How Retail and Restaurants Are Transforming How We Shop and Eat

By Omri Traub

Imagine this: you walk into your favorite café to grab a latte and leave with a beautifully wrapped jar of locally produced honey and a size medium super-comfortable hoodie bearing the café’s logo, which you've admired for some time. Or picture stopping by a convenience store while you fill up on gas only to discover a freshly made grain bowl paired with kombucha on tap. These scenarios aren’t just isolated experiences — they’re becoming the new norm as the lines between restaurants and retail continue to blur.

This shift is transforming how we eat, shop, and even think about dining spaces. From cupcake shops selling home goods to gas stations offering gourmet meals, the convergence of food and retail is here — and it’s reshaping both industries, hospitality and retail.

For operators, this presents a golden opportunity to diversify revenue streams, attract new customers, and turn errands into experiences. Let’s look at how they can embrace this trend to not only enhance their offerings but also stay ahead in an increasingly competitive landscape.

New Revenue Streams Open for a Local Coffee Chain

When a husband and wife duo with deep connections to the coffee industry and a passion for sustainability moved to Cape Cod, MA, in 2015, they had a vision for bringing third-wave coffee to their new community. And just like that, Snowy Owl was born. Shayna Ferullo and Manuel Ainzuain knew it would take some education to drive adoption and acceptance.

So, along with detailed explanations of different brewing methods from their knowledgeable baristas (espresso vs. AeroPress, Chemex vs. Hario pour-over), they offered the necessary equipment for their customers to take home, with some freshly roasted beans, of course. Now, with three locations and a growing distribution network across New England, the couple has invested in branded items and merchandise — from hoodies and T-shirts to travel mugs to spread the news about their brand.

But with the growth and success of these new retail service models came new operational complexities that typical restaurant point-of-sale (POS) platforms weren't built to handle. How many of those size medium hoodies did they have at each location at any given time? Implementing a modern, perpetual inventory management system with tight connections to its POS and purchasing and receiving workflows allowed Shayna and Manuel to rest assured they will never run out of their best-sellers. It also means they're not tying up extra cash in unnecessary inventory.

Ask them what the most important features are to make this system work for their busy locations, and they will immediately respond: “ease of use.” That’s why mobile-first tools for ordering, receiving and counting — accessible on any smartphone — were key to removing friction from data entry and stock tracking.

Big Tree’s Big Operation Runs on Tech

Under the leadership of co-owners Andrew Taylor and Arlin Smith, the award-winning Big Tree Hospitality expanded its restaurant footprint with three retail markets in Maine. Once cornerstones of their communities, these markets (Town Landing Market in Falmouth, Higgins Beach Market in Scarborough, and South Freeport Village Market) struggled to meet growing demand and rising expectations for quality service and elevated food. Big Tree Hospitality has not only transformed its food offerings with lobster rolls and sandwiches (try the Maine Italian, recommends the chef), they also embraced today’s best tech to boost convenience, efficiency and overall competitiveness.

“One of the first things we did was install a kitchen display screen [KDS] in each kitchen,” says John Myers, CTO at Big Tree Hospitality. “It makes it easier for everyone working there to get the food out in a timely, organized manner. Online ordering certainly makes it easier for people to place their order and show up and grab it. Using that in conjunction with the KDS definitely modernizes the workflow in the kitchen and the operations in the back of the house in a way that's unobtrusive but also pretty dynamic.”

Blending in New Offerings With the Right Tech

Whether you’re a restaurant or a retailer, having a resilient, modern tech platform can make or break your ability to adapt to this trend. The stakes are high. Can your system handle peak-hours traffic? Process payments when the internet goes down? Provide mobile solutions for inventory adjustments so your staff isn’t tethered to a terminal?

Sean Crotty, owner of Kelly’s Market in Decatur, GA, had a vision for Kelly’s that he was struggling to meet with two separate POS systems: a classic grocery system for his neighborhood grocery store and a separate POS for the popular sandwich coffee bars. Since adopting Toast as one unified platform for all his needs, Kelly’s has been thriving.

It’s a “third place” for many of his customers who walk over daily for their lunch or on their coffee break and get their grocery shopping done along the way. Sean’s favorite feature? The fine-grain configurability of tips. He enabled tipping at the sandwich counter and coffee bars but disabled them at the supermarket-style checkout lanes. By designating staff as hospitality or grocery, he's able to pool and divide tips differentially to front- and back-of-house employees. He estimates about 10 hours are saved each week on inventory management, tip management, and other accounting workflows now that he has everything humming on one platform.

Getting Left Behind is Bad for Business

The convergence of restaurant and retail is more than just a trend; it’s a shift in how people interact with dining and shopping spaces. Whether it’s a bakery selling home goods, a grocery store serving fresh meals, or a gas station going gourmet, the possibilities are endless, limited only by the vision and entrepreneurial spirit of owners and operators.

For restaurants, this is a chance to diversify, delight, and drive loyalty. For retailers, it’s an opportunity to meet consumer demand for quality and convenience in one stop. Success depends on the completeness of vision, operational strategy, and the technology to make it all work.

The businesses that embrace this evolution will not only meet the needs of today’s customers but also shape the future of commerce. Is your company hungry enough, savvy enough, to join them?

Omri Traub is the senior vice president and GM of retail at Toast, a first of its kind, unified foodservice and retail POS.