Grocery Retail Industry Overview

Companies that retail a general line (wide range) of food products such as canned and frozen foods; fresh fruits and vegetables; and fresh and prepared meats, fish, and poultry.

Summary

From cabbages to cotton balls, supermarkets have to move tremendous amounts of goods to reap onion skin-thin net profit margins -- traditionally barely 3% of sales. One reason margins are so slim is that a large proportion of a supermarket's stock consists of perishable goods.

Full Grocery Retail Industry Description

Strategic Store Layout

Conventional supermarkets change their layout to steer customers to the highest-gross-margin items (bakery is typically 40 percent, deli is 38 percent, produce is 30 percent) and to new high-margin services such as take-out, natural foods, salad bars, party planning, film processing, DVD rentals, and flowers.

Full Grocery Retail Industry Trends

• Brookshire Grocery Company
• Co-operative Group (CWS) Ltd
• Controladora Comercial Mexicana, S.A.B. de C.V.

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Hoover's has developed its own industry classifications to better serve its customers. These classifications are mapped to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and the older U.S. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. The Grocery Retail maps to a number of NAICS codes including:

Full Grocery Retail Industry Codes

• American Frozen Food Institute
  
• American Wholesale Marketers Association
  
• Food Marketing Institute
  

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