Grocery Stores NAICS 445110

Aug 14, 2025 - SNAP Cuts Threaten Small Grocers

• Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka SNAP or Food Stamps) included in President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill" signed in July threaten small, rural grocery stores, The New York Times reports. Roughly 27,000 food retailers that largely operate in rural counties are considered to be most vulnerable to the cuts, according to an analysis from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, cited by NYT. “We’ll likely see more independent grocery stores in low-income and rural areas going under, especially during a recession,” Robert Greenstein, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution said. Stricter work requirements on recipients and the shifting of some of the program’s cost to the states could reduce benefits for some families and cause others to lose their benefits entirely, reducing grocery store sales.
• Shoppers at Whole Foods Market and other grocery stores encountered sparsely-stocked and empty shelves following a cyberattack on distributor United Natural Foods (UNFI) in June, The Wall Street Journal reports. The cyberattack cut into sales over several days as Whole Foods and UNFI’s other retail customers weren’t able to place orders through regular digital channels leaving many grocery store shelves bare, according to WSJ. The incident exposed the food supply chain’s vulnerability to cyberattacks, with some retailers unable to place orders with the distributor and UNFI unable to order from food companies. Retailers heavily dependent on a primary distributor are especially vulnerable to supply disruptions from cyberattacks and must rely on manual processes or scramble to find backup suppliers during outages. Whole Foods’ contract with UNFI requires it to maintain cyber insurance and a business-continuity plan that's tested regularly, with written results provided to Whole Foods.

• A new study finds consumers often can’t tell the difference between private labels and national brands, Supermarket News reports. The study –“The Quiet Takeover of Private Label” – from retail platform First Insight found 72% of consumers surveyed failed to differentiate between them when shown side-by-side images of store-brand and national-brand products. Duplication of some name-brand products has gotten so subtle it sparked lawsuits, with Mondelez International suing discount grocer Aldi for copying its packaging designs for products including Oreos and Chips Ahoy! cookies. Consumers don’t seem to mind, however. The study finds shoppers enjoy finding “the dupe,” with 47% of saying they’ve tried a private-label product specifically because it was a duplicate of a name-brand item. Broad consumer acceptance is driving sales, with store brands outperforming commercial brands in dollar and unit sales across all US retail outlets in the first quarter, according to the Private Label Manufacturers Association.
• Producer prices for grocery stores rose 2.4% in June compared to a year ago, after rising 3.9% in the previous June-versus-June annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. By comparison, the consumer price index (CPI) for food at home rose 0.3% month over month in June and 2.4% versus on an annual basis, BLS data show. Three of the six major grocery store food group indexes increased in June, while the other three declined. Employment by grocery stores inched up 0.9% year over year in May, while the average industry wage rose 1.8% over the same period to $18.07 per hour, pennies shy of its high in January, BLS data show.