Greg Buell’s Post

Walmart is famous for selling just about anything you can think of, but shoppers rely on the retail giant more for groceries than for any other category sold in the company's 4,600 US stores. What's more, more shoppers are getting their groceries from Walmart than from any other retailer, and it's not even close. Nearly one in four grocery dollars in the US is spent at Walmart, more than double the share that shoppers spend at Kroger or Costco, according to consumer analytics firm Numerator. That all adds up to more than $264 billion spent on groceries at Walmart US locations in 2023, up from $247 billion and $219 billion in the preceding two years. Read more on how Walmart became America's grocery king on Business Insider. 👇 #walmart #grocerystore #retail

The top sellers of groceries in the United States are: 1. Walmart with 21.4% of grocery dollar share. Nearly one in four grocery dollars in the U.S. is spent at Walmart, according to Numerator, which published the latest grocery market share data by retailer. 2. Kroger is a distant second, with an 8.8% share. 3. Costco Wholesale is third, with an 8.2% share. 4. Albertsons Companies is fourth, with a 5.4% market share. 5. Sam's Club is fifth, with a 4.3% share.

Walmart eyes wealthier shoppers Walmart has been trying to attract wealthier customers for some time but has yet to be successful. However, the retailer is not giving up and is now renovating or building more than 800 stores in the US to feature more attractive displays and higher-end products such as blazers and duck breast. According to an executive, the early signs are promising - sales at the renewed locations are rising faster than at other #Walmart stores. With high inflation, higher-income shoppers are increasingly turning to Walmart. The challenge now is to keep them coming back. Surprisingly, the biggest group of Walmart customers are households making $50,000 to $75,000 a year, accounting for approximately 18% of visits. #retail #AI #tech

Kroger’s ill-fated drive to absorb Albertsons may have degenerated into an ugly legal brawl between the retailers, but the market dynamics that convinced them to link paths two years ago remain as potent as ever. Grocers still face intense pressure from mass retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, and scale plays just as significant a role in helping supermarket operators compete today as it did before. Add to that the fact that the incoming Trump administration seems inclined to be significantly more open to M&A than the current White House, and the stars seem aligned for significant disruption in the grocery industry in 2025 and beyond. https://lnkd.in/engpp8P7

Walmart’s dominance in grocery continues to grow. According to data from Numerator, the retail giant captured 21.4% of grocery dollar share during the past 12 months (7/1/2023 to 6/30/2024). That’s up from 20.8% in the year-ago period. Kroger was a distant second, capturing 8.9% of dollar share for the period, down from 9.2% in 2023. #Walmart

Walmart is winning, growing a $700b biz takes work. Grocery and Health are leading. “So far, we aren’t experiencing a weaker consumer overall,” Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said on the company’s earnings call. Consumers are loading up on groceries, particularly produce and meats, but aren’t skimping as much on discretionary items either. Comparable sales of groceries at Walmart U.S. rose by a mid-single-digit percentage, while general-merchandise sales were flat—a notable improvement from declines in its prior quarters. Strong demand for weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic helped its health-and-wellness business grow by a low double-digit https://lnkd.in/gkuHk9h6.

According to data from Numerator, Walmart captured 21.4% of grocery dollar share during the past year (7/1/2023 to 6/30/2024). An increase from 20.8% in the year-ago period.  Kroger was second, capturing 8.9% of dollar share for the period, down from 9.2% in 2023. #walmart #grocerysales #retailrealestate #grocery #commercialrealestate

Inferior market conditions. In the news, Walmart is announcing more price discounting. A former Walmart CEO warned a few months ago that the positive company financial data indicates a disturbing negative situation in the broader consumer economy. Walmart is seeing increases in traffic from non-traditional Walmart customers. These are customers that typically have shopped at higher end retail and grocery chains that are increasingly moving some of their purchases to Walmart and other discount retailers. Combined with the challenges of multiple companies at the lowest end of retailing (e.g. dollar stores), the data clearly shows a decrease in spending behavior both measured in dollars an units. For B2B manufacturers, the first concern is unit demand. Pricing can be used to offset the revenue line, but ultimately operational footprint was linked to an expected unit demand. As unit demand drops, the risk of hidden unit sale margins to un assigned operational variances increases. (i.e. your unit standard costs are no longer accurate at lower utilization rates). You can only affect demand so much. All manufacturers should be looking strongly at their order-to-deliver strategy in the context of operational variance optimization. In some cases, this may require foregoing even more sales opportunities that you find are net negative to the P&L. #b2b #manufacturing #b2bmanufacturing #inferiormarket #recession #outlook #forecast https://lnkd.in/dqQcqxu3 https://lnkd.in/dAC2hyww

Walmart’s hold on the grocery market continues to grow. The retail giant captured 21.4% of grocery dollar share during the past year (4/1/2023 – 3/31/2024), up from 20.7% in the year-ago period and 20% in the year before that, according to Numerator, which publishes the latest grocery market share data by retailer to understand where consumers are choosing to spend their grocery dollars.  Kroger was a distant second, with an 8.8% share, down from 9.3% last year and 9.7% the year before that. Costco Wholesale Corp. took third place, with an 8.2% share, up from 7.9% last year and 7.8% the year before. Albertsons had a 5.4% market share, compared to 5.7% last year and 5.6% the year before that. Sam’s Club took fifth place. The Walmart-owned membership warehouse club accounted for a 4.3% share, up from 4.2% last year and 4.1% the year before.

More on the reality of the inferior consumer market condition. #b2b #manufacturing #b2bmanufacturing #retail #demand #inferiormarket #recession #forecast