The grocery store was dying. To be sure, its heart—the much vaunted center store—had been deprived of “oxygen” (new, exciting quality brands and products) for far too long. Did the grocery store know it was dying? No. The death warrant had not been officially signed. The undertaker had not been summoned. All the vital signs suggested death was imminent and yet, the dear old thing precariously clung to life.

The mere mention of the traditional supermarket’s demise, while oft debated and well documented, is a tale fitting for this scary holiday. For despite the most dire warning signs—stony-faced shoppers aimlessly wandering aisles in an uninspired daze—ghost retailers continue to ply the waters of food retailing as if in a trance themselves.

How can you tell if you’re a “ghost” retailer? Consider these 13 ominous signs:

1. Consumers see little difference between supermarkets of the 1950s and your stores

2. Your store is eerily similar to those of your competitors

3. Consumers use your store as a fill-in for staples, but shop elsewhere for the “good stuff”

4. Your customers walk like zombies through the store with little signs of joy on their faces

5. Your employees are equally unenthusiastic and unresponsive

6. Your entrance experience is a towering castle of soda, chips or candy

7. Your center store is lined with boxes, cans and jars all of which echo “foods from the past”

8. Your loyalty card resembles a toll booth express pass for a checkout lane lined with low-quality products targeting children or adults enthused by The National Enquirer

9. Your “prepared foods” are largely fried, starchy or filled with mayonnaise or sugar

10. Your weekly circulars are filled with price promotions and say very little about specialty, prepared or fresh foods

11. In place of real people, flat screen TVs instruct customers on the joy of cooking

12. Your private label products are one step above “generic”

13. The only place to sit is a cigarette burn-covered bench outside the entrance

Such premonitions of ghost retailing haunt far too many grocery venues across America in what can only be described as a nostalgic reliance on the “diet and shopping experience of our ancestors.” Such shopping experiences underwhelm shoppers to such an extent that even in the most remote reaches of America, a common refrain can be heard, “When is Trader Joe’s coming?”

Aside from pining for a Trader Joe’s to come to town, these same shoppers are slowly migrating away from the ghostly haunts of out-of-touch retailers, shopping in a variety of formats in their inexorable quest for higher quality, premium food experiences.

The ghost of food retailing present

While it may seem a bit macabre to pronounce mainstream grocers “ghost retailers,” shoppers are nevertheless proving that outdated styles of food retailing focused on predictable product sets of highly processed packaged goods, low price and weekly advertised promotions of legacy brands no longer fulfill all their needs and are, in fact, out of step with their lifestyle aspirations.

As consumers evolve and continue to push the envelope of culture ever forward, redefining quality along the way, legacy retail environments will find it difficult to carve out a place to fit in. These shifts occurring in consumer behavior place these retailers in a sort of “twilight zone,” where the shopping environment is a one dimensional experience, a place where products are sold, but where ideas to engage minds of shoppers is found lacking. Consider, if you will, these traits of present day retail that are in-step with consumers’ needs:

* Specialty grocers seen as spearheading a “fresh” revolution whereby products and prepared foods of unimaginable quality are now easily and affordably within our reach

* Most consumers have come to understand that the prepared foods and products from high-quality (i.e., specialty grocers) retailers surpass the quality of food formerly prepared in the home

* Focus in retail is on super-wide perimeters with the interweaving of food preparation and cooking directly carried out in key perishable departments (e.g., grilling meat in the meat department)

* Sensory cues: cozy, natural lighting; abundant, living vegetation; cleanliness without solvent aromas; olfactory sensations emanating from every department; vivid colors; and interested, knowledgeable staff

The ghost of food retailing future

The many warning signs of ghost retailing can be said to derive as much from misalignment with today’s shoppers as they are an element of being stuck in a sort of limbo composed of ancient, bygone products and practices that range from the buggy whip to record stores to paper airplane tickets.

While no one can accurately predict what the grocery store of the future will look like, there are telltale signs of where food retailing in the future is heading:

* A growing body of consumers assemble their food needs from a smorgasbord of specialty retailers, local purveyors and farmers’ markets.

* Food retail and restaurants will blur significantly

* Consumers migrate away from highly commoditized goods and toward high-quality food experiences

* Center store will be reduced to raw recipe ingredients, sauces and minimally processed SKUs in each category

* Perishables—especially perishable “ready to eat” and prepared foods—will become the design focus of retail destinations

* Specialty stores’ domination of fresh will continue until traditional mainstream grocery retailers disappear, with what was once “specialty” becoming the mainstream

Retailers fixated on understanding the consumer redefinition of quality will find quality food experiences prove an opportunity to establish a distinct position in the marketplace of the future. On the other hand, those retailers who persist in the pursuit of mass market, one-stop shopping, by trying to be all things to all people had better take a different tack lest they find themselves fodder for a ghostly tale of food retailing.