More than a Store is a regular column that delves into the experiential side of grocery retailing.
I don’t watch cooking shows, so I wasn’t expecting to enjoy a grocer’s virtual cooking class that I tried last month — but by the end of it, I wondered why more grocers aren’t serving up online cookalongs.
For some grocers, cooking classes — virtual and in-person — are nothing new. Giant Eagle has partnered with celebrity chefs while Fairway Market has focused on New York City’s iconic bagels — just a few examples of how some grocers have put their own unique spin on this way of connecting with shoppers. The confluence of heightened consumer interest in healthy eating and grocers’ intensified pursuit of shopper loyalty, though, creates a ripe environment for more retailers to provide online community-building and knowledge sharing. This is where the virtual cooking classes come in.
A few weeks ago, I received an invite to attend one of Kroger Health’s two virtual cooking classes hosted in late April in partnership with Flashfood. Timed in conjunction with Kroger’s rollout of the food waste reduction technology solution to its entire Mid-Atlantic division, both events aimed to show viewers how they can make easy, budget-friendly meals with items found on the Flashfood platform.
I tuned in just to observe the cooking class, which featured a recipe for a sweet potato and ground turkey skillet — but ended up enjoying the session so much that I sought out more opportunities. I discovered Giant Food’s recurring virtual cooking classes and signed up for one earlier this month focused on a recipe for shrimp and penne pasta with spinach and pesto.
My unexpected enjoyment of both of these free classes stemmed from the community-building. I’m a competent cook but have room to grow, and I came away from both events with new nutrition and culinary tips.
From learning that keeping the skins on sweet potatoes increases their nutritional value to hearing about how walnuts are a good source of protein, both the Kroger and the Giant Food events educated me on healthy eating. I’m not the only one who is interested. In 2025, Giant Food hosted 226 virtual dietitian classes that drew 116,000 attendees, according to the Ahold Delhaize banner’s latest Impact Report.
Both events also focused on how the recipes tie into consumers’ budget-conscious shopping habits, with both Giant Food and Kroger highlighting private label products. Kroger said that its skillet recipe costs $3.07 per person and could feed a family of four.
Retailers often talk about building customer relationships as a one-to-one dynamic focused on personalized offers and tailored shopping experiences. And there was some of that with the virtual cooking classes I attended, as viewers asked in the chat boxes for ingredient substitutions or ideas for incorporating a specific ingredient in other dishes.
For example, I was inspired by Kroger Health dietitian Elizabeth Calvelage’s suggestion to substitute sweet potato with frozen cubed butternut squash. I also appreciated her points about how nutrition values vary between different types of bell peppers.
The settings for both classes were relaxed and approachable. As I watched members of the grocers’ health and wellness teams chop and sauté in kitchens that I’m assuming were theirs, I felt like I was FaceTiming a family member. Virtual events don’t have to be high tech — a Zoom call and a well-positioned camera angle will do the trick.
But there’s also the relationship that customers build with each other. The Kroger-Flashfood class was a great example of this. Of the roughly dozen participants, at least four regularly unmuted their mics to ask questions and swap ideas.
The virtual cooking classes also drove increased awareness of the grocers’ offerings. The Kroger event included plugs for its free 30-minute OptUp nutrition appointments, online recipe collections and FoodHealth Score, which rates grocery items on ingredient quality and nutrient density. Meanwhile, the Giant Food class reminded participants to check out the grocer’s pharmacies.
What better way to build customer loyalty than to reward people? Kroger offered a Flashfood discount code for attendees of its cooking classes. Giant Food offered prizes to the first person to correctly answer health-focused questions and gave all attendees the chance to get 1,000 rewards points — equivalent to a $10 savings in groceries — by completing a four-question survey after the event.
I would imagine that assembling the expertise and resources to host a virtual cooking class might feel daunting to grocers. Who will host? What kind of camera and microphone setup is needed? Which recipes will work?
But if I were a grocer who wasn’t already doing live cooking demos, I wouldn’t let those challenges stop me — and instead cook up some options by tapping into knowledge of my customer base to figure out what kinds of recipes, flavors and products they would be most interested in.
