huge variety of coffee brands means that what you would get out isn’t what you put in.
There just isn’t much of a need for people who want to buy whole beans but grind them before getting home anymore. People will either buy whole beans and grind at home, buy ground coffee in a well-sealed container, or buy pods of some form.
Costco is my go-to place for coffee, and they still have them. However, I don’t use them, I bought a burr grinder. I prefer grinding the coffee beans right before brewing.
My local Costco stopped selling whole bean Pete’s Major Dickason’s blend. I asked why and got the answer that “we removed our grinders.” Lame. No one else can possibly have their own grinder and want to grind their beans fresh daily.
Well that’s annoying, hasn’t happened at my Costco yet but I may have to get coffee somewhere else if they do that at my store.
I have memories of them being featured on supermarket sweep as well.
I want to know why people who would buy whole beans would grind them in the store.
I often wish that you couldn’t even buy the same brands of coffee either ground or whole bean. The disappointment of accidentally getting a bag of pre ground coffee at some random coarseness is real.
Decreased demand.
- People who want something simple often use pods.
- People that buy whole bean are more likely to have grinders at home.
- In places like the US, especially on the coasts, many people have finally learned what good coffee tastes like, and it usually doesn’t come from pre-ground coffee.
Pre-ground coffee is also on the decline in my neck of the states. Almost all of the packaged coffee is whole bean because people have grinders.
For example I’m all of the above
- to keep things simple I use pods
- when I want something nice I have a grinder at home
- I do know at least a bit what makes good coffee the way I like it
But also a grinder at the store may have unknown cleanliness as well as a mix of different styles and flavors and ages. If you care about good coffee, that’s not it.
But yeah, that means there is so much I’ll never try because trying doesn’t justify buying a full bag
A few of the stores I shop still have Community Coffee branded coffee grinders. But not like it used to be with one in every store
Chiming in to say that I still see them fairly frequently. But also, as others noted, most people who want fresh ground coffee can just do it at home now.
Also, I imagine that the grinders were only ever really introduced to try to sell customers on more expensive whole-bean coffee that had a higher margin than folgers. But now every independent coffee shop sells beans in-store and you can choose from 10 million options online. So its not really drawing in new customers there either.
I imagine the stores keep the grinders because they’d be a hassle to remove, but then remove them when they break, since they aren’t worth it to fix.
This is interesting… I was not into coffee before COVID so I didn’t notice it before, wonder if it was indeed because of the pandemic as others mentioned
I don’t think Trader Joe’s is exactly a popular brand on Lemmy due to unrelated reasons, but if there is a Trader Joe’s near you, would you mind checking if they still have coffee grinders? I do vividly remember that my local Trader Joe’s store had one. Also I’m pretty sure most coffee roasters would still grind the beans for you (not that most serious coffee enjoyers ever use that service, but still)
I don’t shop at Trader Joe’s because it’s outside of my budget, but I have friends that do. I’ll be sure to ask them. Their niche as what I guess I’d call a “boutique grocery store” would seemingly allow for coffee grinders in-shop, if for no other reason than I think it appeals to what I’d imagine their key demographic is.
Sooo I guess since others mentioned this, I would like to clarify a few things…
TJ is indeed marketed as a “boutique” grocery store, and I think I heard somewhere that their founder made the store in a way where their ideal customer would be a rich kid who graduated from Harvard (not kidding). But they have been bought by Aldi a while back and follow a similar business model. Because of this, their prices are quite reasonable especially for how “high-class” they feel. Drawback is that TJs tend to have incomplete offerings, but are really well-stocked and reasonably priced on essentials and some trendy stuff (for example, vegan food: I’m not kidding they had more tofu than the nearby mainstream grocery chains)
I thought folks here would hate TJ not because the price, but because of their union busting practices (I won’t judge anyone for shopping there, but it’s just a good thing to know)
TJ’s isn’t boutique, though. Before I actually shopped there, I conflated it with Fresh Market for years, but it turned out they were far and away the cheapest grocery option anywhere near me until we got Aldi.
I shop Aldi more now because our TJ’s is always so busy, but since they’re all store-brand, their prices are still usually on the low side (other than meats).
WTF you talking about? TJs is mid or even lower price grocery.
The last place I saw one was Costco, but the one by me at the time removed it during the pandemic. I remember Whole Foods used to have them but I haven’t been in years.
I’ve never had a problem getting someone to grind a bag for me at Starbucks, including bags bought elsewhere.
They disappeared like pay phones, restaurants giving mints and toothpicks, and public water fountains.
Covid really killed a lot of stuff.
The only place I ever saw it was at Costco or a little specialty health food store mom used to go to when I was little. I haven’t been to the latter in decades, and Costco got rid of theirs a couple years ago. I think Costco’s reasoning was mostly about them being underutilized compared to the cost. My parents were never coffee drinkers, though, and I started trying when I was dating my wife but also started getting ulcers soon after, so coffee hasn’t been something I’ve really paid attention to.
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I think many people stopped using them, because they use machines at home that have built in grinders.
The coffee grinders hung on at several of the grocery stores near me, but got relocated to behind one of the checkout counters. They hung on there for a number of years but finally these got removed as well, along with the option to buy coffee beans loose and by weight. The majority of shoppers probably just bought pre-ground. For what it’s worth, myself and my parents were the only people I ever saw buying whole beans or using the grinders, over the span of decades.
One of the froofy high end grocery stores near me does still offer bulk beans (along with their other bulk products like dried fruit, lentils, trail mix, etc.) but there are no grinders in the store. They probably assume anyone who’s enough of a coffee nut these days would rather grind their own beans at home, and they’re probably right.
