
The Hotel Pantry concept revolutionized how hotels cater to guests’ convenience, offering a self-serve retail space within properties where travelers can purchase snacks, beverages, toiletries, and other essentials 24/7. The co-founders of the Food Away From Home Association were instrumental in co-founding and expanding the hotel pantry concept nationally since the 1990’s, helping to establish a distribution model, retail design framework, and operational setup system that made it a standard feature across many hotel brands. Their work facilitated the growth of pantries in major hotel chains, including Marriott’s The Market, Hilton’s The Shop, Hyatt’s The Market, and IHG’s Marketplace, ensuring seamless integration into hotels of all sizes. By creating a streamlined system for product sourcing, inventory management, and design optimization, they helped hotels maximize revenue while enhancing guest satisfaction.

The co-founders of the Food Away From Home Association played a pivotal role in expanding hotel pantries nationwide through their expertise in grab-and-go programming, spearheaded by their work with www.GrabandGo.org. Their deep understanding of self-service retail, product selection, and operational logistics enabled them to develop streamlined systems for sourcing, stocking, and merchandising hotel pantries efficiently. By leveraging their distribution networks, category management strategies, and consumer insights, they helped hotel brands seamlessly integrate grab-and-go retail spaces, transforming them into profitable, guest-friendly amenities that set the stage for further innovations in unattended retail.
The Micro Market concept, now widely used in offices, hospitals, and transportation hubs, was directly derived from the hotel pantry model. As hotel pantries gained traction, the retail industry recognized the value of unattended grab-and-go retail, leading to the evolution of self-checkout, cashierless micro markets. These markets expanded beyond hotels, serving as a modern alternative to traditional vending machines, offering fresh food, beverages, and packaged snacks in an open, easily accessible format.
The Hotel Retail Group are pioneers in the hotel retail formats (ex: helped create the Hotel Pantry concept). Since 2008 the Hotel Retail Group has been involved in creating and supplying retail and food service sections with hotel operators, brands, chains and management groups nationwide. They specialize in the design and supply with the hotel pantry, breakfast area and gift shop.

THE HAWAIIAN HOTEL MARKET: There are over 1,300 lodging properties in Hawaii, which include hotels, resorts, timeshares, vacation rentals, and bed and breakfasts. The most popular areas in Hawaii for hotel rooms include Waikiki on the island of Oahu, Lahaina/Kaanapali/Kapalua on the island of Maui, and the Kohala Coast on the island of Hawaii (also known as the Big Island). These areas are popular tourist destinations and offer a range of attractions and activities, including beaches, shopping, dining, and cultural experiences.
THE HOTEL PANTRY: A successful hotel pantry offers a variety of convenient and high-quality products that meet the needs and preferences of guests. This includes having a well-stocked inventory that includes both classic and specialty snacks, beverages, and other items that guests may need or want during their stay, such as toiletries, medicine, or souvenirs.
THE HOTEL GIFT SHOP: A successful hotel gift shop offers a variety of unique and high-quality merchandise that reflects the local culture and the hotel’s brand. This includes having a well-curated selection of souvenirs, locally-made artisanal products, and high-quality branded merchandise such as clothing, accessories, and home decor.
THE HOTEL BREAKFAST AREA: A successful hotel breakfast area offers a variety of high-quality and fresh options that cater to the needs and preferences of guests. This includes having a well-stocked buffet or menu that includes both classic and specialty breakfast items, such as pastries, bread, cereal, yogurt, fruit, eggs, and meats.
THE HOTEL IN-ROOM CATERING PROGRAM: A successful hotel in-room catering program offers high-quality and diverse food and beverage options that meet the needs and preferences of guests. This includes having a well-curated menu that includes meals, snacks, and beverages, made from fresh and locally-sourced ingredients whenever possible.
THE HOTEL BAR AND LOUNGE: A successful hotel lounge and bar offers a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere, quality drinks and food, and excellent customer service. It should have a diverse and creative menu, including signature cocktails and local specialties, and offer a range of seating options to accommodate different group sizes and preferences. Additionally, having knowledgeable and friendly bartenders who can provide recommendations and personalize the guest experience can make a big difference in creating a successful hotel lounge and bar.
THE HOTEL POOL BAR: A successful hotel pool bar offers a variety of refreshing drinks and light snacks that cater to the needs of pool-goers, as well as attentive and friendly service from knowledgeable bartenders. The atmosphere should be relaxing and comfortable, with plenty of shade and comfortable seating options. Additionally, the pool bar should have a diverse menu of signature cocktails and local specialties that reflect the destination and appeal to a wide range of guests.
THE HOTEL COFFEE KIOSK: A hotel’s food service kiosk, such as a coffee kiosk, offers a convenient and efficient service with a quality product that meets the needs and expectations of guests. This includes having a well-trained staff who can provide fast and friendly service, a diverse and creative menu that includes both classic and specialty drinks and snacks, and high-quality ingredients that are fresh and locally-sourced whenever possible.
THE HOTEL COFFEE SERVICE PROGRAM: A successful hotel free coffee program offers a quality product that meets the needs and expectations of guests. This includes having a well-trained staff who can provide fast and friendly service, a diverse and creative menu that includes both classic and specialty drinks, and high-quality ingredients that are fresh and locally-sourced whenever possible.
THE HOTEL VENDING AREAS: A successful hotel vending bank area, such as a snack vending area, offers a variety of convenient and high-quality products that meet the needs and preferences of guests. This includes having a well-stocked inventory that includes both classic and specialty snacks, beverages, and other items that guests may need or want during their stay.



The Hotel Retail Group is available to help with your in-store marketing needs (POS, shippers, displays, club store displays, signage, racks and fixtures, etc). We have over 30-years with the largest companies (Nestle, Coca Cola, Pepsi/Frito-Lay) and a vast number of start-up brands (Nature’s Bakery, Perfect Bar, Coachella Farms, etc) in creating merchandising programs.
Our merchandising unit manufacturers are based in America with factories in Mexico and China.



FOOD SERVICE FORMATS: The Food Away From Home Association’s founders have been involved in the Food Service industry (as suppliers, partners and media) for many years. Our new membership will include operators and franchisors as well as others such as food service providers, chains, distributors, associations and more. We are also expanding into healthy option ideas and introductions for their customers (smoothie, juice, boba tea and yogurt).


The Food Away From Home Association will be launching its membership drive soon! As part of our initiative, we are first engaging with key stakeholders in the industry, including smoothie shop, boba tea shop, juice shop, and yogurt shop operators, franchisors, franchisees, suppliers, distributors, and other essential partners. Our goal is to build a strong network that supports and advances businesses in the food away from home sector. We welcome discussions at the trade shows we visit to share insights about our program planning details and how membership can provide valuable resources, advocacy, and networking opportunities.
Juice Shops are becoming more and more popular and are growing in many locations throughout America. You will see them in strip malls, colleges and universities, food courts, hospitals, hotels, resorts, airports and many other food service formats.
Our Grab-and-Go program (ex: smoothie shops, juice shops, boba tea shops) includes beverages, candy, energy bars, brownies, fruit snacks, dairy products, ice cream, sports nutrition products, macarons, croissants and others.

We have been in television production since the mid-1980’s and have had a-number of TV shows over the years including the recent launch of Entrepreneur Magazine Television. Our next show about start-ups is called The Counselors.

Our family has been involved within the consumer product industry (US based manufacturing, retailing, distribution) since the early 1920’s. From the first generation to the latest, our best practices have been handed down over time leading to a long legacy of successes in the business (manufacturing, retailing, distribution and more).