Many non-supermarket retailers are devoting increasing attention to their nonfood offerings, luring consumers with some combination of low prices and/or convenience.
ores and convenience stores. Each type of retailer takes a slightly different approach to food retailing, and within each segment, individual chains further differentiate themselves from each other through their varied approaches to food retailing.
In the club-store segment, for example, Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores, Bentonville, Ark., distinguishes itself by targeting business customers, while in the discount-store segment, Minneapolis-based Target Corp. emphasizes exclusive celebrity-driven brands in promoting its SuperTarget stores.
While discount stores and club stores attract consumers with low prices, other stores leverage the convenience of their smaller and more ubiquitous locations. Drug stores have increasingly taken a share of fill-in grocery shopping trips because they offer the ability to get in and out quickly, but analysts said drug stores may have already maximized their food-retailing opportunities. Convenience stores are trying to take back share of stomach with more food-service offerings like those found at 7-Eleven and Wawa.
Dollar stores, meanwhile, combine the convenience of drug stores with the low prices of discount stores and are the fastest-growing alternative format. Dollar General in particular has been aggressive in stepping up its food-retailing efforts, adding refrigerators to its merchandising mix and testing larger stores that focus on groceries.
