Walk into any modern supermarket and you’ll see the opportunism loneliness offers. In-store cafés with community seating. Cooking classes. Wine tastings. Sushi bars. Oyster bars. Even full sit-down restaurants. Wegmans’ Manhattan location dedicates an entire floor to prepared foods and dining. This isn’t about service—it’s about dwell time…and spending extra money.

The data is clear: Lonely shoppers stay longer. They linger at those café tables. They browse. And they spend more money. A quick trip for milk becomes 45 minutes at the community table and $60 in the basket because that store felt like somewhere to be.

Now, I’m not saying these spaces are inherently bad. But when retailers engineer these environments to monetize loneliness rather than genuinely solve for human connection, we’ve crossed a line.

So, here’s how we get our resilience back.

• First, recognize what’s happening. That café table is optimized to keep you in the store longer, not to build lasting friendships.
• Second, create real community outside the supermarket. Join an actual cooking club. Shop farmers markets where conversations with growers matter. Host dinners at home.
• And third, support retailers who build community spaces because they genuinely care about their neighborhoods—not just because lonely customers have higher basket sizes.

We don’t need stores that profit from our isolation. We need stores that help us overcome it.