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At my local grocery store in Lakeway, Texas, I’ve noticed a pattern taking place about every six months or so. Once a year, sometimes twice, and certainly since the COVID-19 pandemic, my local supermarket rearranges its aisles and adds to its frozen and refrigerated sections. Sure enough, the section of the store that once housed paper towels and toiletries, is now lined with freezer cases full of staples like frozen pizza and ice cream, as well as innovative and emerging frozen food entrée and snack brands. It's apparent even from the store’s shelf space that the consumer sentiment has shifted rapidly towards preservative free, fresh and frozen foods. As consumers, we are now in a golden age of food innovation. Brands large and small are responding to our desires with creativity and originality.
There’s one problem however. Though it is (fairly) simple for the grocery store to rearrange their aisles, it is much more difficult for the manufacturers to procure and reconfigure their cold chain. To quote my partner and Yukon’s Director of Development, Axel Anderson, “All the easy sites have been taken.” Indeed, in an era of near 0% vacancy and expensive, or non-existent land sites, manufacturers are struggling to find a relief valve for growing space needs.