Dive Brief:

• Schnuck Markets on Wednesday opened its first Schnucks Express location. The small store is attached to the grocer’s Eatwell store in Columbia, Missouri, and offers more traditional grocery items to complement Eatwell’s specialty assortment, according to a press release.
• Though now open to the public with the same store hours as EatWell, updates for Schnucks Express are scheduled to be complete later this fall. 
• The melding of these two Schnucks grocery stores comes at a time when the grocer is continuing to experiment with new store formats. 

Dive Insight:

The opening of Schnucks Express is the latest small-format location to roll out from the Midwestern grocer. It also reignites a brand name that the company formerly used for its convenience store business, which it shut down back in 2016.

Schnucks Express takes up 11,000 square feet of the 42,000-square-foot EatWell building, which opened in 2020, and has its own separate entrance, according to the press release.

With EatWell primarily offering natural, organic and locally sourced grocery items, Schnucks wanted to expand on this specialized grocery store to include more products consumers are familiar with from other company locations. 

“After listening to our customers’ feedback, we’ve learned that they enjoy the natural and organic offerings available at EatWell but also are seeking the convenience of conventional grocery items,” said David Isinghood, Schnucks senior director of EatWell/Health and Wellness.

Over the past few years, Schnucks has made strides in offering goods and services beyond its traditional supermarket format. 

In April of last year, the grocer renovated its Kirkwood, Missouri, location, adding a new produce section and self-service nut-butter area while also creating space for a footwear and apparel retailer. The St. Louis suburb location also features a food hall with branches of three local restaurants.

Last year, the 18,000-square-foot Schnucks Fresh debuted in Jasper, Indiana, with a focus on fresh produce, seafood, meat and bakery products.