Supermarket News's top North American retailers, 2008
August 26, 2008
When I was in college and graduate school a number of prominent economists and other observers were quite concerned about grocery retailing in the U.S. They claimed "entry barriers" were high; concentration in many cities was "high and rising"; and then there were concerns about "multimarket contact". (I may, later, provide cites for these claims. For now, trust me.)
Why bring this up? The other day I happened across a list of the "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" in 2008 as compiled by one of the leading trade publications, Supermarket News. Some things of interest:
--A number of entries on the list either weren't around 25 years ago or weren't, I believe, retailing very much food. Examples: Wal-Mart (#1), Costco (#3), Dollar General (#18), BJ's (#19), Whole Foods (#22), and Trader Joe's (#23).
--Formerly mighty A&P, one of the oldest chains in the U.S., has fallen to #17.
--There have been some significant ownership changes. Foreign-owned companies are now #8 (Ahold), #10 (Delhaize), and #25 (Aldi).
--Some firms operating in regional and even sub-regional areas have, through consistently good management, managed to survive and, apparently, to prosper. Examples: H. E. Butt (#14), Giant Eagle (#21), Wegman's (#30), Raley's (#35), and Weis (#50).
This merits more attention than I want to give it now. But I hope to revisit this. My tentative hypothesis is that grocery retailing in the U.S. has proved to be much more competitive than was forecast 25 or 30 years ago.