Big stores still work for Kroger

While Target announced plans earlier this month for a 12,000-square-foot store, Kroger Co. is still seeing traction with its 120,000-square-foot locations.

“We've had good success with our Marketplace format. It is driving a lot of our sales and growth right now,” said Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen in an earnings call on Thursday. Still, Kroger is open to new smaller format possibilities.

The company has been doing research and planning around smaller formats, and carefully observing dollar store chains. McMullen pointed out that Kroger has already been in the smaller format business with its Dillons Food Stores banner.

“And, we think it will be important over time to have even a smaller store that's part of the profile that's probably a convenient store, not necessarily a convenience store. But it's something we continue to work on. We haven't figured out how to make money the way we'd like to make money there, but we haven't given up either.”