Food Trade News & Food World

The delineation between traditional supermarkets and discount retailers (in all channels) has never been more clear. Except for the COVID years (2020-2023) when eating-at-home and inflation benefited virtually every retailer, the discounters have continued to nibble away share from the conventional supermarkets in every individual market in our 48th annual market study.

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Legislatures are restless; they sense the barbarians at the gate for the coming election cycles. What better way to score populist points than by attacking rising food costs? But instead of trying to solve the underpinning economic problems causing these issues, they’ve decided to focus on the evils of technology and “Big Grocery” as the culprit… 

Maryland, Connec...

Walmart Still Atop Leaderboard Over Giant; Affordability Is Key

Affordability. As we publish our 48th annual Retail Market Study for the Mid-Atlantic, that word became increasingly important to both consumers and retailers as economic struggles continued to impact most merchants in the 89-county region.

Walmart again paced all retailers selling fo...

For years, conventional wisdom suggested that grocery retail would eventually become a contest dominated by scale.

The largest chains would use their buying power, technology investments, data capabilities, and distribution networks to dominate the industry. Regional supermarkets? Well, they’d be forced to either consolidate or retreat into niche positions.

Yet,...

In an era of profound fragmentation, these have stayed the same

Supermarket employees across the organization, from the C-suite to the checkout, spend an enormous amount of time thinking about a veritable galaxy of products. 

Consumers don’t.

That may be one of the most important insights to come out of