Grocery Retail Industry Competitors

By selling staples, specialties, and Southern hospitality, Brookshire Grocery Co. has grown into a chain of about 155 Brookshire's, Super 1 Food, and Olé Foods supermarkets in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The company also owns three distribution centers, a dairy, a fleet of some 350 trucks, and SouthWest Foods, its private label manufacturing unit....

Co-operative Group cares for its customers from the cradle to the grave. The hodgepodge of businesses run by the world's largest cooperative society includes farming, food and drug stores, travel agencies, banking, insurance, financial and legal services, and funerals....

Take a seasoned blend of Mexican food and general merchandise stores, sprinkle with some restaurants, and olé -- you have Controladora Comercial Mexicana (CCM), Mexico's third-largest retailer in terms of sales. CCM owns and operates about 175 stores and 65 restaurants throughout Mexico, mostly in the central region....

Coop feeds Swiss shoppers' hunger for food, electronics, and more. The #2 Swiss retailer (after Migros), Coop produces and sells foods and nonfoods and operates about 1,550 food stores, hypermarkets, gas stations, convenience stores, and restaurants....

If Grupo Comercial Chedraui can't give you the whole enchilada, it certainly can provide you with everything you need to make one. Mexico's fifth-largest retailer, the supermarket giant sells groceries, apparel, and non-perishable items in about 95 self-service Chedraui stores operating in about 10 eastern and southern Mexican states....

The Ingalls family could have used an Ingles market near its little house on the prairie. Ingles Markets operates nearly 200 supermarkets, primarily in suburbs, small towns, and rural areas of six southeastern states. The stores largely operate under the Ingles name; about five operate as Sav-Mor....

One of Japan's leading retailers, Ito-Yokado operates about 175 superstores in six Japanese provinces. About two-thirds of the company's superstores are located in the Kanto Region of Japan, which includes Tokyo and Yokohama. In addition to food (more than half of total sales), the stores sell apparel, household goods, and more....

The British no longer govern Hong Kong, but don't tell Jardine Matheson Holdings (JMH), which governs the many interests of its affiliate Jardine Strategic Holdings, one of the oldest of the Hong Kong hongs (diversified trading companies) and one of the few still in British hands....

What began as a London drapery shop is today one of the UK's largest retailers -- and arguably its most oddly organized. John Lewis Partnership (JLP) runs about 25 John Lewis department stores and some 185 Waitrose supermarkets, primarily in London and southern England, but also in Scotland and Wales....

You name it, Kesko sells it. The Finnish firm is big in importing, distributing, and wholesaling in its homeland and in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden. Its largest division Kesko Food (about 40% of sales) includes more than 1,050 of its own "K" food stores (operating in a variety of formats mostly in Finland and in the Baltic countries)....

METRO provides Canadians with the fixings for a big meal, plus the antacid for afterwards. The supermarket retailer and grocery and pharmaceutical wholesaler operates about 560 food stores in Ontario and Québec following the acquisition of 235 stores from A&P Canada in mid-2005....

Save Mart Supermarkets is an even bigger wheel in the California grocery business now that it has doubled in size as a result of its recent acquisition of 132 Albertsons supermarkets in northern California and Nevada. A sponsor of the NASCAR Toyota/Save Mart 350, the company now operates about 250 grocery stores in northern and central California and Nevada....

If you'll meet me in St. Louis, then chances are there'll be a Schnucks in sight. The region's largest food chain, Schnuck Markets operates about 100 stores, mostly in the St. Louis area, but also in other parts of Missouri and in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Wisconsin....

Customers don't stew at Stew Leonard's, where the customer is always right -- just ask the customer who got a refund for the turkey she burned. While singing milk cartons and farm animals amuse the kids, four locations in Connecticut and New York sell a selection of dairy products, juice, wine, and meats to some 300,000 people weekly....

Believe it or not, one of Canada's largest privately owned companies, The Jim Pattison Group, began in 1961 as a single car dealership. Today the conglomerate has interests in grocery stores, entertainment, advertising, magazine distribution, broadcasting, and automotive retailing, among other industries....

Virginia shoppers head to Ukrop's Super Markets for baked goods, prescriptions, to-go meals, and even banking services -- but they don't go for beer or wine, and they don't go on Sundays. Ukrop's is Richmond's #1 supermarket chain, operating about 30 Ukrop's Super Markets, Joe's Market, a central bakery and kitchen, a bank, and a distribution center....

Acme Markets operates about 130 supermarkets under the Acme and Acme Sav-on banners mostly in and around Philadelphia and in Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey. The company is the #1 food and drug retailer in the competitive Philly market, where it competes with local chains, including Wakefern Food-owned ShopRite and A&P's Super Fresh and Pathmark chains....

Japanese giant AEON CO. has enough retail ventures to last for eons. The core business of Japan's AEON Group, AEON CO. owns or franchises more than 4,400 stores worldwide. It is Japan's largest supermarket chain, with about 750 stores under the JUSCO and MaxValu banners, as well as about 2,975 MINISTOP convenience stores....

Albeco (dba Mollie Stone's Markets) operates more than a half dozen grocery stores in the San Francisco Bay area, under the Mollie Stone's Markets banner. The regional grocery store chain carries national brand groceries, dairy, deli, and frozen foods, as well as natural beef, organic produce, and wine....

There's nothing small time about Albert Heijn, who began selling groceries in the 1880s and whose namesake chain is now the #1 food retailer in the Netherlands. With more than 725 company-owned and franchised supermarkets and 30-plus AH To Go convenience stores throughout the tiny country, the Albert Heijn chain is the flagship banner of Royal Ahold, one of the world's top 10 food retailers....