Specifically at grocery stores.
This weekend I was grocery shopping, and it occurred to me whilst attempting to find the one or two whole bean offerings amid the sea of pre-ground coffee and k-cups that I haven’t seen coffee grinders in a grocery store in years. It feels like, growing up through the 90s and early aughts, most stores would have at least a few options to grind fresh, or at least the Bakers near my home did. However, at some point, they were seemingly removed everywhere.
Of course, my intuition tells me that it benefits stores to not have such specialized machinery in place so as to allow maximum flexibility with store layout, but I’m curious if anyone has an inside scoop.
Coffee-buying has increasingly gone gourmet. I think most people who brew coffee at home have a grinder. But ground coffee starts losing its quality pretty soon after it’s exposed to air, so grinding fresh only matters if you brew it right after grinding. For people who only make coffee for guests or only drink it for the caffeine, there’s pre-ground options. Also, grocery stores don’t want to sacrifice that valuable shelf real estate for the large grinder…
I have memories of them being featured on supermarket sweep as well.
It doesn’t make any sense to grind at the store. If you don’t grind the morning of you’re better off getting grounds cuz they treat those to help the staleness not happen quite as fast. As others have said, hand-crank burr grinders are like $10.
Grinding coffee in the store is an act of self-harm. Just get a kerieg if you hate fresh coffee that much.
Otherwise, get yourself a Capresso Burr Grinder. Or just a hand-cranked one if you’re low-budget and old school. Use the finer grain if you’re making coffee in the moka pot. Coarse grain if you’re just using the boiled water in the press pot - pour in a little slightly below boiling water first so the coffee grounds can bloom (it’ll sort of foam up a bit if you let it sit for a few seconds) and then add the rest. Enjoy the actual freshly released oils of the coffee bean, ffs.
I think your intuition is probably right, but also Amazon happened. You can get a grinder delivered to your house in a day or two for like $10. Nobody who cares about fresh-ground coffee is going to hesitate to invest in a grinder when it costs less than a bag of beans.
That’s a bean slicer though, go the full mile and buy a burr grinder, a used pro one will last a lifetime too.
You can still get one pretty cheap
You can even get a workable burr grinder for ~$40.
I think many people stopped using them, because they use machines at home that have built in grinders.
I think there is only one store left near me that has them and it’s more of a boutique grocery store rather than a large chain.
But they are still very common! I have noticed no decline.
Do you mind sharing your general location? Within the Midwestern US, they all seem to have gone the way of the dodo.
I use the coffee grinders at WinCo regularly in AZ. I’m surprised to not see many other comments saying so! They also have a fantastic bulk section. I hope it never goes away.
The only place I ever saw it was at Costco or a little specialty health food store mom used to go to when I was little. I haven’t been to the latter in decades, and Costco got rid of theirs a couple years ago. I think Costco’s reasoning was mostly about them being underutilized compared to the cost. My parents were never coffee drinkers, though, and I started trying when I was dating my wife but also started getting ulcers soon after, so coffee hasn’t been something I’ve really paid attention to.
Chiming in to say that I still see them fairly frequently. But also, as others noted, most people who want fresh ground coffee can just do it at home now.
Also, I imagine that the grinders were only ever really introduced to try to sell customers on more expensive whole-bean coffee that had a higher margin than folgers. But now every independent coffee shop sells beans in-store and you can choose from 10 million options online. So its not really drawing in new customers there either.
I imagine the stores keep the grinders because they’d be a hassle to remove, but then remove them when they break, since they aren’t worth it to fix.
A few of the stores I shop still have Community Coffee branded coffee grinders. But not like it used to be with one in every store
Many, at least half, of my local stores still have one though I ended up getting a grinder partly because I can never remember which for sure.
I think two of the somewhat fancier grocery stores I go to have grinders there. The more basic one I usually go to I don’t think does. I don’t drink coffee myself, so I’m not 100% certain.
Probably covid
It is funny I haven’t noticed one of the other.
I always found the whole process of grinding at the store to be pretty pointless.
I suspect the rise of grocery delivery services contributed to the grinders going away.
