The Shrinking Need for Grocery Stores it's Amazon Vs Kroger, Safeway, Publix and Whole Foods

It just might be time to ask if the cost of the building, upkeep, employees, and constantly remodeling of grocery stores is worth it the investment of time, talent, and treasury.  Can legacy grocery stores keep up with a retail merchant the ilk of Amazon? (Today’s Photo’s courtesy of Geekwire.com)

Industry insiders know that the average consumers buy 100 different items from their favorite grocery store a year.  They simply buy them over, and over, and over again.  So why do grocery stores stock 40,000 sku’s?  Some stock 50,000 sku’s, others 60,000 sku’s.  

Convenience store have long understood that stocking the ‘favorites’/ frequently used sku’s along with grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food was the formula to garner market share from legacy grocery retailers the ilk of Kroger, Wal-Mart, Safeway, Publix.  It has worked well for companies the ilk of Wawa, Sheetz, Rutter’s Farm Stores, and 7-Eleven according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru™.

Now Geekwire co-founder Todd Bishop reports that his office tested Amazon’s one and two hour delivery service of beer, wine, and liquor and the “vodka showed up in 34 minutes, along with beer, tequila, orange juice and chips.”  So I ask do you think that there is a shrinking need for grocery stores in the US? 

OK here is the back story from GeekWire.com “Amazon debuted one-and two-hour delivery of beer, wine and liquor in the U.S. this morning along with the launch of the Amazon Prime Now service in its hometown of Seattle. We’ve tested just about every type of delivery service at the GeekWire offices, so we thought to ourselves, why should this be an exception?

Thirty-four minutes later, we were pouring screwdrivers in the break room.

The Prime Now delivery service worked flawlessly, in our experience. It’s easy to see how it could save the day for someone hosting a brunch or a party, or just not wanting to get off the couch at night. Amazon Prime Now delivers from 8 a.m. to midnight, so everyone except the most extreme early birds or night owls would be covered….

We double-checked, and Amazon Prime Now’s price for a 750ml bottle of Absolute Vodka, including state taxes, was almost exactly the same as the price of the same bottle at the neighborhood liquor store. Delivery through Prime Now, available only to Amazon Prime members, runs $7.99 for one hour and is free for two hours.”  Thanks again to Todd Bishop and his team for testing the service, sampling the products and for Amazon for proving us a new standard of delivery for others to emulate. 

Simply put Amazon tackles what is hard to do and does it well.  While many legacy grocery retailers say it’s too hard, can’t be done and simply don’t try. Delivering liquor or selling qualityReady-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food.  It’s time for legacy retailers to lead again not simply follow or fade away. 

Just remember what the book industry used to say.  Let Amazon have One, or Two percent of the business?  We all know how that turned out.  Is your brand content with less?

Success does leave clues outside eyes can deliver inside sales. Grocerant SWOT analysis are available from Foodservice Solutions®.  What are you bundling with you core products? Where and how can you sell your customers more? Do you need a Grocerant Scorecard? For more Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  or http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant