Why salad bars may never come back

Once common; now endangered:

Grocers and analysts say a combination of factors has kept stores from rushing to bring back their salad bars: Customers are now buying more groceries online and working more from home than they were before the pandemic, reducing the need for quick mid-day trips to salad bars. Some customers have also moved away from them out of sanitary concerns. 

Prior to the pandemic, salad bars and other prepared foods were becoming more important for grocers because they drove customers to shop in person, said Scott Mushkin, a retail analyst at R5 Capital. For salad bars to work, though, customers need to quickly use them or the food quality will deteriorate or spoil.