I stumbled across an article on the web recently that got me thinking. It was about grocery trends in 2010 and what to expect. The article was pretty accurate as to what was happening currently in the business, but that's not to tough to predict when you write the piece in December of 2009.

Grocery stores need to keep up with the growing trends and realistically, stay ahead of them. Throughout the years there have been many of changes in our lifestyles as consumers and grocery chains have adapted fairly well in my opinion. My question is what will grocery stores be doing 10 years from now to make out lives easier and keep us interested?

I'm going to tell you what I would like to see and then I want you to chime in with your thoughts. Feel free to tell me if you think mine are stupid. I won't hold it against you. Unless I know you personally. ...

Nesting

I believe that families will begin to bond together more. Between texting, video games and the Internet, we are slowly alienating ourselves from each other. Family dinners will come back into fashion. Mom or Dad will want to stay at home and cook a meal, sit around the table and discuss the day.

Because some of these workaholics have no clue how to cook, grocery stores will make recipes more available near certain items. Right now you might see a recipe or two at the meat counter, but I would like to see some next to the fresh herbs or perhaps near the deli. Also, rather than just sampling item, utilize cooking demonstrations. Teach people how to cook.

Organic

While organic purchasing is on the rise, I believe organic items will become even more plentiful and many of us will invest in higher quality. Home gardening is a trend that I only see as growing and grocery chains will want to jump on board in order to compete.

One-stop shopping

This is already the mantra for Fred Meyer. It's really cool to shop for your groceries and also pickup a DVD player, perhaps a sparkplug or two and a bra. My guess is that Safeway, Top Foods and other major chains will jump on the bandwagon. Maybe not to Fred Meyer's degree, but they will add more purchasing options.

Wine and beer tasting

This is really no surprise, because it's going to happen, as soon as the state bungles it's way through creating all the WAC and RCW bullshit regulations they have to in order to protect John Q consumer because heaven forbid a responsible nationwide chain like Safeway won't. But I still give it a few more years for it to ACTUALLY happen.

So these are just a few of my thoughts. What do you have to add? I am sure you can come up with some great ideas.