Holder of a CAP cuisine and catering, Christian Marchi, was busy in the kitchen. The card this afternoon, colombo of chicken, lasagna with spinach and goat cheese or risotto of chicken and mushrooms. He must prepare, with his two colleagues, thirty recipes for 250 to 300 servings for the day. Christian is not working in a canteen, or in the kitchens of a restaurant. It is permanent since the summer of 2017 in the hypermarket Auchan Noyon, a town of 13 800 inhabitants, twenty minutes from Compiègne, in the Oise. And more exactly in the kitchen located in the heart of the store, of 6 200 m2, which are visited every day between 3 000 and 5 000 customers. “I never thought I would have to work a day in a large area. The work is identical to that of a restaurant, but the conditions are more pleasant for the privacy, ” says the one who was previously in the restaurant Garret Meals of Roye, in the Somme.
Since 2016, Auchan has begun to install open kitchens in the middle of some hypermarkets in order to prepare cooked dishes. One way to reallocate square meters, of which the economic activity (textiles, music…) has been devoured by the Internet. And one objective : to get customers back with an offer of meals of better quality and fully transformed on the spot.
This is an emerging trend that is becoming more and more important. Victims of the changing modes of consumption and a loss of interest for very large surfaces, food retailers are seeking to expand their activity to the concept of the meal prepared. The consultants call this phenomenon the ” distriration “, a contraction of the words “distribution” and ” restoration “. It seduced mainly consumers living in urban areas.
“The will of dramatization ”
A meal at five is consumed outside of the home, estimated the firm IRI in a study published in march. It was the market…
