Top 19 Supermarket Chains Increase Clout.

Food Institute Report, The, October, 1998

You really do need a scorecard to keep up with the changing makeup of the nation's top 10 grocery chains these days. Kroger Co.'s proposed $8 billion acquisition of Portland, OR-based Fred Meyer marks the fourth major consolidation effort among grocery chains already this year. As a result, these top 10 firms will control nearly one-half of the nation's grocery store sales. Their combined 1997 sales of $197 billion already account for 49% of that year's grocery store sales of $407 billion. Just five years earlier, the top 10 grocers made up only 30% of industry sales of $365 billion. The "new" Kroger, alone, therefore, would be doing about 10% of the industry's sales. For more on Kroger, see page 2.

In comparison, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A&P),...

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