The Power of Retail

Grocery stores in the US are coming back into favor as they innovate and keep away from the system set by Wal-Mart. Grocery store companies are now creating stores that are less hectic, and offering a wider variety of exotic foods, things that Wal-Mart didn’t really focus on. According to TNS Retail Forward, Supermarket sales rose 4% in the last year, which was the largest increase in the past five years. Ever since Wal-Mart started constructing large scale supermarkets, only a few larger chains survived and 26 of them filed for bankruptcy. Some supermarket chains are stocking less of drugs and health and beauty products which are Wal-Mart focus areas, and are instead betting on fresh produce, meat and easy to prepare food items for their stores.

Safeway has also invested in precise temperature controls for its produce and other perishable foods as they move from suppliers to stores. And it strives to find food its competitors don’t offer, said Steven A. Burd, Safeway’s chairman. For instance, it worked with growers to get individual-sized watermelons two years before others. It also works with a single meat supplier to offer its own brand of tenderness-tested beef.Kroger has an outlet for every consumer: urban no-frills stores that stock a limited set of groceries at ultra-low prices, conventional supermarkets and larger stores with housewares, and stores aimed at upper-crust shoppers that offer more produce and prepared foods. David B. Dillon, Kroger’s chief executive officer, estimated the chain gained share last year in 26 of the 32 areas where it competed against supercenters.