Walmart, Kroger and Costco top list of 75 food sellers in US and Canada

Supermarket News released its annual list of the Top 75 Retailers and Wholesalers. The list ranks the largest sellers of food (by revenue) to be consumed at home in the United States and Canada.

Here are some bulleted highlights that I have copied word-for-word from Supermarket News. I would suggest visiting their website for the complete study.

• Natural and organic foods are still growing, but the retail beneficiaries aren't necessarily who they used to be;
• Formats serving low-income shoppers - while still some of the industry's fastest growers due to unit growth - have seen their sales in disarray as their shoppers deal with reductions to federal food benefit programs and rising costs for housing and health care, while a slowly improving economy may be lifting some of their shoppers out of the channel; and
• While Internet retailing remained a relatively small share of the pie, it became the subject of outsized ambitions by some of the industry's leading players, and a serious threat from digital natives like Amazon, which at year-end announced plans for a leap into the physical food retailing world. Initiatives to add click-and-collect shopping capabilities speak to a trend among food retailers to improve the convenience of their offerings to shoppers, and drive more sales from existing units, sources said.
• All this occurred while a nearly unprecedented stretch of deflating prices triggered chaos throughout the supply chain - an event analysts say could dampen sales at least through the first half of 2017.

Here are the top 10 retailers and wholesalers, plus other notable companies on the list.

1.  Walmart

2.  Kroger

3.  Costco

4.  Albertsons

5.  Ahold Delhaize

6.  Loblaw Cos.

7.  Publix

8.  Target

9.  C&S Wholesale Grocers

10. Walgreens

Also:

12. CVS

15. Dollar General

16. Supervalu

16. Wakefern

19. 7-Eleven

20. Trader Joe's

21. Aldi

22. Dollar Tree

26. BJ's Wholesale Club

30. Rite Aid

30. Wegmans

44. Weis Markets

54. Grocery Outlet

56. The Fresh Market

61. Amazon

Three Wakefern members were listed as separate entities on the list, including Saker ShopRite (56), Village Super Market (61), and Inserra Supermarkets (69).

Safeway confirms that it may sell

In October I wrote about a published report that claimed Cerberus was looking into a takeover of all or part of Safeway. Yesterday Safeway confirmed that discussions were taking place involving a possible sale of the company.

In a statement, the company said it "has not reached an agreement on a transaction, and there can be no assurance that these discussions will lead to an agreement..."

Last year Safeway sold its Canada and Dominick's divisions, and before that sold or closed all of its Genuardi's stores except one (Audubon, PA).

BJ's opens 200th store, still way behind Costco and Sam's Club

BJ's Wholesale Club opened its 200th store last week in Fayetteville, NC, which prompted me to see how many stores Costco and Sam's Club have. Here's a quick comparison:

• BJ's - 200 stores in 15 states
• Costco - 627 total stores; 449 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, 85 in Canada and 93 in other countries
• Sam's Club - about 721 +/- total stores; 621 in the U.S. and Canada, and about 100 in other countries.

There you have it.