ShopRite, Giant continue to lead food retailers in the Greater Philly market

The annual Market Study issue of the Food Trade News is out, and Publisher Jeff Metzger has over 150 pages of facts and figures about the supermarket landscape from Connecticut to Delaware.

Jeff's Taking Stock column points out that many food retailers found the landscape "extremely challenging and difficult over the last 12 months." He cites overstoring, varied retail styles and formats, and a reduction in food stamp benefits as major factors. However, despite these challenges, ShopRite, Wegmans, Whole Foods, Aldi and Trader Joe's were companies he listed as "ahead of the curve."

In the Delaware Valley market - which consists of five PA counties, nine NJ counties and one DE county - ShopRite increased its lead over Giant in market share and sales for supermarkets. Acme, for many years the dominant store in the market, remained in third after a relatively solid year. Here are the top five:

1. ShopRite / PriceRite (31.89% market share; $3.5 billion in sales from 75 stores)
2. Giant / Carlisle (21.78%; $2.4 billion, 65 stores)
3. Acme Markets (19.70%; $2.1 billion, 91 stores)
4. A&P / Pathmark / Super Fresh (8.22%; $888 million, 46 stores)
5. Wegmans (5.14%; $555 million, 9 stores)

Whole Foods, Thriftway/Shop 'n Bag, Save-A-Lot, Redner's Markets and Bottom Dollar round out the top 10.

In the Philadelphia market - defined as Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, Chester and Philadelphia Counties in PA, and Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties in NJ - Giant still holds the lead, but ShopRite is gaining. The remaining brands in the top five are the same as above, and numbers 6-10 are the same stores as in the Delaware Valley, although not in the same order. It should be noted that Wegmans leads the pack in sales per store at $61.9 million, followed by ShopRite ($43.2M), Giant ($36.2M), Whole Foods ($33.2M) and Acme ($24M).

When including all retailers that sell food in the eight-county Philadelphia market and ranking them by counting 100% of all store sales for supermarkets, convenience stores and drug chains, and counting comparable supermarket categories for club stores, Kmart, Target and Walmart, the list changes a bit after Giant and ShopRite.

1. Giant / Carlisle ($2.4 billion)
2. ShopRite / PriceRite ($2.1 billion)
3. Wawa ($1.6 billion)
4. Acme Markets ($1.5 billion)
5. Walmart ($1 billion)
6. CVS ($905 million)
7. Rite Aid ($843 million)
8. A&P / Pathmark / Super Fresh ($691 million)
9. Target ($523 million)
10. Wegmans ($495 million)

In Lehigh and Northampton Counties, which many would consider part of the Philadelphia market, Giant is the dominant supermarket, with Weis Markets, Wegmans, Redner's Markets and Walmart as the other major players.

If you get the chance, visit Best-Met.com and marvel at the detail with which Jeff and his team prepared the annual Market Study issue. There are stats on each food retailer, breakdowns of the leaders by individual county, and analysis of the New York and Philadelphia markets. It's food retail overload, and quite frankly, it's making me hungry.

ShopRite, Giant dominate Delaware Valley and Philadelphia market share

The annual Market Study issue, published by Jeff Metzger and friends at Food Trade News, came out last week and reported that ShopRite remained the supermarket leader in the 15-county Delaware Valley market, while Giant took over as the leader in the eight-county Philadelphia market.

"Other merchants may have opened more stores, made acretive acquisitions or achieved higher identical store sales gains," said the authors of the study in describing ShopRite's success, "but on the whole, nobody continued to protect market share, open new stores and have significant same store increases like the member/owners of Wakefern/ShopRite once again did."

Here is the list of Delaware Valley supermarket leaders*, as ranked by market share.

1. ShopRite/PriceRite - 30.08% market share
2. Giant/Carlisle - 21.74%
3. Acme Markets - 19.77%
4. A&P (Pathmark, Super Fresh, Food Basics) - 9.22%
5. Wegmans - 4.72%
6. Save-A-Lot - 3.43%
7. Whole Foods - 3.23%
8. Thriftway/Shop 'n Bag - 2.62%
9. Redner's Markets - 2.57%
10. Bottom Dollar Food (Food Lion) - 2.08%

It's interesting to note that Wegmans earned it's 4.72% share with only 8 stores, and Whole Foods earned its 3.23% share with 10 stores. In comparison, ShopRite/PriceRite has 69 stores in the market, Giant has 62, Acme has 91 and A&P has 48.

The Philadelphia market share leaders* are as follows (the market consists of Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia Counties in PA, and Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties in NJ):

1. Giant/Carlisle - 27.88% market share
2. ShopRite/PriceRite - 23.52%
3. Acme Markets - 18.25%
4. A&P (Pathmark, Super Fresh, Food Basics) - 9.31%
5. Wegmans - 5.31%
6. Whole Foods - 3.65%
7. Save-A-Lot - 3.45%
8. Redner's Markets - 3.29%
9. Thriftway/Shop 'n Bag - 2.41%
10. Bottom Dollar Food - 2.27%

As for the retailers that have struggled over the past several years, the authors said "there was no relief in sight as the economy continued to be listless, competition remained fierce, shopper loyalty diminished and consumers in all economic strata maintained the mindset of thrift and caution."

* The lists above do not include supercenters (Walmart, Target), club stores (Costco, BJ's), drug stores, dollar stores or convenience stores. When including all retailers that sell groceries, Wawa's market share is higher than everyone else's except ShopRite and Giant in both the Delaware Valley and Philadelphia markets. Walmart, CVS and Rite Aid also fare well (top 10), and BJ's is the dominant club store in both markets.

For more detailed information, including sales numbers, lists by county and more, visit best-met.com.

Fitch report keen on supermarkets, ShopRite named retailer of the year

According to a report from Fitch Ratings, supermarkets appear to be stabilizing after several tough years, thanks in large part to higher food prices. For the last few years, supermarkets have cut prices and increased promotions to combat increased competition from dollar stores and discounters. However, top grocery chains like Safeway, Supervalu and Kroger are now showing improving sales and margin trends as food costs have enabled them to raise prices.

According to the report, although the higher prices will be beneficial to supermarkets, other long-term challenges remain, including rising health care costs, labor rates and a continued increase in competition from discounters.

Fitch maintained a "Stable" ratings outlook on Safeway (Genuardi's) and Kroger, and a "Negative" outlook on Supervalu (Acme, Save-A-Lot).

ShopRite

In other supermarket news, Progressive Grocer magazine has named ShopRite its Retailer of the Year for 2011.

"ShopRite continues to raise the bar in one of the most frequently competitive geographic marketing territories in the country, " said Meg Major, Progressive Grocer's editor-in-chief. "Its robust growth in the face of aggressive competition, and its extraordinary industry success and local community leadership, enable the regional chain to truly stand apart in the highly competitive food industry..."

The 47-member Wakefern cooperative owns and operates more than 220 supermarkets under the ShopRite banner in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut and Maryland. In June, Food Trade News Publisher Jeff Metzger wrote that ShopRite posted "the first triple crown in the history of the food and drug businesses in Philly and Metro New York by establishing leadership positions in the 11 county Northern New Jersey market, the 15 county Delaware Valley market and the eight county Greater Philadelphia market."

Wegmans tops per store sales in Philly market, ShopRite and Giant also strong

I've written before about the wealth of information in the June issue of Food Trade News, which includes Publisher Jeff Metzger's annual Market Study. It's 100 pages of Elias Sports Bureau-type information; just substitute food retailers for professional sports leagues.

An interesting stat to me is sales per store. Much has been written in the last couple weeks about ShopRite overtaking Acme as the sales leader in the Philadelphia market (defined as Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware, Chester, Camden, Gloucester and Burlington counties), but the overall sales leader is often a factor of how many stores each retailer has (although it should be mentioned that ShopRite has 26 fewer stores in the Philadelphia market than Acme does).

Sales per store is a telling stat. It's not surprising that Wegmans tops the list (for the period from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011). The stores are huge, and people routinely drive past other supermarkets to experience the superior customer service and selection. And at $62 million per store, no other food retailer is close.

It's also not surprising that ShopRite and Giant are next on the list. They are adding stores, gaining market share and succeeding, partly at the expense of Acme, A&P and Genuardi's (the "Big Three"). Average sales per store for ShopRite are close to $40 million, while Giant is just below $33 million.

The rest of the list is not so predictable. For instance, it's common knowledge that the "Big Three" have been struggling, but I wouldn't have guessed that A&P (Super Fresh, Pathmark & Food Basics) would be eighth in sales per store in the Philadelphia market. At $21.3 million per store, they are behind both Redner's Warehouse (seventh) and Whole Foods (fifth).

Here's the list:

1. Wegmans - $62 million per store (#6 in overall sales)
2. ShopRite - $39.5 million (#1)
3. Giant - $32.6 million (#3)
4. Genuardi's - $26.2 million (#5)
5. Whole Foods - $24 million (#10)
6. Acme Markets - $22.8 million (#2)
7. Redner's Warehouse - $22.3 million (#9)
8. A&P - $21.3 million (#4)
9. Thriftway / Shop 'N Bag - $11 million (#8)
10. Save-A-Lot - $7.6 million (#7)