A Bloomberg News story, linked by the Drudge Report, looks at five forces “coming to the staid supermarket, and that could mean more consolidation, bankruptcies, and falling prices.
Much of the forces have been covered by Produce Retailer and The Packer, but a few bits are worth looking into.
It mentions Lidl’s possible expansion into Texas, which you read about here this week.
While the story says there has been safety in retail selling food, noting only about 1% of the $1.5 trillion grocery business has moved online, but that’s about to change as more “dollar stores” and amazon expand.
Competition is heating up as we’re in a historic bout of food deflation, Bloomberg said. But our recent Packer story shows flat to small increase on fresh produce prices at retail.
The Bloomberg story also showed a positive development for the produce industry:
“The number of shopping trips Americans made to buy food rose rose 1 percent last year, according to Nielsen data. That may not sound like much, but it's the first annual gain in at least a decade. The shift in shopping behavior is being driven, in part, by the increasing preference for fresh food.”
Read the whole Bloomberg story here.