Grocery Merchant Leadership
On January 17, 1952 Save Mart Supermarkets opened its first store in Modesto California. 58 years later it is estimated to generate $5.2 billion dollars from its 244 stores and 28,000 employees. They are ranked as the 28th largest Supermarket retailer/wholesaler in the U.S./Canada in 2009.
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that for the first time, Wal-Mart saw the majority of its US sales 51%, comeing from groceries. This hallmark statistic for the country’s number one grocery seller, is made all the more impressive by the fact that two decades or so ago the retailer was not much of a factor at all in this category.
That 51% is up from 49% last year. Based on the $258.2 billion in annual sales generated in the U.S. Wal-Mart’s one year gain in grocery sales was $5.2 billion, the equivalent of the annual volume of the entire Save Mart Supermarket Chain.
The article continues to claim that Wal-Marts “aggressive push in food and other consumables is paying off.” Ya think? That year over year growth rate of 4% is 4X the population growth. Despite the widely discussed traffic challenges (which appear to stem more from shopper interruptions from a very large number of fleet remodels than anything else), more consumers are choosing to purchase more of their grocery items from this retailer.
The complex formula for becoming and staying a successful, large merchant of groceries has changed dynamically over the last 2-3 years. Those participating in that leadership, the risk takers, benefit.