How shop with prepared meals can be tagged?

Recently in my area new type of shop started to appear (probably caused by people getting richer, busier, and living in smaller families).

It is selling prepared food that is almost ready to eat.

But it is not ready to eat - requires heating/boiling/baking and typically some simple ingredients like rice/potatoes/kasha would be cooked and added to it. So it is not amenity=fast_food or amenity=restaurant ( Tag:amenity=fast_food - OpenStreetMap Wiki Tag:amenity=restaurant - OpenStreetMap Wiki )

It is not frozen food, so no shop=frozen_food ( Tag:shop=frozen_food - OpenStreetMap Wiki )

shop=food is extremely generic ( Tag:shop=food - OpenStreetMap Wiki ) .
(EDIT: but maybe shop=food + food=prepared_meals would work well?)

shop=deli ( Tag:shop=deli - OpenStreetMap Wiki ) seems about raw expensive ingredients, not about prepared and relatively cheap meals.

No shop=supermarket - it is not a section of a larger shop, it is a standalone shop.

What about shop=prepared_meals ?

(though technically shop selling canned soup would also qualify in such case…)

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I’m accustomed to delis selling prepared food as well as packaged ingredients, so shop=deli would be my first choice.

I’ve long been a proponent of shop=food + food=*, but it hasn’t gotten much traction. It seems that many mappers think of shop=food like shop=yes – a placeholder value to be clarified if possible. But shop=food + food=prepared_meals would also be fine. This is better than adding a fresh value to shop IMO. I wish frozen food shops had taken this route.

I’ve also seen similar shops tagged as craft=caterer, which IMO isn’t entirely out of line – catered food often needs some final prep before serving – but if it feels like a shop then it would be better to tag it as a shop.

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that seems completely different - I would not expect to get a single gołąbek/kotlet from catering services.

Also, Tag:craft=caterer - OpenStreetMap Wiki describes it as an office/workplace of caterer, not a place where you buy food (maybe description is bad? but craft= is a poor fit for place where you go in, buy stuff and leave five minutes after entering)

maybe, not really familiar with this kind of shops - though Tag:shop=deli - OpenStreetMap Wiki describes that this term is confusing and diverging so I would prefer to avoid it if possible at all (like Tag:shop=boutique - OpenStreetMap Wiki is failed as value )

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On a quick look, to me it seems to be exactly about this:

  • Shop selling prepared meals that are not frozen, and not edible immediately (require heating or putting into a boiled water). For example shop selling prepared soup or pierogi. (shop=food + food=prepared_meals)
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Well, I added it in https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Tag:shop%3Dfood&diff=2080180&oldid=2079698

I would be happy to go with also shop=food + food=prepared_meals and went back to mention it as alternative considered tagging :slight_smile:

well, the meaning of shop=food seems clear (even if not very specific; which can be an advantage too), it’s usage has been growing steadily for more than a decade, and even your wiki clarification about that specific use case not covered by other alternatives has not been challenged for 2 and a half years.

I’d say it is just fine to use it.

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I’d agree that “shop=food” wouldn’t get across the sui generis nature of what you’re trying to tag here. I do have a vague recollection of previous tagging discussions around this sort of thing though (might have been Mexico or Italy?). Wait a bit and I’m sure someone will chime in with “yes, of course those are tagged as XYZ…” :slight_smile:

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Such shops with neon board on facade tag themselves here most often with just Gastronomia or Gastronomia with cooks name. Think it falls in the shop=deli class, most no eat in, takeaway=yes. Mama in the kitchen, son/daughter behind the counter.

The problem is that sandwiches and prepared food at a deli and other kitchens are designed to eaten immediately. Premade items available for take away will also be fully cooked. Even though most can are expected to be reheated before being eaten all are otherwise already “table ready”. This is required by most local food prep laws.

Prepared food is not designed immediately eatable. Meals are stored in a refrigerators since it likely that they contain raw ingredients. Tbis tends to extend self life as long as they are kept cold. It may also may have a better taste as since it was not overcooked in factory sized ovens. Either way, it is probably not fully cooked though and not be safe to eat cold. As a result the customer is going to have to follow the included cooking instructions before being able to safely consuming the meal.

Nobody mentioned Tag:shop=convenience - OpenStreetMap Wiki which seems to fit this… :thinking:

Mama cooks ready to eat pastas fish dishes, vegetables, operates compliant with HACCP, put hot or cold in plastic containers, weighted as the price is per kg, and sealed in plastic containers, race home to eat. Certainly not a convenience store.

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I would consider most prepared foods to be in the price range and quality of at least an inexpensive restaurant entrée. A convenience store sells a majority of cheap items. Most of the available food items require little or no effort to safely consume. Most convenience stores even have an industrial microwave to throughly and likely overcook frozen foods. Overcooking a prepared meal would defeat the purpose of avoiding the need to precooked ingredients so they end up burnt.

I don’t think price-position of a store should be a decision on its tags. A convenience in a low-income neighborhood is still a convenience store in a high-income neighborhood. Also convenience doesn’t have to be only 7/11 or a gas-station QuikeMart. There’s a spectrum, and what’s described in the original post sure sounds like that… semi-prepared foods.

I associate convenience stores with fully prepared foods only. Otherwise, it isn’t very convenient.

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This thread reminds me about “meal prep stores”, like the Dream Dinners nationwide chain. You order the ingredients and they do some minimal preparation on them, but they expect you to make an appointment to do your own cooking at the store, based on a recipe they provide, before taking everything home to eat or freeze. I’m not particularly satisfied with the amenity=kitchen shop=grocery I used on this store location, even if that captures the two activities that customers perform in relation to this business (shopping for groceries and cooking). In a subsequent discussion, I went with shop=frozen_food because I guess most customers would freeze the food after taking it home. But that isn’t quite right either.

Whatever tag we come up with in this thread, I’d be inclined to use that tag along with self_service=yes for these stores.

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I associate convenience stores with fully prepared foods only. Otherwise, it isn’t very convenient.

I have rather thought of convenience stores as local sub-supermarket (less choice, much smaller) stores where the convenience is you don’t have to reach to a supermarket or queue for buying just a can of “drink" and a snack. Definitely you can buy ingredients of a meal yet to be cooked in a convenience store, e.g. pasta or rice, maybe vegetables etc.

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That’s true, I was thinking of a gas station convenience store, but there are corner stores with more variety. Still, a refrigerated case of partially prepared meals – akin to meal kit delivery services but a la carte and without the delivery – reminds me more of a deli counter (North American usage) than a whole convenience store.

Still, a refrigerated case of partially prepared meals – akin to meal kit delivery services but a la carte and without the delivery – reminds me more of a deli counter (North American usage) than a whole convenience store.

I agree, if the main or sole product is (semi) cooked meals, convenience store is not the right type.

Those are increasingly popular over here in Serbia.
(Lament on how young people do not have time or inclination to cook for themselves goes here).

Still, there is no single prevailing format: many of those sell warm, ready to eat food (freshly cooked or put on reheaters) rather than cooled one. They are universally for takeaway, but some are large enough to offer some space for in-store eating. There are several that sell breakfast meals (sandwiches, eggs, pastry, salads) in the morning, and cooked meals in the afternoon.

For those reasons, I think that amenity=fast_food fits better than shop=. I think that tags associated with the former can better describe varieties of the thing (delivery=yes; takeaway=yes/no/only; capacity=* etc).

We already have fast_food=cafeteria which is sort-of similar, although cafeterias normally cater to surrounding offices, not to general public, and universally provide in-store eating facilities. Perhaps invent a new subtype of fast_food, such as fast_food=prepared_meals?

for this one amenity=fast_food fits

not for ones selling solely cooled food not ready to eat immediately

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