Club channels, online retailers may have the edge in grocery in 2022
Oppenheimer grocery analyst Rupesh Parikh offers his forecast for the industry for the year ahead
During the recent SN Analysts Roundtable, Supermarket News spoke with Rupesh Parikh, grocery analyst at Oppenheimer, about the challenges the industry faced in 2021 and where he sees the grocery channel heading in 2022.
While labor and supply chain issues are likely to continue into the next year, Parikh said, there are some bright spots in the grocery segment, particularly in the warehouse club and online retail channels.
“I think that’s where you’re going to see the most growth,” he said in a video interview with Supermarket News. “During the pandemic Costco, BJ's, Sam's club, they've all had some of the strongest sales trends on both the one-year and two-year basis. And I think consumers have gravitated to the club channel. The habits have been stickier now that they're almost two years into this pandemic. So I think the club channel is going to retain those customers, and even post-pandemic I think they're going to be able to maintain more of the sales versus other channels.”
He continued, “Online is the other area where I think pure plays and also the online arms of conventional retailers are where you're also going to see a lot of shared gains.”
For more of Parikh’s thoughts on where the food retail industry is headed in 2022, check out the short video above.