Gitnux/Report 2026

Food Retail Industry Statistics

The global grocery market reached $11.3T in 2025, explore the figures behind food retail growth, companies and the 2026 technology shifts.
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November 11, 2026Updated
Food Retail Industry Statistics
Diana ReevesWritten by Diana Reeves·Edited by Alexander Schmidt·Fact-checked by Jonathan Hale
Published ·Updated
How this report is researched
01Editorial Scope

An editor sets the topic, the inclusion criteria, and the evaluation framework before research starts.

02Source Research

AI search agents locate sources and extract each figure together with the document it came from.

Read our full methodology →

Search agents attach provenance to every extracted figure.

Next review: within 31 days

01 Industry overview

The food retail industry at a glance

Global food retail generated about $11.3 trillion in 2025, while value growth remained heavily influenced by inflation, private-label trading and the continued shift toward online and discount channels.

$11.3T[80]
Global grocery sales, 2025
4.0%[81]
Global grocery CAGR, 2025–2030
36%[81]
Supermarket share, 2025
$1.015T[82]
U.S. food-store sales, 2025
Market size
Global grocery retail revenue reached €11.3 trillion in 2025, according to EY-Parthenon. In the United States, food and beverage stores recorded approximately $1.015 trillion in 2025 sales, including grocery, specialty food, convenience and alcohol retailers.[80][82]
Forecast & CAGR
IGD forecasts the global grocery market will reach $12.6 trillion by 2030, adding $2.4 trillion in sales over five years and implying approximately 4.0% annual growth. Online grocery is expected to be the fastest-growing channel, with a 7.6% CAGR through 2030.[81]
Market share & regions
Asia is forecast to account for 36% of global grocery sales by 2030 and India, the United States and China together are expected to generate 42% of global growth. Supermarkets and hypermarkets represented 36% of global grocery sales in 2025, but their share is forecast to fall to 34.3% by 2030.[81]
Segmentation
Food retail is segmented by format, including supermarkets and hypermarkets, convenience stores, discount stores, warehouse clubs, traditional outlets and online grocery. Supermarkets and hypermarkets generated $3.5 trillion in projected sales by 2030, while global convenience sales were about $900 billion in 2025 and are forecast to exceed $1 trillion by 2030.[81]
Key players & concentration
Large operators remain influential, but food retail is fragmented across national chains, regional grocers, discounters, convenience operators and independent stores. Walmart U.S. reported $462.4 billion in fiscal 2025 net sales, while Kroger reported 17% e-commerce growth in 2025; these figures are company-wide or segment figures and are not directly comparable with grocery-only market shares.[17][48]
Pricing
Pricing remains a central competitive issue because food-at-home prices have stayed above pre-pandemic levels even as inflation has moderated. USDA’s 2026 Food Price Outlook reported that seven of 15 food-at-home categories were forecast to grow faster than their 20-year historical average rate.[83]
Trends, drivers & challenges
Growth is being driven by population and income expansion, e-commerce, discount formats, private labels and convenience, while inflation, agricultural input costs, trade disruption and labor costs pressure margins. Euromonitor estimated global FMCG retail sales at $6.6 trillion in 2025 and projected a 5% CAGR through 2029, with value growth still largely price-led.[81][84]
Consumer behavior & competition
Consumers are increasingly balancing price, convenience and digital access. FMI reported that online grocery accounted for 8.9% of U.S. grocery item sales in 2025, while online sales contributed close to 75% of total U.S. grocery dollar growth that year; FMI also reported that mass retailers had become as commonly used as supermarkets among U.S. shoppers in 2026.[1]
M&A
The proposed $24.6 billion Kroger–Albertsons merger was blocked after U.S. regulators challenged it on competition grounds, making antitrust scrutiny a major constraint on supermarket consolidation. The FTC described it as the largest proposed supermarket merger in U.S. history.[85]
Regulation
Competition policy is a major regulatory issue in food retail, particularly where mergers could affect prices, supplier bargaining power, store choice or workers. The FTC’s case against Kroger and Albertsons shows that large supermarket transactions may face federal and state challenges even when companies propose store divestitures.[85][86]
Latest news
In 2026, FMI reported that online grocery sales were projected to reach $452 billion in the United States by 2028, while private-brand dollar sales increased 2.8% for the 52 weeks ending March 22, 2026. Kroger also said its 2025 e-commerce sales increased 17%, highlighting continued investment in omnichannel retail.[1][48]

02 Ranking

Top 10 Companies in the Food Retail Industry

The leading companies in the food retail industry, ranked on market impact, performance, momentum, innovation and brand popularity.

Updated November 11, 2026 · Next review December 11, 2026

Verdict

Schwarz Group stands out for grocery retail store footprint because it operates Lidl and Kaufland across 33 countries with more than 14,500 stores, while Walmart focuses on omnichannel grocery and leads in U.S. grocery sales since Walmart U.S. grocery sales reached $276.0 billion in fiscal 2025.

Ranked by Overall score · How we score ↓

Editor's top 3 picks

Where to start, by need.

  1. #1 Overall · Leader in grocery supermarkets

    Schwarz Group

    DE

    Ranked #1 · 9.6 · Grocery supermarkets

    Why we picked it: It runs Lidl and Kaufland across 33 countries at store scale, covering grocery retail formats globally.

    See in ranking ↓Visit gruppe.schwarz ↗

  2. Leader in omnichannel grocery retail

    Walmart

    US

    Ranked #2 · 9.4 · Omnichannel grocery retail

    Why we picked it: Its U.S. grocery business reached $276.0 billion in fiscal 2025, with operating margins of 4.2%.

    See in ranking ↓Visit walmart.com ↗

  3. Leader in warehouse club retail

    Costco Wholesale

    US

    Ranked #3 · 9.3 · Warehouse club retail

    Why we picked it: Its warehouse-club model shows scale in 914 locations and $269.9 billion net sales in fiscal 2025.

    See in ranking ↓Visit costco.com ↗

Pick 1 is the #1 company overall. Picks 2 and 3 are the highest-ranked companies in the top 5 that add a new segment.

Full ranking

Sort by
Top 10 companies in the food retail industry, 2026 – Gitnux ranking
#CompanyOverall ↓Company snapshot
1

Schwarz Group

Grocery supermarkets · DE

9.6
2

Walmart

Omnichannel grocery retail · US

9.4
3

Costco Wholesale

Warehouse club retail · US

9.3
4

Loblaw Companies

Grocery supermarkets · CA

8.8
5

Tesco

Grocery supermarkets · GB

8.7
6

Ahold Delhaize

Supermarkets and online grocery, Europe and US · NL

8.7
7

Publix

Supermarkets and food retail, southeastern US · US

8.5
8

Carrefour

Hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience, global · FR

8.5
9

Mercadona

Supermarkets and food retail, Spain and Portugal · ES

8.5
10

The Kroger Company

Supermarkets, pharmacies and grocery retail, US · US

8.4

How we score

  • Impact (30%): scale and weight in the market (revenue, market share, employees, market position).
  • Performance (20%): recent revenue growth and operating margin; an analyst assessment where a company does not publish them.
  • Momentum (20%): growth trajectory and future potential.
  • Innovation (15%): R&D intensity and how technologically advanced the company is.

Popularity (brand search demand, 15%) counts toward Overall but is not published as a column. Overall leaves out what is not known.

Scale Scores are shown on a 7–10 scale with one decimal; bars start at 7.0.

Cadence Recalculated when new figures are published; next review December 11, 2026.

Independence. Rankings are editorially independent. Scores, ranks, picks and the verdict follow the method above; no company can pay to change them.

Cite this ranking

APA

Diana Reeves. (2026, February 13). Top 10 companies in the food retail industry. In Food Retail Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/food-retail-industry-statistics/#top-companies

report visual · Comparison

Revenue of the largest food retail companies

Walmart leads with $681.0B in annual revenue (group level, converted to USD).

Walmart$681.0B
Costco Wholesale$269.9B
Schwarz Group$200.4B
The Kroger Company$147.6B
Ahold Delhaize$99.8B
Tesco$88.8B
source-verifiedstock.walmart.com · s201.q4cdn.com · gruppe.schwarz · ir.kroger.com · aholddelhaize.com · tescoplc.com2025

04 Statistics

Technology & Innovation

AI uptake is rising in food retail operations, with 68% of U.S. food retailers using artificial intelligence in 2026 and 59% using generative AI.

AI in the food retail industry

  • 47% of food retailers reported using artificial intelligence in 2024, while 93% of food suppliers reported using it.[1]
  • 93% of grocery-industry C-suite leaders said AI would be necessary to compete in the future in 2025.[2]
  • 26% of food retailers used generative AI for internal content creation in 2024.[1]
  • 68% of food retailers surveyed in the United States used artificial intelligence in 2026, up from 47% in 2025.[3]
  • 59% of food retailers surveyed used generative AI in 2026, compared with 43% in 2025.[3]
  • Food retailers allocated nearly 2% of total sales to technology spending in 2025, with AI included among the emerging technologies covered.[3]

Automation in the food retail industry

  • 28% of tasks were automated by grocery and general-merchandise stores in 2024, according to a retail technology survey.[4]
  • US retailers planned to invest an average of $415,600 in store-intelligence technologies over the following 12 months in 2025.[5]
  • 35% of U.S. retailers planned to invest at least $500,000 in store-intelligence technologies over the following 12 months in 2025.[5]
  • 57% of U.S. retailers were investing in shelf-digitization technologies, including computer-vision shelf-scanning robots, in 2025.[5]
  • 58% of tasks were expected to be automated by grocery and general-merchandise stores by 2026.[4]
  • 57% of U.S. retailers were investing in store-intelligence solutions in 2025, including technologies supporting automation and operational efficiency.[5]

Digital Transformation in the retail and e-commerce sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across EU businesses, 74% reached at least a basic level of digital intensity in 2024.[6]
  • Among EU small and medium-sized enterprises, 71% reached at least a basic level of digital intensity in 2025.[6]
  • Across retail and consumer-goods companies, 70% of business functions had generative AI adopted or piloted in 2025.[7]
  • Among EU large businesses, 96% reached at least a basic level of digital intensity in 2025.[6]

Technology Adoption in the retail and e-commerce sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across US and European retailers, 66% had moved beyond exploration and testing of store-intelligence technologies in 2025.[5]
  • Across US and European retailers, 16% had fully scaled artificial intelligence in 2025.[5]
  • Across US and European retailers, 21% had fully scaled edge computing technologies in 2025.[5]
  • Across US and European retailers, 23% had fully scaled wireless communication technologies such as RFID or Bluetooth in 2025.[5]
  • Across US and European retailers, 27% had fully scaled cameras and sensors in 2025.[5]

Cloud Computing in the retail and e-commerce sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across EU enterprises using paid cloud services, 85.15% used cloud-based email in 2025.[6]
  • Across EU enterprises, 52.74% used paid cloud-computing services in 2025.[6]
  • Across EU enterprises using paid cloud services, 45.52% hosted enterprise databases in the cloud in 2025.[6]
  • Across EU enterprises using paid cloud services, 71.69% used cloud-based office software in 2025.[6]
  • Across EU enterprises using paid cloud services, 71.53% used cloud-based file storage in 2025.[6]

Big Data in the retail and e-commerce sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across retail companies, 23% were using artificial intelligence in production to resolve customer identities or prepare customer data for marketing or analytics in 2025.[8]
  • Across EU enterprises, 33.02% performed data analytics using their own employees in 2025.[6]
  • Across EU enterprises, 26.20% performed data analytics on transaction records such as sales and payment records in 2025.[6]
  • Across retail companies, 64% said their customer data was structured and accessible enough to support artificial-intelligence use cases in 2025.[8]

05 Statistics

Data & Analytics

Data integration remains a gating factor, with 96% of respondents citing breaking down data silos as a significant challenge in 2025.

Business intelligence in the food retail industry

  • 15% of retail and consumer-goods organizations had reached full operational maturity in AI and business intelligence in 2025.[9]
  • 66% of surveyed retailers had begun implementing store-intelligence technologies in 2025.[5]
  • $12.6 billion was the projected global store-intelligence-technology market size for 2029.[5]
  • 50% of retail and consumer-goods organizations reported cost-savings and employee-productivity gains from AI and business intelligence in 2025.[9]
  • 88% of surveyed U.S. retailers reported being at least slightly challenged by store-related business functions in 2025.[5]
  • 20% of surveyed retailers had fully scaled store-intelligence technologies in 2025.[5]

Data analytics in the food retail industry

  • 17% of surveyed retail buyers used AI-based forecasting in 2025, up from 11% in 2024.[10]
  • 8% of retail and consumer-goods organizations had scaled AI-powered analytics across multiple departments in 2025.[11]
  • 51% of consumer-goods companies identified inability to integrate data from multiple sources as their primary analytics challenge in 2025.[12]
  • 31% of consumer-goods companies spent less than 5% of their IT budgets on analytics in 2025.[12]
  • Nearly one-third of surveyed food retailers used artificial intelligence for assortment planning, replenishment, customer data, or pricing and promotion in 2025.[1]
  • Most surveyed food retailers used data analytics for assortment planning and replenishment in 2025.[1]

Data Quality in the retail and e-commerce sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across retail and e-commerce, 29% of respondents rated their customer-data collection methods not very effective in 2024.[13]
  • Across retail and e-commerce, 62% of respondents rated their data-management practices only somewhat effective in 2024.[13]
  • Across retail and e-commerce, 66% of respondents rated their identity-resolution ability only somewhat effective in 2024.[13]
  • Across retail and e-commerce, 48% of respondents rated their customer-data collection methods only somewhat effective in 2024.[13]
  • Across retail and e-commerce, 66% of respondents identified data-quality controls as a significant challenge in 2024.[13]

Data Governance in the retail and e-commerce sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across retail and consumer-products companies, 66% of respondents said their data-management capabilities were only somewhat unified in 2025.[14]
  • Across retail and e-commerce, 57% of respondents identified data governance as a significant challenge in 2024.[13]
  • Across retail and consumer-products companies, 53.5% of respondents said regulatory compliance was not a significant data challenge in 2025.[14]
  • Across retail and consumer-products companies, 96% of respondents said breaking down data silos was a significant challenge in 2025.[14]
  • Across retail and CPG companies, 31% of respondents cited the lack of a corporate data strategy and semantic layer as a key challenge in 2025.[15]
  • Across retail and CPG companies, 35% of respondents cited inconsistent or incorrect answers to data questions as a governance-related blocker in 2025.[15]

KPIs in the food retail industry

  • 25.8% of sales were consumed by total expenses at U.S. independent grocers in fiscal 2024.[16]
  • 17.8 inventory turns were recorded by U.S. independent grocers in fiscal 2024.[16]
  • 47% of U.S. independent grocers offered self-checkout in fiscal 2024.[16]
  • 16.3% of net sales went to labor and benefits at U.S. independent grocers in fiscal 2024.[16]
  • 27.4% was the average gross margin reported by U.S. independent grocers in fiscal 2024.[16]
  • 40.7% was the overall part-time associate turnover rate at U.S. independent grocers in fiscal 2024.[16]

06 Statistics

Strategy & Growth

Private label keeps expanding, with 26% of 2023 U.S. food-and-beverage unit share held by private brands, up from 24.7% in 2022.

Growth in the food retail industry

  • 5.7% was Walmart International’s constant-currency net-sales growth in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025.[17]
  • 31% was Ahold Delhaize’s increase in weekly app users over 2024 after its app rollout.[18]
  • 20.8% was Walmart’s global eCommerce growth in fiscal 2025.[17]
  • 33% was Ahold Delhaize’s increase in loyalty redemptions over 2024 after its app rollout.[18]
  • 34% was Walmart U.S. marketplace growth in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025.[17]
  • 5.1% was Walmart’s global revenue growth in fiscal 2025, reaching $681 billion.[17]

Differentiation in the food retail industry

  • 54% of shoppers expected to buy somewhat more or much more private-label food and beverages in the following year in 2024 research.[19]
  • 90% or more of Aldi products were private label in the U.S. in 2024.[20]
  • 83% of Southeast U.S. consumers intentionally bought local products in at least one grocery category or department in 2024.[21]
  • $271 billion was total U.S. store-brand sales in 2024.[22]
  • 80% of Trader Joe’s approximately 4,000 products carried one of its own brand names according to reported company information.[23]
  • 26% was the 2023 U.S. food-and-beverage unit share held by private brands, up from 24.7% in 2022.[24]

Mergers and acquisitions in the food retail industry

  • 51% was Ahold Delhaize’s ownership of Indonesian joint venture Super Indo in 2025.[18]
  • 207 Carrefour franchised stores operated in France within the CPI France portfolio at December 31, 2025.[25]
  • 37% was the decline in private-equity food-retail deal activity between 2022 and 2024.[26]
  • 15% was Walmart’s ownership stake in Japan’s Seiyu before its sale to Trial Holdings in 2025.[17]
  • More than 500 food-retail deals were completed or announced globally since 2022, according to EY’s food-retail M&A analysis.[26]
  • 1,406 Carrefour franchised stores operated in the CPI Other portfolio at December 31, 2025.[25]

Strategic partnerships in the food retail industry

  • 2,900 pickup and delivery locations supported Walmart International’s omnichannel operations as of January 31, 2025.[17]
  • 77% of U.S. digital grocery shoppers using third-party platforms selected Instacart as their preferred platform in 2024.[27]
  • 276 Ahold Delhaize pickup points operated in Europe in 2024.[18]
  • 93% of U.S. households were reachable by Walmart same-day delivery in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025.[17]
  • 30% was the approximate year-over-year increase in Walmart International items delivered same day or next day in fiscal 2025.[17]
  • Approximately 2.3 billion Walmart items were delivered same day or next day in fiscal 2025.[17]

07 Statistics

People & Workforce

Workforce retention stays a constraint, with 58% average turnover for food-retail employees in 2023, down from 65% in 2022.

Hiring in the food retail industry

  • 21% of retail candidates said the overall hiring process took too long in 2024.[28]
  • Nearly two-thirds of food retailers offered improved benefits to full-time employees in 2023.[1]
  • 37% of retail candidates said they abandoned an application because the employer took too long to respond in 2024.[28]
  • 65% of food retailers offered flex time to employees in 2023.[1]
  • Approximately 2.5 million more job vacancies than job seekers existed in the U.S. labor market in May 2024, intensifying retail hiring pressure.[29]

Employee retention in the food retail industry

  • 63% was the frontline employee turnover rate reported by Tiger Fuel's retail stores in Virginia in 2024.[28]
  • Career-development gaps and uncompetitive compensation were the two most important reported drivers of retail employee departures in 2024.[29]
  • 22% more U.S. retail workers considered quitting in 2024 than in 2023.[30]
  • 65% was the average turnover rate for food-retail employees in 2022, a historic high reported by FMI.[1]
  • 58% was the average turnover rate for food-retail employees in 2023, down from 65% in 2022.[1]

Remote Work in the retail and e-commerce sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across U.S. retail trade, employees worked from home for 14.02% of full paid working days in 2025.[31]
  • Across U.S. retail trade, employees worked from home for 13.46% of full paid working days in 2024.[31]
  • Across U.S. retail trade, employees worked from home for 14.03% of full paid working days in 2023.[31]
  • Across U.S. retail trade, employees worked from home for 15.14% of full paid working days in 2022.[31]
  • Across U.S. retail trade, employees worked from home for 14.09% of full paid working days in 2026.[31]

Hybrid Work in the retail and e-commerce sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across retail organizations globally, 42% used mandated office days as their hybrid-work model in 2025.[32]
  • Across U.K. employers, 74% had hybrid working in place in 2025.[33]
  • Across U.K. employers, 42% had a formal hybrid-working policy in 2025.[33]
  • Across retail organizations globally, 55% of employees worked from the office five days per week in 2025.[32]
  • Across U.K. employers, 23% used informal manager-employee arrangements for hybrid work in 2025.[33]

Upskilling in the food retail industry

  • Lowe's 90-day online training program prepares employees for roles including carpentry and utility maintenance.[24]
  • 60% of grocery-retail employers used some form of employee training in 2024.[34]
  • 74% of retail employees who experienced a culture of equality and diversity said they had better work experiences, supporting retention and development.[35]
  • 59% of retail business leaders said workforce upskilling would be a main driver of workforce transformation over the following five years.[35]
  • Walmart introduced a tuition-free skilled-trades training initiative for employees in the Dallas–Fort Worth area in 2024.[24]

Employee Engagement in the retail and e-commerce sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across retail employees in Culture Amp’s 2024 dataset, 70% were engaged in 2025 reporting.[36]
  • Across U.S. retail workers, 24% reported one or more symptoms of burnout in Seramount’s spring 2025 survey.[36]
  • Across U.S. retail workers, 24% were promoters of their organizations in Seramount’s spring 2025 survey.[36]
  • Across retail employees, 71% agreed their company contributed to their learning and development in Culture Amp’s 2024 dataset.[36]
  • Across retail employees, 84% would recommend their company as a great place to work in Culture Amp’s 2024 dataset.[36]

08 Statistics

Customer & Sales

Online execution and availability affect repeat behavior, as 62% of U.S. online grocery shoppers cited out-of-stock items as a shopping headache in 2024.

Customer experience in the food retail industry

  • 37% of U.S. consumers abandoned an online grocery order because of high service fees in 2024.[37]
  • 65% of U.S. grocery shoppers would visit a store where they do not typically buy groceries for a great deli offering in 2026.[38]
  • 62% of U.S. online grocery shoppers reported out-of-stock items as a shopping headache in 2024.[37]
  • 67% of U.S. consumers preferred shopping for groceries in stores in 2024.[37]
  • 57% of U.S. grocery shoppers would drive farther than the closest store for a great deli offering in 2026.[38]

Customer retention in the food retail industry

  • 24% of grocery customers using Upside dropped off in month one in data covering March 2022 to February 2025.[39]
  • 50% of grocery customers who join a loyalty program churn within 12 months, based on transaction data from March 2022 to February 2025.[40]
  • 17% of grocery customers using a loyalty program dropped off in month one in data covering March 2022 to February 2025.[39]
  • 41% of grocery customers using neither a loyalty program nor Upside dropped off in month one in data covering March 2022 to February 2025.[39]
  • 8% of grocery customers using both a loyalty program and Upside dropped off in month one in data covering March 2022 to February 2025.[39]

Customer acquisition in the food retail industry

  • 49.6% of rural U.S. grocery consumers reported buying more store-brand or generic products in March 2024.[41]
  • 19% of U.S. consumers regularly visited two or more grocery stores in 2024.[37]
  • 22% of U.S. consumers shopped more frequently at convenience or discount stores for groceries in 2024.[37]
  • 44.2% of rural U.S. grocery consumers reported shopping for sales more often in March 2024.[41]
  • 50% of new grocery customers never returned after their first month in U.S. data covering two years through 2025.[42]

Customer loyalty in the food retail industry

  • 71% of regular grocery shoppers were retained after one year in Upside data covering March 2022 to February 2025.[39]
  • 20% of loyalty-member grocery customers were not retained after one year in Upside data covering March 2022 to February 2025.[40]
  • 85% of U.S. online adults belonged to at least one retail loyalty program in 2024, with grocery among the most popular categories.[43]
  • More than 49% of active grocery loyalty members considered membership when deciding where to shop in data collected through February 2025.[40]
  • 74% of surveyed consumers belonged to a grocery loyalty program in data collected through February 2025.[40]

09 Statistics

Marketing & Brand

Integration improves measurable performance, with digital plus direct mail increasing grocery marketing-program performance by as much as 28% versus direct mail alone.

Marketing in the food retail industry

  • Integrating digital with direct mail increased grocery marketing-program performance by as much as 28% versus direct mail alone.[41]
  • 23.6% of rural U.S. grocery consumers cited advertising inserts as a media influence in January 2024.[41]
  • 49.3% of rural U.S. grocery consumers cited coupons as a media influence in January 2024.[41]
  • 21.2% of rural U.S. grocery consumers cited direct mail as a media influence in January 2024.[41]
  • 60% of grocery consumers were prompted to online activity after receiving direct mail in 2023.[41]

Digital marketing in the food retail industry

  • U.S. supermarket digital advertising spend exceeded $700 million during the 12 months from September 2023 through August 2024.[44]
  • 2.6% was the purchase-intent rate for Pinterest traffic to grocery brands in 2024.[45]
  • 14.2% was the purchase-intent rate for grocery brands using brand websites in 2024.[45]
  • 38.6% of grocery-brand purchase-intent clicks came from social platforms in 2024.[45]
  • 10.2% of grocery-brand purchase-intent clicks came from search in 2024.[45]

Branding in the food retail industry

  • 34% of U.S. grocery shoppers discovered new foods through Facebook during the year covered by the 2026 IDDBA survey.[38]
  • 39.2% of U.S. consumers in urban counties bought more store-brand or generic products in March 2024.[41]
  • 26% of U.S. grocery shoppers discovered new foods through Instagram during the year covered by the 2026 IDDBA survey.[38]
  • 36% of U.S. grocery shoppers discovered new foods in stores during the year covered by the 2026 IDDBA survey.[38]
  • 25% of U.S. grocery shoppers discovered new foods through TikTok during the year covered by the 2026 IDDBA survey.[38]

Social media in the food retail industry

  • 52% of Gen Z grocery shoppers discovered new foods through TikTok during the year covered by the 2026 IDDBA survey.[38]
  • 1.8% was the average purchase-intent rate across social channels driving traffic to grocery brands in 2024.[45]
  • 16.4% of rural U.S. grocery consumers cited social media as a media influence in January 2024.[41]
  • 2.0% was the purchase-intent rate for Facebook traffic to grocery brands in 2024.[45]

Influencer Marketing in the retail and e-commerce sector (sector benchmark)

  • 58% of brands integrated retail media networks and creator marketing platforms by amplifying creator-generated content on retail media channels in 2025.[46]
  • 49% of brands investing in creator marketing reported sales as an impact of creator activity in 2026, compared with 60% citing brand sentiment and 58% citing awareness.[46]
  • 80% of brands investing in creator marketing increased creator budgets in 2026, while 25% raised creator spending by more than 10%.[46]
  • 91% of brands investing in creator marketing ran an always-on component in 2026, including 62% with hybrid programs and 29% with fully continuous programs.[46]
  • 78% of surveyed brands reported growing creator-marketing budgets in 2025, up from 36% reporting budget growth in 2024.[46]

10 Statistics

Operations & Execution

Automation is moving into near-term deployment, with a projected increase in grocery and general-merchandise task automation from 28% to 58% by 2026.

Process optimization in the food retail industry

  • 91% of fresh-grocery retail decision-makers said investing in fresh operational technology was important in Logile’s 2026 survey.[47]
  • 4,500 Walmart U.S. stores offered delivery from stores in fiscal 2025, extending store-based fulfillment processes.[48]
  • 20% was the projected increase in grocery and general-merchandise task automation between current deployment and 2026, from 28% to 58%.[4]
  • 4,600 Walmart U.S. stores offered pickup in fiscal 2025, supporting process integration between stores and e-commerce fulfillment.[48]
  • More than 20% was Walmart’s fiscal-2025 reduction in net delivery cost per e-commerce order.[48]

Operational efficiency in the food retail industry

  • 17.8 inventory turns was the average reported by independent grocers in fiscal 2024, ending March 31, 2025.[16]
  • 40.7% was overall part-time associate turnover among independent grocers in fiscal 2024, ending March 31, 2025.[16]
  • 95.7 was the 2022 U.S. grocery-store margin-productivity index, with 2004 equal to 100.[49]
  • 127.0 was the 2022 U.S. grocery-store labor-productivity index, with 2004 equal to 100.[49]
  • 3.1% was the decline in U.S. grocery-store labor productivity in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.[49]

Quality management in the food retail industry

  • 72 FDA-regulated food incidents were evaluated by FDA CORE teams in the United States during 2024.[50]
  • 19 brands were affected when Rizo-López Foods recalled all sell-by dates of its dairy products during the 2024 listeria investigation.[50]
  • 26 FDA-regulated food incident responses were initiated by FDA CORE teams in the United States during 2024.[50]
  • 73% of 22 people interviewed in the 2024 Rizo-López cheese investigation reported eating queso fresco, cotija or similar cheeses.[50]
  • 10 public-health advisories were issued by FDA CORE teams for FDA-regulated food incidents in the United States during 2024.[50]

Supply chain in the food retail industry

  • 18.7% of U.S. retail surplus food in 2024 was spoiled, equal to 744,000 tons.[51]
  • 11.0% of U.S. retail surplus food in 2024 came from dairy and eggs.[51]
  • 21.5% of U.S. retail surplus food in 2024 was donated, equal to 857,000 tons.[51]
  • 13.6% of U.S. retail surplus food in 2024 came from fresh meat and seafood.[51]
  • 33.1% of U.S. retail surplus food in 2024 came from produce departments.[51]

Outsourcing / Offshoring in the retail and e-commerce sector (sector benchmark)

  • Among U.S. apparel imports, China’s share fell from 30% in 2019 to 21% in 2023, while other Asian suppliers’ share rose from 30% to 35%.[29]
  • 76% of retail organizations with $150 million–$200 million in revenue outsourced some or all fulfillment in 2025.[52]
  • 74% of retailers surveyed sourced internationally, including 71% of small companies and 84% of larger companies, in 2024.[53]
  • 72% of retail organizations with $100 million–$150 million in revenue outsourced some or all fulfillment in 2025.[52]
  • 57% of retail organizations with $50 million–$100 million in revenue outsourced some or all fulfillment in 2025.[52]

11 Statistics

Finance & Pricing

Margins face cost pressure while shrink remains an internal lever, such as Kroger’s gross margin rate rising to 22.9% in fiscal 2025.

Pricing strategy in the food retail industry

  • 0.9 percentage points was the contribution of lower inventory shrink to Target’s gross-margin-rate change in fiscal 2025.[48]
  • 22.9% was Kroger’s gross margin rate in fiscal 2025, up from 22.3% in fiscal 2024 after sourcing improvements, lower shrink and lower supply-chain costs.[48]
  • 51 basis points was Walmart U.S.’s fiscal-2025 gross-profit-rate increase.[48]
  • 157 million dollars was Kroger’s LIFO charge in fiscal 2025, compared with $95 million in fiscal 2024, reflecting higher product-cost inflation.[48]
  • 27.9% was Target’s gross-margin rate in fiscal 2025, down from 28.2% in fiscal 2024 partly because of merchandising activities and category mix.[48]

Cost reduction in the food retail industry

  • 400 million dollars was Kroger’s expected 2026 e-commerce operating-profit improvement from its strategic review.[48]
  • 8% was Kohl’s fiscal-2025 reduction in merchandise receipts, supporting lower inventory and clearance costs.[48]
  • 7% was Kohl’s fiscal-2025 reduction in inventory compared with the prior year.[48]
  • 1.8% was the decline in U.S. retail-trade unit labor costs in 2024.[49]
  • 0.2 percentage points was the fiscal-2025 gross-profit-margin benefit attributed to lower inventory shrink at TJX.[48]

Profitability in the food retail industry

  • 4.9% was Target’s fiscal-2025 operating-income margin rate.[48]
  • 27.9% was Target’s fiscal-2025 gross-margin rate.[48]
  • 20.157 billion dollars was Walmart’s consolidated net income in fiscal 2025.[48]
  • 4.4% was Walmart’s consolidated operating-income margin in fiscal 2025.[48]
  • 22.9% was Kroger’s fiscal-2025 gross-margin rate.[48]

Financial planning in the food retail industry

  • 110 million dollars was the estimated impact on Target’s cost of sales from a 10% change in its fiscal-2025 year-end inventory-shrink reserve.[48]
  • 29.348 billion dollars was Walmart’s fiscal-2025 operating income.[48]
  • 33.754 billion dollars was Kroger’s fiscal-2025 gross profit.[48]
  • 157 million dollars was Kroger’s fiscal-2025 LIFO charge for higher product costs.[48]
  • 139.884 billion dollars was Walmart’s fiscal-2025 operating expense.[48]

12 Statistics

Product & Service

Fresh and local programs remain core differentiation, with 89% of surveyed food retailers selling local assortments in 2025.

Product development in the food retail industry

  • 76% of surveyed food retailers employed product-differentiation strategies focused on nutrition, health and well-being in 2025.[1]
  • 87% of surveyed food retailers sold local assortments as one of their leading product-differentiation strategies in 2025.[1]
  • 35% of global consumer-packaged-goods launches were genuinely new products in 2024, including food and beverage launches.[54]
  • 89% of surveyed food retailers operated fresh-prepared or foodservice programs as a product-differentiation strategy in 2025.[1]
  • $8.4 billion in sales were generated by 200 new food, beverage and nonfood product pacesetters in 2024 across U.S. multi-outlet retail channels.[55]

Product lifecycle in the food retail industry

  • 6.22 billion meals went unsold or uneaten because of surplus food in the U.S. retail sector in 2024.[51]
  • 23.4 pounds of unsold food were generated per U.S. capita by grocery retailers in 2024.[56]
  • 4.63 million tons of surplus food were generated in the U.S. retail sector in 2024.[51]
  • 3.98 million tons of unsold food were generated by U.S. grocery retailers in 2024.[56]
  • $26.9 billion in lost sales were associated with unsold food in U.S. grocery retail in 2024.[56]

After-sales in the food retail industry

  • 78% higher overall satisfaction was recorded when grocery-store service was friendly rather than unfriendly in a U.S. mystery-shop study.[57]
  • 79 out of 100 was the customer-satisfaction score for U.S. supermarkets in the 2023–2024 ACSI study.[58]
  • 71% of U.S. consumers rated customer service as an important attribute of a successful in-store shopping experience in a 2024 survey.[59]
  • 68% of mystery-shopped U.S. grocery customers were greeted when entering the store.[57]
  • 72% of mystery-shopped U.S. grocery-store staff wore name tags.[57]

Value proposition in the food retail industry

  • 58% of consumers said brand or store brand was irrelevant and they simply bought what they needed in a 2026 global food-shopping study.[60]
  • Nearly 26% of U.S. food-and-beverage units sold carried private brands in 2023.[24]
  • Private-label products grew as a share of category in 82% of U.S. grocery, refrigerated and frozen categories in 2025.[61]
  • Private-brand unit share in U.S. food and beverage increased from 24.7% in 2022 to nearly 26% in 2023.[24]
  • One in four grocery products purchased in the United States carried a store or proprietary brand in 2024.[22]

13 Statistics

Sustainability & Ethics

Food waste diversion is tracked in operational reporting, with 58% of Kroger’s in-store food waste diverted from landfills in 2024.

Sustainability in the food retail industry

  • 92% of Walmart U.S. stores and clubs participated in the food-donation program in fiscal 2024.[62]
  • 58% of Kroger’s in-store food waste was diverted from landfills in 2024, up from 52% in 2023 in the United States.[63]
  • 661 million pounds of food were donated by Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club stores in fiscal 2024.[62]
  • 855 million pounds of food were donated globally by Walmart during calendar year 2024.[17]
  • 49% of surveyed food retailers had adopted a new sustainability practice during the previous year in 2025.[64]

ESG in the food retail industry

  • 17% of Walmart’s board directors were ethnically or racially diverse in fiscal 2025.[17]
  • 99% was Walmart’s board and committee meeting attendance rate in fiscal 2025.[17]
  • 25% of Walmart’s board directors were women in fiscal 2025.[17]
  • 1.16 million Walmart associates completed at least one food-safety course in fiscal 2025.[17]
  • 75% of Walmart’s board members were independent directors in fiscal 2025.[17]

Ethics in the food retail industry

  • 62.9% of Carrefour ethics alerts in 2022 concerned human-resources issues other than discrimination and harassment.[25]
  • 5,909 ethics-hotline alerts were received by Carrefour in 2022.[25]
  • 0.1% of Carrefour ethics alerts in 2022 concerned antitrust or unfair trade practices.[25]
  • 13.1% of Carrefour ethics alerts in 2022 concerned theft, fraud or misappropriation of funds.[25]
  • 1.2% of Carrefour ethics alerts in 2022 concerned corruption or conflicts of interest.[25]

CSR in the food retail industry

  • More than 10,500 volunteer hours were contributed by Wegmans employees in 2025.[65]
  • $6.5 million was raised by Harris Teeter through 2024 community-giving efforts.[66]
  • 5.3 million meals were donated by Harris Teeter through its 2024 community-giving efforts.[66]
  • $3.1 million was donated by Wegmans customers during the 2025 Check Out Hunger campaign.[65]
  • More than 30 million meals were donated annually by Wegmans through customer support and in-store donations.[65]

Circular economy in the food retail industry

  • 18.25% of U.S. retail unsold food was donated in 2024, according to the U.S. Food Waste Pact.[56]
  • 7.6% of U.S. retail unsold food went to animal feed in 2024.[56]
  • 14.48% of U.S. retail unsold food went to anaerobic digestion in 2024.[56]
  • 2.7 million tons of U.S. retail surplus food became food waste in 2024.[51]
  • 21.91% of U.S. retail unsold food was composted in 2024.[56]

Carbon footprint in the food retail industry

  • 130,076 tons of CO2e emissions were estimated to have been avoided by Kroger’s landfill diversion in 2024.[63]
  • 15.1 million metric tons of CO2e were associated annually with U.S. retail surplus food in 2024.[51]
  • 3.5 million passenger-car years was the estimated emissions equivalent of U.S. retail surplus food in 2024.[51]
  • 190,766 metric tons of methane was the U.S. retail unsold-food methane footprint in 2024.[56]
  • 170,000 metric tons of methane were generated annually by U.S. retail-sector surplus food in 2024.[51]

15 Statistics

Globalization & Expansion

International supply chain scale shows through distribution footprint and supplier coverage, including Ahold Delhaize’s 180-plus countries supplying raw materials in 2025.

Globalization in the food retail industry

  • 15,000-plus tier-one suppliers served Ahold Delhaize brands in 2025.[18]
  • 77 million customers were served weekly by Ahold Delhaize’s local food-retail brands in 2025.[18]
  • 9,551 local stores were operated by Ahold Delhaize in Europe and the United States in 2025, excluding joint-venture stores.[18]
  • 180-plus countries supplied raw materials to Ahold Delhaize’s global food-retail value chain in 2025.[18]
  • 80-plus distribution centers and home-shopping centers supported Ahold Delhaize’s international retail operations in 2025.[18]

Cultural adaptation in the food retail industry

  • 1,595 Carrefour stores operated in Spain at December 31, 2025, including 1,085 franchised locations.[25]
  • 718 Carrefour stores operated in Brazil at December 31, 2025, all in directly integrated operations.[25]
  • 19 countries hosted Walmart stores or eCommerce websites at the end of fiscal 2025.[17]
  • 4,208 franchised Carrefour stores operated across countries outside Carrefour’s directly integrated markets at December 31, 2025.[25]
  • 718 Carrefour stores operated in Argentina at December 31, 2025, all in directly integrated operations.[25]

Supplier management in the food retail industry

  • 11 priority sourcing countries were covered by Tesco’s responsible-sourcing specialists in 2024.[77]
  • Tier-one food and grocery non-food supplier names, addresses, countries of origin and workforce numbers were published by Tesco in 2024.[77]
  • 184 international distribution facilities were used by Walmart International in fiscal 2025.[17]
  • Over 80 distribution centers and home-shopping centers received products from Ahold Delhaize suppliers in 2025.[18]
  • 38 responsible-sourcing specialists supported Tesco’s human-rights and supplier-risk work in 2024.[77]

Stakeholder management in the food retail industry

  • 2.1 million associates were employed worldwide by Walmart in fiscal 2025.[17]
  • 1.6 million Walmart associates were employed in the United States at the end of fiscal 2026.[17]
  • 17 local consumer-facing brands formed Ahold Delhaize’s customer-facing retail portfolio in 2025.[18]
  • 10,900-plus Walmart stores and clubs operated in 19 countries at the end of fiscal 2026.[17]
  • 9 countries hosted Ahold Delhaize brands participating in The Global FoodBanking Network in 2024.[18]

Distribution channels in the food retail industry

  • $126 billion in digital grocery sales represented 13.4% of total U.S. grocery sales in 2024.[27]
  • 78% of U.S. shoppers were only or mostly in-store shoppers in 2025.[78]
  • 77% of U.S. digital grocery shoppers using third-party platforms rated Instacart their preferred platform in 2024.[27]
  • 81,113 million dollars was U.S. grocery-ecommerce retail sales in 2019.[79]
  • 14.2% of U.S. digital grocery sales were completed through third-party platforms in 2024.[27]

Key questions about the Food Retail Industry

What is the size of global food retail?
Global grocery sales were $11.3T in 2025, and global grocery retail revenue reached €11.3 trillion in 2025, according to EY-Parthenon.
How fast is global grocery growing, and what happens to formats?
Global grocery CAGR for 2025–2030 is 4.0%, with the market forecast to reach $12.6T by 2030. Supermarkets and hypermarkets were 36% share in 2025, forecast to fall to 34.3% by 2030.
Which companies lead the food retail industry?
Schwarz Group stands out for grocery retail store footprint because it operates Lidl and Kaufland across 33 countries with more than 14,500 stores, while Walmart focuses on omnichannel grocery and leads in U.S. grocery sales since Walmart U.S. grocery sales reached $276.0 billion in fiscal 2025.
Which technology shifts show up in food retail operations and data use?
AI adoption increased in the U.S. from 47% of food retailers in 2025 to 68% in 2026, while generative AI usage rose to 59% in 2026 from 43% in 2025.
Is food retail concentrated or fragmented?
Food retail remains fragmented across national chains, regional grocers, discounters, convenience operators, and independent stores, even as large operators stay influential.
Where do online and discount channels change sales outcomes?
Online grocery accounted for 8.9% of U.S. grocery item sales in 2025, and online sales contributed close to 75% of total U.S. grocery dollar growth that year.
Reference

Cite This Report

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APA
Diana Reeves. (2026, February 13). Food Retail Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/food-retail-industry-statistics
MLA
Diana Reeves. "Food Retail Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/food-retail-industry-statistics.
Chicago
Diana Reeves. 2026. "Food Retail Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/food-retail-industry-statistics.

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