Despite the Seaport’s growing retail base and residential population, it still lacks a full-size grocery store, a gap unlikely to be filled in the foreseeable future as Boston’s business landscape shifts.

There is one singular grocery store east of the I-93, a small Trader Joe’s on Thomson Place. If you’re not a fan of their branded offerings or need something beyond what a quarter-size store can offer, you’re out of luck.

Residents of the Seaport are often forced to travel outside their neighborhood for groceries, the closest full grocery stores are Whole Foods in the South End or the small grocer Foodie’s in South Boston.

Tom Ready, a board member of the Fort Point Neighborhood Association, said the service gap was inconvenient but that the Thomson Place Trader Joe’s did cover most food staples if all you’re looking for are basic ingredients or Trader Joe’s special offerings.

“Trader Joe’s is Trader Joe’s, its got its own brand, its own following. What typically happens is people using it for big bulky items and have the rest sent by Amazon or a delivery service. If they have a car they’ll go to another neighborhood’s grocery store with good parking,” he said.

There are some smaller local markets like Cardullo’s Gourmet Shoppe people can use for specific items, though that sometimes comes with higher prices than they’d find at grocers that bring to bear an economy of scale.

Despite increasing demand from the Seaport’s growing residential population and the explosive growth of commercial development in the Seaport, Ready is skeptical that Fort Point or the Seaport will get a full-size grocery store anytime soon.

“It’s always economic factors. Are enough people living here yet, with enough density? If there isn’t then you need parking for a 40,000-foot grocery store, and when you start adding it all up the price of the project becomes untenable,” said Ready.

Space is another question. While building a spot for small shops in the Seaport is simple enough, the neighborhood’s rampant development has ironically made it harder to find a good location for such a large project.

Some stakeholders have speculated about state-owned land managed by the convention center or MassPORT, particularly just south of the Seaport between Summer and West 1st Streets.

“It’s years away if it’s coming,” said Ready.

“Conversations are happening, but conversations were happening 15 years ago when we first started developing the Seaport. Talk is talk. Nobody has come forward with a proposal to put a full-size grocery store in any specific location.” The Seaport isn’t alone in this issue. The North End deals with a similar situation, with no full-size grocery to call its own and residents relying on a mix of smaller shops and the small Star Market that opened recently. “Slowly but surely, it’s happening in the city, but in the end, in today’s commercial real estate market? I just don’t see it happening in the near term,” said Ready. “And in the long term, they still have to actually find a space that will work. There aren’t available private properties. North of Summer Street is pretty much built out.”