Supermarket Retail Changes

U.S. food retailers, which comprise the single largest sector of the total retail channel at $500 billion plus in annual sales, are working overtime to adjust their strategies to survive the continual competition within the industry. For grocers, to gain an edge over the competition and attract customers, they work to balance price, selection, and service on one end and capital investments and shopper marketing strategies on the other. Many consumers are willing to sacrifice size for location to be closer to their homes rather than travel to the outer skirts of town for their groceries. Becoming more common are smaller stores footprints occupied by specialty retail grocers such as  Trader Joe’s and Fresh Market. Developers are building fewer 70,000 square foot Safeway stores and 100,000 square foot Super Targets.
 
In the past decades, supermarkets used to primarily only anchor retail shopping centers.  Today they can also be found in malls, standalone developments, or in apartments buildings.  To keep pace with consumers’ demands, supermarket operators are experimenting with nutrition management, size of stores, private labels, digital marketing, and price wars as they angle to reshape the future of the industry.