Even a child knows that today St. Petersburg is a great trading empire and makes healthy competition to Moscow food markets. However, few people ask the question: are there any gaps in the St. Petersburg trading business and who can fill them? The abundance of grocery supermarkets, stalls and convenience stores provides the average consumer with a good choice. Each consumer is free to choose whether to buy milk at a convenience store or go to a supermarket to get it, where all products are much cheaper, but the breadth of assortment is much lower. However, a person wants to purchase not only cheap goods, but also high-quality ones, and this aspect in some sectors of our city is an insurmountable problem.
St. Petersburg is overflowing with an abundance of fast and not very healthy food, but is experiencing a significant shortage of fresh vegetables. If the situation with cabbage and potatoes is still not bad, in principle, in order to purchase fresh cauliflower, which even Avicenna considered a storehouse of vitamins, the hostess will have to get up early in the morning and go to the city market. And this taking into account the fact that cauliflower is quite unpretentious and may well grow in our region. A similar situation unfolds around Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi and other crops rich in vitamins and minerals. The reason, most likely, is the inability to keep vegetables fresh, and therefore Petersburgers are offered a huge selection of freshly frozen vegetables - just a vitamin abundance from a bag. The breadth and depth of the assortment of network retail remains at a high level, however, large supermarkets cannot cope with the problem of preserving a large number of vegetables, and small entrepreneurs, unfortunately, cannot provide fresh vegetables to all residents of St. Petersburg. The Pyaterochka chain of stores confidently holds the leading position in the food market; only in St. Petersburg there are 238 outlets of this brand, which occupy more than 50% of the market for chain supermarkets. Apparently, the breadth of the assortment of products does not present the opportunity for retailers to preserve it, and therefore large merchants often prefer quantity to quality. High-quality and fresh vegetables can currently only be bought at food markets, where gardeners and gardeners offer surplus from their personal plots. However, they also do not have the opportunity to saturate the almost five millionth city with vitamin diversity directly from the garden.
A similar situation exists with public catering enterprises, in which thousands of Petersburgers and guests of the northern capital are forced to have lunch and dinner. You won’t surprise anyone with the abundance of fast food, now you can meet a tent with shawarma and pizza on every corner in St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, healthy and wholesome fast-food vegetarian-style food in the food market of St. Petersburg is not so easy to find. Of course, there are several vegetarian restaurants in St. Petersburg, but the breadth of the assortment in them is not much different from simple eateries, and not every resident of the northern capital can afford dining in them. Most businessmen and business people are forced to eat in cafes and restaurants in the daytime, why are they still not concerned about the availability of fast and wholesome food? Vegetarian food costs an order of magnitude cheaper, it is completely unclear why domestic entrepreneurs are not trying to conquer this as yet undeveloped food industry. In tents with Chinese food, the breadth of the assortment also leaves much to be desired, of course, here you can meet the “Little Potato” and spring rolls, but it is almost impossible to eat this every day. McDonald's has contributed to solving this problem and has pleased vegetable lovers with a vegetarian cheeseburger, but this is not enough when you consider that there are more and more fans of healthy food in St. Petersburg. Noodles with vegetables and fried Chinese rice is not the whole variety of vegetarian menus that can be represented by fast food pavilions in St. Petersburg. Vegetarian cuisine is an abundance of healthy fiber rich in vitamins, unfortunately, domestic entrepreneurs do not take this into account.
Despite the overcrowded food market in the northern capital, the breadth of product mix in some areas of industry leaves much to be desired and there are free niches that need to be filled in order to provide Petersburgers with high-quality and wholesome food products. The city is waiting for enterprising and business people who are able to take control of the health of the nation and will saturate the St. Petersburg market with quality products. Only one thing is not clear - when will this happen?