I try not to go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. I expect if I did, I would come home with more snack food than I need. Sure, it’s organic and natural, but I don’t need three bags of potato chips.

However, if I happen upon my weekly Sprouts trip hungry, I can always get a sandwich or a bowl of soup at the deli. More than once, I have found occasion to use this store within a store, and it seems I am not alone.

An article in the Sacramento Bee explores this phenomenon of including mini stores within grocery or other retail markets. At Sprout in my example above, the deli is owned by Sprouts itself, but many of the stores within a store are an entirely different company, like Starbucks for example. My dad has a weekly date at Starbucks located inside an Albertsons with his brother. He says they go there to “gossip.”

Now, I’m not sure if my dad ever picks up coffee to make at home while he’s at Albertson’s, but the Sacramento Bee said the more coffee brands offered in one location, the more customers and thus, more sales. Therefore, both Starbucks and Albertson’s benefit from this arrangement.

In the article, a retail analyst from the NPD group said these collaborations will continue to grow; some restaurants are even opening up mini restaurants within them.

I see the benefit of these mini stores; if one store doesn’t want to invest in creating a new product line, but still wants to attract those customers, this is a good way to do it.  What do you do in your retail store? Do you have a store within a store? If not, maybe it’s time to think about getting one.