The USA Today story below describes the aggressive expansion of “limited-assortment” grocers like Aldi and Sav-A-Lot. According to Aldi, they plan to open 80-100 stores this year, and Sav-A-Lot says they will double their stores from 1200 to 2400 in the next five years.
Some interesting tidbits from the story:
A recent report forecasts a 6.5% annual sales growth rate for limited-assortment grocers from 2009 to 2014, and projects traditional supermarkets’ sales growth will slow to 0.2% over the same period.
As for prices, the story reports that the private-label focus of stores like Aldi and Sav-A-Lot brings prices “about 40% less than you will find in a traditional supermarket,” and Target’s private label products are typically priced 10% – 30% below comparable national brands.
The story: Thrifty grocery shoppers head to smaller Sav-A-Lot, Aldi
My November 17, 2010 blog post: The subtle differences between Aldi, Bottom Dollar and Sav-A-Lot