The U.S. Hispanic consumer segment is now surpassing $1.5 trillion in purchasing power. To put that in perspective, that’s akin to the 16th-largest economy in the world. That’s larger than the economy of Mexico. Moreover, it’s growing at a relatively fast clip, and is estimated to hit $1.7 trillion by 2019. Much of that is grocery spending: There was a 22% increase in Hispanic spending at grocery from 2010 to 2015. By 2020, Hispanic consumers will be buying $96 billion in groceries, an astonishing 47% jump from a decade prior.
U.S. Hispanic shoppers, on average, spend more of their household income on groceries than their non-Hispanic neighbors. It’s a sizable gap: according to Nielsen data, non-Hispanics spend an average of $71 per visit on food, while Hispanic shoppers spend $81 on food. It’s because of these differences that I find the Hispanic grocery market so fascinating and important to watch — and there are certainly developments to pay attention to.
Fiesta Mart, the largest Hispanic grocery in Texas, is being acquired by the company running El Super (popular in California, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico), leading to a new company with sales of over $3 billion. These deals do not have insignificant dollars attached; the Houston Chronicle reported that the purchase price may be $300 million. Fiesta operates 63 stores in Dallas and Houston; El Super has 59 stores across its markets.
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