2.12.7.2Vertical

Grocery Store Chains

Supermarket chains and grocery retailers.

Market snapshot

These figures describe Grocery & Specialty Food Retail (2.12.7), the segment that Grocery Store Chains sits within. They are not figures for Grocery Store Chains on its own.

Market size
~$978B
Growth
~5.6%CAGR (2017–22, nominal)
Companies
~136,289 firms
Firms by employee count

90.2% of firms have fewer than 20 employees: 122,966 micro-businesses, below most mandates.

The investable universe13,323 firms with 20+ employees
20–99
11,37885%
100–499
1,43311%
500+
5124%

The most defensive demand in retail (people always buy food) runs at razor-thin margins where scale, supply chain, and private label are the whole game. Walmart, Costco, Amazon/Whole Foods and Kroger press the traditional grocers (the Kroger–Albertsons merger was blocked on antitrust grounds) while Aldi and Lidl take share at the discount end. Gas-station and convenience retail, which the raw data had folded in here, is excluded because its revenue is mostly fuel pass-through, a different business from selling groceries.

NAICS 311811, 445110, 445131, 445132, 445230, 445240, 445250, 445291, 445292, 445298, 445320. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.

Business model & economics

Revenue model

High-volume food retail margin; private label

Key economics

Revenue per firm
$7,178,666
Revenue per employee
$276,356
Employees per firm
25.4
Recurring revenue
Moderate

staple replenishment purchase

EBITDA margin
Razor-thin

low single digits typical

Capex intensity
High

Characteristics

  • Scale-driven: payroll is only 10% of revenue, so the cost base is assets, not headcount
  • Deep strategic-buyer pool: 512 firms exceed 500 employees, so a scaled asset has trade buyers
  • Most defensive demand in retail: people always buy food.
  • Scale, supply chain, and private label drive thin-margin returns.
  • Discount grocers (Aldi, Lidl) gaining share.

NAICS 311811, 445110, 445131, 445132, 445230, 445240, 445250, 445291, 445292, 445298, 445320. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.

Geographic concentration

AlabamaAlaskaArizonaColoradoFloridaGeorgiaIndianaKansasMaineMassachusettsMinnesotaNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOklahomaPennsylvaniaSouth DakotaTexasWyomingConnecticutMissouriWest VirginiaIllinoisNew MexicoArkansasCaliforniaDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaHawaiiIowaKentuckyMarylandMichiganMississippiMontanaNew HampshireOhioOregonTennesseeUtahVirginiaWashingtonWisconsinNebraskaSouth CarolinaIdahoNevadaVermontLouisianaRhode IslandNew JerseyNew York

Grocery firms over-index in New York and New Jersey, where the dense metro network of independent grocers and bodegas leaves the region with far more separate firms per resident than the chain-dominated grocery markets elsewhere. It reads as a fragmentation signal more than a demand one: people buy groceries everywhere, but the Northeast keeps more of it in independent hands.

New YorkNew Jersey

U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses (firms by state), NAICS 311811/445110/445131/445132/445230/445240/445250/445291/445292/445298/445320. Concentration shown by location quotient.

M&A deal context

Deal activityModerate

Who’s acquiring

  • National grocery & big-box chains
  • Discount-grocery operators
  • PE-backed regional consolidators

What’s driving deals

  • Scale consolidation under regulatory scrutiny.
  • Discount-grocer share gains.
  • Private-label and supply-chain advantages.

Find Grocery Store Chains acquisition targets

Search Acquisera’s index for companies classified under Grocery Store Chains (2.12.7.2) and build a targeted deal pipeline.

Search companies