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There are basically three large grocery chains in the US, plus Target and Walmart. The e commerce market isn’t so different. Amazon has a 40% share. Walmart is

by graeme 5y ago

There are basically three large grocery chains in the US, plus Target and Walmart. The e commerce market isn’t so different. Amazon has a 40% share. Walmart is a big player, then Shopify et al enable lots of DTC companies. Amazon is only a monopoly if you redefine the relevant market to be “Amazon” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_supermarket_chains_in_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_supermarket_chains_i...

bingidingi 5y ago
I believe Amazon is more like 50%+ now, and to compared to brick & mortar... Wal-Mart is considered huge and still only ~10% of the market. There are more than 3 grocery chains in your link, I think you may have overlooked the regional chains listed below.
- graeme 5y ago
  Nope, 40.4%: https://www.emarketer.com/content/amazon-dominates-us-ecommerce-though-its-market-share-varies-by-category https://www.emarketer.com/content/amazon-dominates-us-ecomme...
  - bingidingi 5y ago
    maybe I was looking at bad data? this says 51.2% of retail ecommerce https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/amazon-walmart-nearly-tied-in-full-year-share-of-retail-sales/ https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/amazon-walmart-nearl...
    - graeme 5y ago
      Tbh I’m not sure. May be different market definitions? “Ecommerce vs retail ecommerce”
crazygringo 5y ago
But as you can see from the gigantic list on that page, most grocery stores don't belong to those top 3. I live in NYC, for example, and I don't know a single grocery store here that belongs to a national chain or even a regional one -- they're all local. (With the sole exception of Target, but that surely doesn't make up even 1% of grocery sales here.) So the ecommerce market is entirely different. There's no grocery store equivalent of Amazon's 40% share. And people can easily visit different grocery stores, but Prime members tend to shop mostly exclusively on Amazon for the obvious reasons, so it's locked-in in a very unique way.
- graeme 5y ago
  For statistical purposes NYC basically isn’t America. It’s basically the only true city in the US, and is not representative of anything. Most other US cities become suburbs rather quickly, whereas NYC has an extensive urban built environment. Walmart is the top grocer in the US and has a 27% market share. The top five grocery chains are about 45%. Top five ecommerce are about 53%. It’s not massively different.
- duped 5y ago
  Outside of NYC Wallmart has significant marketshare over grocers. https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Walmart_Grocery_Monopoly_Report-_final_for_site.pdf https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Walmart_Grocery_... They've butted heads with their vendors over the years, and drive pricing decisions nationwide.
- jsjohnst 5y ago
  > I live in NYC, for example, and I don't know a single grocery store here that belongs to a national chain or even a regional one -- they're all local. 1. Whole Foods 2. Trader Joe’s 3. Acme (subsidiary of Albertsons) 4. Wegmans (on GP’s linked list) 5. Fairway / Morton Williams (depends on how you define “regional chain”, but both are Shoprite affiliates and Shoprite is on GP’s linked list) About the only truly “local” chain grocery stores I can think of in NYC are Gristedes and Westside Market, but I’m not an expert on the subject.
  - 5y ago

by graeme 5y ago

bingidingi 5y ago

I believe Amazon is more like 50%+ now, and to compared to brick & mortar... Wal-Mart is considered huge and still only ~10% of the market. There are more than 3 grocery chains in your link, I think you may have overlooked the regional chains listed below.

graeme 5y ago
Nope, 40.4%: https://www.emarketer.com/content/amazon-dominates-us-ecommerce-though-its-market-share-varies-by-category https://www.emarketer.com/content/amazon-dominates-us-ecomme...
- bingidingi 5y ago
  maybe I was looking at bad data? this says 51.2% of retail ecommerce https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/amazon-walmart-nearly-tied-in-full-year-share-of-retail-sales/ https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2021/amazon-walmart-nearl...
  - graeme 5y ago
    Tbh I’m not sure. May be different market definitions? “Ecommerce vs retail ecommerce”

crazygringo 5y ago

But as you can see from the gigantic list on that page, most grocery stores don't belong to those top 3. I live in NYC, for example, and I don't know a single grocery store here that belongs to a national chain or even a regional one -- they're all local. (With the sole exception of Target, but that surely doesn't make up even 1% of grocery sales here.) So the ecommerce market is entirely different. There's no grocery store equivalent of Amazon's 40% share. And people can easily visit different grocery stores, but Prime members tend to shop mostly exclusively on Amazon for the obvious reasons, so it's locked-in in a very unique way.

graeme 5y ago
For statistical purposes NYC basically isn’t America. It’s basically the only true city in the US, and is not representative of anything. Most other US cities become suburbs rather quickly, whereas NYC has an extensive urban built environment. Walmart is the top grocer in the US and has a 27% market share. The top five grocery chains are about 45%. Top five ecommerce are about 53%. It’s not massively different.
duped 5y ago
Outside of NYC Wallmart has significant marketshare over grocers. https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Walmart_Grocery_Monopoly_Report-_final_for_site.pdf https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Walmart_Grocery_... They've butted heads with their vendors over the years, and drive pricing decisions nationwide.
jsjohnst 5y ago
> I live in NYC, for example, and I don't know a single grocery store here that belongs to a national chain or even a regional one -- they're all local. 1. Whole Foods 2. Trader Joe’s 3. Acme (subsidiary of Albertsons) 4. Wegmans (on GP’s linked list) 5. Fairway / Morton Williams (depends on how you define “regional chain”, but both are Shoprite affiliates and Shoprite is on GP’s linked list) About the only truly “local” chain grocery stores I can think of in NYC are Gristedes and Westside Market, but I’m not an expert on the subject.
- 5y ago