Biggest retailers continue to gain market share

The twenty top U.S. grocery retailers continue to gain market share, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research  Service.

According to the report, sales by the 20 largest food retailers totaled $410.4 billion in 2019, accounting for 65.1% of total food sales.

That share  increased 85.9% from 1990 to 2019 (from 35% to 65.1%, respectively). 

Before and after the Great Recession of 2007–2009, market shares held by the largest four, eight and  20 retailers decreased slightly, the report said.

Since 2012, however, the longer-term trend of an increasing concentration of sales among the nation’s largest retailers has resumed. 

“A contributing factor to these increases over the past decade has been the steady growth of Walmart Supercenters, making Walmart the largest U.S. retailer of grocery products,” the report said. “In comparison, second-place Kroger—the largest traditional grocery retailer—has been a major player in mergers-and-acquisitions activity, acquiring retailers such as Harris Teeter and Roundy’s in the last decade.”

The report said the top four retailers in 2019 were Walmart Stores, Inc., Kroger, Albertson’s, and Target. Ahold Delhaize and Publix were ranked among the top eight most of the last decade, reflecting the impact of industry mergers and acquisitions.
The report said much of the change in industry structure during the last few years resulted from consolidation, specifically two large mergers—the acquisition of Safeway by Albertson’s in January 2015, and the acquisition of Delhaize by Ahold in June 2015.

Amazon acquired Whole Foods in the summer of 2017. “Because Amazon was not a major player in the industry, the short-term effect on the overall structure of the retail food industry was not hugely affected,” the report said.