How To Open a QSR in Your Grocery Store

Sometimes life gets hectic, and there’s no time to cook a hot meal. But 45% of Americans struggle to put food on the table, and fast food prices are higher than ever (around $12 per person per meal).

As a result, visits to the grocery store or deli for hot food have more than doubled in the last decade — and 56% of our independent grocery store customers say they’ve seen prepared foods sales rise over the last year.

Opening a food counter or quick-service restaurant (QSR) at your grocery store is a great way to give your community access to high-quality meals at affordable prices while directly competing with nearby fast food and restaurant businesses.

Curious about how to open a QSR in your grocery store? We’re here to help. In this article, we’ll break down the basics of opening a food counter, including common regulatory requirements, building a winning menu, and outfitting your store with the right technology.

Before You Start: Is Your Grocery a Good Fit for a QSR?

At first glance, it might seem like adding prepared food options is a surefire path to higher profits. But selling prepared foods that people actually want to eat requires careful planning and investments in knowledgeable people, equipment, and ingredients.

Before going all in on a QSR, consider these factors:

The reason most grocery stores choose not to sell hot food isn’t a lack of interest, but a lack of kitchen facilities. Even if you don’t have a full kitchen, you shouldn’t rule out the idea entirely. A well-planned deli or cold-bar menu can still meet demand.

It’s also worth noting that the success of a grocery food counter isn’t solely based on the lowest prices. In many cases, independent grocery stores can sell at similar or even higher prices than competitors because of the high-quality ingredients and authentic flavors.

Related Read: How To Use Your POS To Track Department Profitability (Produce vs. Frozen vs. Deli)

How To Open a Grocery Quick-Service Restaurant: 6 Steps

Opening a food counter in your grocery store won’t happen overnight. It takes careful planning and often comes with additional regulatory requirements. Here are six essential steps for opening a successful grocery QSR.

1. Get Licensed and Meet Food Safety Requirements

Before serving your first meal, you need the proper permits and safety measures. Even though you meet grocery retail standards, you may need additional licenses, inspections, and training to operate a fully compliant QSR inside your store.

Start with these steps:

• Apply for food service permits. Check with your local health department about food service, ventilation, and equipment permits required for cooking and serving meals on-site.
• Train staff in food safety. Require certification through programs like ServSafe so employees know proper food handling and contamination prevention.
• Develop a food safety system. Use systems like the HACCP to proactively identify potential food safety issues. A single food safety issue at your QSR could destroy trust in your brand.
• Design a compliant workspace. Separate prep zones, label storage areas, and install proper sanitation equipment, like hand sinks and three-compartment washing stations, to meet inspection standards.

With the groundwork for opening a quick-service restaurant in place, the next step is to create a menu that turns your quick-stop into a crave-worthy dining experience.

2. Design a Menu That Drives Sales

Your menu is the heart of your quick-service restaurant — it should be fast to prep, simple to serve, and tempting enough to make it worth the trip. It’s your chance to give customers something they can’t find in the freezer aisle or a drive-thru.

Start with your strengths. If you’re a Greek market, use your access to high-quality ingredients to make authentic recipes. Ivan Aguilar, owner of Pantera Market, found success by creating a Mexican mercato style experience in his Idaho stores.

In other words, your QSR should be an extension of what makes your store unique — not just chasing trends.

Shape your menu with these tips:

• Lean into local flavors. Feature hometown favorites or regional specialties, like pulled pork in the Carolinas, Polish-inspired desserts in Chicago, or tangy relishes in New England.
• Dive into your data. Use your sales reports to see which departments and product categories are most popular, and build your initial menu to cater to those favorites.
• Use what you already sell. Turn bakery bread into pressed paninis, deli meats into wraps, or fresh produce into colorful grab-and-go salads.
• Balance dine-in comfort with take-home ease. Offer hot combos for on-site meals and chilled family packs that customers can reheat later.

Don’t feel like you have to offer a sprawling menu from day one. Don’t be afraid to start with a small collection of items and expand as the business grows and you get a better understanding of your customers’ tastes.

H3: 3. Adopt the Right Technology

Efficiency is the number-one ingredient for QSR success — but providing fast, accurate service is nearly impossible if you use multiple systems to manage your grocery and QSR businesses.

That’s why our top tip is to invest in a point of sale (POS) solution specifically designed for grocery stores and quick-service restaurants.

Let’s look at a few must-have QSR hardware and management features:

While you could invest in two separate POS systems, relying on a single solution for grocery store and QSR management saves you money, speeds up the training process for you and your employees, and simplifies your inventory management and sales reporting.

4. Train Your Staff

With the right training, your employees can ensure smooth QSR management, happy customers, and high profits.

Here are some essential topics to cover when training your counter and kitchen staff:

• The menu: Your employees should be familiar with all menu items, ingredients, and potential allergens.
• Your POS system: Ensure your counter staff know how to take orders, add modifications, and process customers’ payments, and that your kitchen employees know how to use your kitchen printer and complete orders.
• Customer service: Train your counter staff to greet customers and take orders quickly, pleasantly, and accurately.
• Food preparation: Your kitchen employees should understand the importance of safe food handling and accurate preparation.
• Workflow: Develop strategies to help your employees handle rushes while still prioritizing order speed and accuracy.

In short, give your team the tools and knowledge they need to take orders efficiently and prepare meals correctly. If you notice bottlenecks, don’t assume it’s your staff’s fault. Really examine the ordering process and see if there are aspects of the process that are inefficient.

Related Read: POS Training Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide for Small Markets

5. Market Your Food Counter

You’ve got a great menu, friendly staff, and an airtight workflow — so why aren’t the sales rolling in?

There are two key things to keep in mind:

1. People won’t try your food if they don’t know it exists – marketing is key.
2. People usually come to a market for groceries or for a hot meal — not both. Treat your food counter as a separate business.

Here are a few tactics you can try to boost your food counter’s visibility:

• Opening discounts: Set up rotating discounts on new items to encourage impulse buys and motivate customers to check in with what’s new.
• Social media: Showcase your menu items on your social media and website. People’s first bites are with their eyes, so take pictures in well-lit areas.
• Descriptive menu boards: Create large menu boards with pictures and detailed descriptions that get customers’ mouths watering.
• Loyalty discounts: Create exclusive QSR discounts for your loyalty members, like 10% off select meals or the ability to redeem points for free food.
• Signage: Set up a sandwich board or other signage right at the front of the store to guide people towards your food counter.

Remember: The marketing tactics that work for your grocery business won’t necessarily work for your food counter. That’s why it’s best to approach your QSR marketing and retail grocery marketing separately.

6. Periodically Refine Your Menu and Processes

Like everything in your market, from the store layout to staffing, sometimes dialing in a winning strategy takes a little trial and error. The same is true for a new QSR offering.

After you open, keep a close eye on your sales numbers to note things like:

• Peak hours
• Bestselling items
• Discount and promo code use
• Profit margins per item

Checking in with these numbers every few weeks helps you refine your menu. For instance, if the majority of your food counter sales happen during lunchtime, you might consider offering more grab-and-go options or creating a mix-and-match lunch meal.

Of course, there’s only so much your numbers can tell you. Listen closely to your customers and employees to find areas for improvement.

Set Your QSR Up for Success With a POS System That Handles It All

The first step to opening a successful food counter at your grocery store is a passion for delicious food. The second is the right technology.

Adding a QSR to your grocery doesn’t have to mean learning a whole new system. Having a single system to manage your food service and your grocery retail gives you a more holistic view of your store performance and management.

Markt POS gives grocery owners the tools to do both. Built specifically for food markets and grocery stores, Markt POS combines real-time perishable inventory tracking and other grocery-specific functions with QSR features like modifiers and kitchen printing.

Try our Build & Price tool to create your custom system today.