In a world of oversize food — genetically modified apples, super-size fries, and venti coffees — one thing may be coming up smaller: grocery stores.

According to the New York Times [1], grocers across the country from Safeway [2] to Wal-Mart [3] are turning to stores with smaller square footage. Supermarket retailers, like Jewel-Osco, who is building a smaller-format store in Chicago, are hoping to capitalize on an untapped segment of time-starved shoppers who are looking for an affordable meal to go without menu prices, or who just want to pick up a handful of grocery items.

These chains aren't shuttering the warehouse-sized predecessors, but hoping to gain market share as competition grows cutthroat. Both convenience stores and drugstores such as CVS [4] are selling more groceries and fresher prepared foods, and British retail giant Tesco [5] began stateside expansion last Fall.

Source [6]