Do you mean a sort of deli section where stuff is scooped out for you and weighed? Every supermarket has those, but what’s unique in this one is the extensive self-serve hot buffet and equally extensive self-serve salad bar.
I imagine the hot buffet must be profitable for them or they wouldn’t be doing it as there’s quite a lot of manual labour involved in the prep and cleanup. Since it’s a flat price for everything, some of the items, like some of the more expensive seafoods, may not be all that profitable if some greedy type loads up on the expensive stuff.
I don’t do that – I just take adequate quantities of stuff I like, which, fortunately for the economics of the store, is often just some pasta dish. Though I do usually load it up with their sauteed mushrooms!
At mine, the hot food is served by an employee, but you can say, “I’d like that slice of roast turkey, and a little less than ¼ pound of the butternut squash, and…” There is an extensive cold buffet. Whole Foods does something similar, with a wall of hot options served by employees, but it’s cooked food ready to eat, and you can get whatever portion you want. I think the prices per pound are different for the different items, but it’s all priced by weight.
In most places the kids’ menu has some kiddie fair but also a few mini adult meals. The one place I frequent has steak bites and a mesquite chicken as kids’ options.
The one with lunch portions is a Mexican restaurant. It just has them for many of the entrees. It will have a lunch portion, a dinner portion, and sometimes a “for two” portion.
Most other places just have a separate lunch menu only available during certain hours. That’s why I look into the kids menu instead.
And they basically stopped checking for actual kids during COVID. I do tend to carry out rather than dine in, though.
I haven’t visited the hot food section recently at Whole Foods, but no, you paid the same “by-the-pound” rate for everything. So the $ per pound tended to be high, which deeply offended one of my friends.
“They’re robbing you on the potatoes! You’re paying {at the time} $9.99 a pound, but those cheesy mashed potatoes can’t be more than a 1/10th of that!”
He would then proceed to get some of them anyway, while I tended to load up on the chicken wings.
I don’t think I’ve been since Covid - but I doubt they have changed. Based on my local Kroger, they nixed 2/3 of the hot and cold dishes (including most of the olive bar) and the small remaining self-serve is still per pound total, rather than per object.
My local whole foods has an enormous olive bar. I mostly just buy the artichoke hearts and the stuffed grape leaves, and but my olives in convenient bottles. But there’s tons of stuff there, and it’s certainly all the same price per pound.
My local grocery store had something similar, before COVID. Lots of hot food options, a half-dozen soups, and a huge salad bar. It vanished entirely in 2020, and only re-emerged a couple of years ago, though the hot offerings, in particular, are much less than they used to be.
Just for fun, I looked up the online menu of the local Denny’s. As Denny’s does, there are photos of the menu items. I took particular interest in the menu for those 55+. If the photos are correct, the 55+ portions are smaller, and the price is smaller too.
Hm. I may have to visit Denny’s again. Not only could I finish my meal, but some of the selections look and sound downright tasty.
