A report released by Inmar predicts that nearly one in four traditional grocery stores won’t be around in five years. Inmar is an analytics and technology-enabled service provider in the retail space.
The report concludes that dollar share for traditional supermarkets will continue to decline through 2021, while fresh, limited assortment and warehouse stores will gain in dollar share and store count over the same period. In addition, food e-commerce is projected to grow at a rapid pace.
According to the report, store counts will decrease over the next five years by nearly 25% from about 25,000 to 19,000, while dollar share for traditional supermarkets will decrease from 36.5% to 33.7%.
The drug store is the only other significant channel projected to see a decrease in dollar share (-0.6%).
Inmar predicts that e-commerce food sales will more than double by 2021, from $33 billion, or 4% of the current food and beverage market, to $70 billion, or 8% of the projected market.
Limited assortment stores like Aldi, Trader Joe’s and Save-A-Lot will grow by more than 21% or nearly 1,000 stores over the next five years, while their dollar share increases from 3.1% to 4.4%, according to the report.