Grocery Stores
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 38,200 grocery store firms in the US sell non-perishable dry foods and an extensive array of perishable products; including meat, produce, dairy, bakery, frozen, and several specialty food related products or services. Grocery retail is a low margin, high volume business. The industry is concentrated, as the largest 50 firms account for 73% of industry sales.
Reliance On Information Systems
Grocery retailers depend on large, complex information technology systems to manage their business operations.
Stores Face Intense Competition
Competition in the crowded retail grocery trade is intense.
Industry size & Structure
The average grocery store employs 68 workers and generates over $21.9 million in annual revenue.
- The retail grocery business is a highly competitive, diversified industry with about 38,200 firms employing 2.6 million workers and annual sales of $835 billion.
- The grocery store industry is concentrated, as the largest 50 firms operate over 17,650 stores and account for 73% of industry sales.
- The average store is 48,000 square feet, but large supercenters can exceed 180,000 square feet.
- On average, a grocery store carries about 31,530 items, or Stock Keeping Units (SKUs).
- The median store sales are about $596,000 per week (about $29.1 million per year).
- US consumers spent, on average, $6,053 on food-at-home in 2023, or $504 per month, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Industry Forecast
Grocery Stores Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Apr 14, 2025 - Tariffs Jeopardize Healthy Eating
- With the price of produce, seafood, and other healthy foods expected to rise due to import tariffs, experts warn healthy eating may become out of reach for many US consumers, Food & Wine reports. After announcing reciprocal tariffs on US trading partners on April 2nd, President Trump called for a 90-day pause. However, reciprocal tariffs are still expected to go into effect, and a 10% flat tariff on imported goods is already in place. Experts say that the cost of tariffs will be passed on to consumers. And even domestically produced foods are also likely to become more expensive, as US producers face labor shortages due to Trump’s immigration policies. Prices are likely to increase close to the tariff rate, meaning a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada will likely increase prices for imported foods by a similar margin, economist Shawn DuBravac told Food & Wine.
- The USDA has unveiled a $1 billion strategy to combat avian flu, protect the US poultry industry, and lower egg prices. The plan was announced after the department predicted retail egg prices would rise more than 40% this year. Its five-pronged strategy includes an additional $500 million for biosecurity measures, $400 million in financial relief for affected farmers, and $100 million for vaccine research, action to reduce regulatory burdens, and exploring options for temporarily increasing egg imports and decreasing exports. Bird flu has plagued the grocery and food retail industry for three years, driving up egg prices and causing shortages at grocery stores. In March, supermarket giant Kroger said the bird-flu outbreak caused a 70% increase in the price of eggs during the fourth quarter. Inflation, tariff threats, and egg prices are contributing to the grocery industry’s conservative outlook for the year ahead.
- New research from Cornell University shows beer drives grocery store sales and supports the relaxation of laws to allow alcoholic beverages to be sold in grocery stores, Food Manufacturing reports. The Cornell study found that when a grocery store starts selling beer, beer-chasing households visited a grocery store 3.6% more often and increased their grocery store expenditures by 8% per month. Moreover, shoppers increased their spending on related categories (those items likely to be purchased with beer) including snacks, cheese, deli items and soda by 17%. The research, which used nationally representative data at the store and household levels, found that the introduction of beer into grocery stores in Colorado – which started allowing grocery stores to sell full-strength beer in 2019 – can lead to fundamental changes in how people shop, where they shop and what they buy, says Bradley J. Rickard, professor of food and agricultural economics Cornell University.
- Employment by grocery stores grew 1.3% in January compared to a year ago while average industry wages rose 3.8% over the same period to a new high of $18.11 per hour, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Meanwhile, sales for supermarkets and other grocery stores (except convenience stores) rose 5.9% year over year in January but were down 3% versus December, according to Census Bureau figures. Rising sales and consumer spending – up 2.7% year over year in February and 0.1% versus January, per the Bureau of Economic Analysis – are helping grocers to mitigate rising payrolls. Looking ahead, sales for the US grocery stores industry are forecast to grow at a 2.99% compounded annual rate from 2025 to 2029, slower than the growth of the overall economy, according to the Interindustry Economic Research Fund.
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