Tough economic times are driving more shoppers to compact grocery stores that offer fewer name-brand products but bigger savings than conventional supermarkets, food retailing analysts say.
Across the USA, limited-assortment grocers, including Aldi, Grocery Outlet and Save-A-Lot, are "very aggressively expanding," said Jim Hertel, managing partner at the Illinois-based Willard Bishop food retailing consultancy.
"As prices continued to increase, people started shopping for food in more-varied locations," said Phil Lempert, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based retailing analyst who publishes a weekly e-newsletter from SupermarketGuru.com. "Certainly, all three are going to grow substantially in the next few years."
• Batavia, Ill.-based Aldi — the U.S. subsidiary of Aldi Group of Germany — has more than 1,135 stores in more than 30 states, and intends to open 80 to 100 more this year, according to company spokeswoman Julie Ketay.
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