Small-Format Food Retailing Memo: Two Dozen Florida USA Shoppers Who've Been Waiting Two Years For An Aldi Store to Open Get Their Day On Thursday

For the two dozen shoppers who've been waiting for two years -- and regularly calling a newspaper reporter for update on the estimated date of arrival -- for small-format, no frills deep discount grocery chain Aldi USA to open its first store in the Tampa Bay region in Florida, the wait ends on Thursday.

Aldi, which operates about 850 stores throughout the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic region and parts of the eastern USA, opens its first store in Florida, in Clearwater, this Thursday. An additional eight Aldi markets also will open on the same dayin the region.

The timing seems right in the minds of a number of the area's shoppers, according to a piece in today's St. Petersburg Times newspaper.

The writer of the story, St. Petersburg Times' staff writer Mark Albright, says a Florida consumer named Johana Szokie "is one of two dozen ardent Aldi fans who have called me for two years to learn when their favorite little grocer finally makes landfall in the Tampa Bay area" in Florida, of which Clearwater is a part.

Those are two dozen very dedicated shoppers. The type any grocery chain would be proud to have.

And in the case of Ms. Szokie, she doesn't even live in Clearwater. However, she tells reporter Mark Albright she will be driving to the Aldi store when it opens in the city on Thursday morning.

Aldi USA, which is the Illinois-based U.S. division of German small-format deep discount grocery chain Aldi International, has big plans in Florida, which is one of the top five food and grocery sales markets in the U.S.

The company expects to open from 25 -to- 50 of the no frills, little deep discount markets in Florida by 2010, with many more coming after that.

Aldi also has built a distribution center in Florida to serve its stores in the region. A grocery chain doesn't do that unless it has big (or big-little in the case of Aldi stores) development plans in terms of having a high store count in a given market.

The St. Petersburg Times story offers a nice local angle on the Aldi stores set to open in parts of Florida on Thursday.

In addition to the excited shoppers, Florida's major supermarket chain's like Publix and Winn-Dixie are watching Aldi closely on their respective home turf.

In fact, you can bet both chains, along with nearly every other supermarket chain in the state, will have "undercover representatives" attending Thursday's Aldi store grand openings, along with those dozen excited shoppers and many others.

Read the St. Petersburg Times' story, "Wait's nearly over for Aldi fans," here

Resources:

To read past stories about Aldi in Natural~Specialty Foods Memo just click the links below:

>Aldi

>Aldi USA

>Aldi International

Small-Format Food Retailing Special Report: Brookfield, Wisconsin USA Town Planners Ask: 'What's it All About...Aldi?' Local Columnist Answers Loudly

Should Aldi acquaintance be for naught?
June 10, 2008
By Laurel Walker

Special to Natural~Specialty Foods Memo

From: Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, JS Online

I bought a 12-ounce bag of unsalted almonds at the Waukesha Aldi on Les Paul Parkway and Arcadian Ave. for a mere $3.48 - 29 cents an ounce - Monday.

Had I been inclined to spend $3.99 a gallon of gas driving to a high-end Sendik's or Fresh Market in Brookfield, I'd probably have paid more. At Pick 'n Save, just a stone's throw from the Aldi, the almond price per ounce was nearly double for a pound bag and more than triple for a half-cup-size serving.

I wasn't in the market for one, but I noticed Aldi was offering a big special on cantaloupe - 69 cents apiece. At Pick 'n Save, the deal was two-for-$5.

Maybe Brookfield-area residents don't like almonds or cantaloupe. Or savings on their grocery bills.

Or, to listen to some Brookfield Town Plan Commissioners in turning up their noses to the discount grocer's request to locate in the vacant former Gander Mountain store at Blue Mound and Janacek Roads, it's really the bargain hunters that Brookfield-area residents don't want in the neighborhood.

The Plan Commission recommended denial of Aldi, 3-1. This, even though some plan commissioners had toured Aldi stores elsewhere and, they said, found well-dressed customers, clean stores and enthusiastic shoppers.

Town Chairman Keith Henderson brazenly warned Aldi officials at the meeting that when they come before the Town Board next Tuesday, supervisors' concern would be about clientele drawn to the store. He made that leap by comparing grocery shoppers trying to stretch their food dollars to the recent spate of police calls at the nearby Chuck E. Cheese, where miscreants can guzzle beer while trying to forget that their kids are going wild.

Ridiculous.

The kind of savings I saw Monday are what brings retirees like Lee Eickstaedt of Waukesha or Jerry and Angie Butalla of Big Bend or couples like Jesse and Shannon Medina of Waukesha, with three small kids to feed, back repeatedly. Nice clients, all of them, it seemed to me.

"I shop here because of value," said Eickstaedt, an Aldi customer for 12 years. "You don't just save pennies. You save dollars."

The Butallas like the quality of products, often off-brands, that are available in small quantities, unlike Sam's Club.

"They always try to please," Angie Butalla said. Besides, you don't end up with shopping carts smashing into your car, she said. Among other cost-saving measures, Aldi saves on labor by refunding a 25-cent cart deposit when you return your cart to the entry.

The Medinas combine Aldi shopping with other stores. With five mouths to feed, they look for food savings anywhere.

"It doesn't make sense for any community to turn down a store that would save residents money," Jesse Medina said.

Aldi already operates in Oconomowoc, Muskego, Waukesha and 14 locations in Milwaukee County.

Zoning Administrator Gary Lake said officials can't legitimately use "clientele" as a basis for rejecting the store, which fits existing zoning. Architectural objections, though, might qualify, he said.

Chris Hewitt, an Aldi vice president in the Oak Creek Division, said store officials will offer pedestrian improvements, like landscaping, as suggested, to satisfy the Town Board.

I'll bet even Aldi clientele appreciate bushes and benches.

Retail Memo: Latest Sales Figures Show A Flight to Discount Grocers, Including Small-Format Aldi and Lidl, in the UK Market

A no frills, small-format Aldi limited assortment discount grocery store in Spalding, UK, which is in the district of South Holland in the southern part of the county of Lincolnshire, about 110 miles from London, England.

Discount supermarkets in the United Kingdom (UK), including no frills, small-format grocers Aldi and Lidl, are seeing a sales surge as the weakening economy puts a crimp on consumer food budgets in the nation and market.

According to just-released market research data from respected UK international research firm TNS WorldPanel, Aldi- UK experienced year-on-year sales growth of about 19% in the 12 weeks to May 18, 2008, while small-format discount grocer Lidl saw sales growth of about 9%.

Both Aldi and Lidl are Germany-headquartered small-format, no frills discount grocers, offering a limited assortment of mostly store brand (but name brand as well) food and grocery products across all dry and perishables categories.

If the impressive Aldi and Lidl sales gains aren't enough to demonstrate a current shift in UK shopper choices and supermarket preferences in the price-impact retailer direction, two other price-focused discount grocery chains, Iceland and Farm Foods, also posted double-digit sales gains over the same 12 week period, according to TNS WorldPanel data.

One the other hand, Tesco, which is the leading food and grocery retailer in the UK, and Sainsbury's, the UK's number three supermarket chain, saw slight decreases in sales during the same period.

Aldi, which currently operates 300 of its limited assortment, price-impact, no frills small-format discount grocery stores in the UK, was the clear sales increase winner, according to TNS WorldPanel director of research Edward Garner. According to Garner, Aldi's 18.9% sales gain for the period translated to sales of ~577 million pounds.

Even more impressive, the grocer's market share rose from 2.5% to a current 2.8%, says Garner.

While a 2.8% share of the market isn't much in the grand scheme of things, compared to number one Tesco's 31.1% for example, Aldi continues sales period-after-sales period and year-after-year to grow its share of the market in the UK. Further, with only 300 stores, Aldi has about 20% of the total store count in the UK as Tesco has, and only slighlty more than that compared to number two Asda and number three Sainsbury's.

Aldi currently is in a major growth program in the UK, with plans to at least double the number of stores it has in the nation over the next 4 -to- 5 years.

Lidl also is growing its store count aggressively in the UK, and has shown regular sales increases, although not as high as Aldi's, for the last few years.

After Aldi, the next best performer for the 12-week period ending May 18 was Iceland, according to the TNS WorldPanel data. The price-impact grocer's sales increased by a healthy 12.2%, to ~352 million pounds for the sales reporting period, according to Gartner.

This is significant because Iceland hasn't been a player of note in UK food and grocery retailing. However it appears the current economic downturn in the nation, which is leading shoppers to choose more price-focused supermarkets, is benefiting the fledgling discount food retailer.

Farm Foods, another discount grocery chain that hasn't been much of a player historically in the market, saw its sales increase a significant 10.7%, to reach ~100 million pounds, a record for the price-focused supermarket chain.

Small-format discount grocer Lidl had the least sales increase of the four price-impact discount grocery chains. However, at 9.6% the German fighting tiger small-format grocer wasn't too far behind. Lidl's sales for the period were ~478 million pounds, not all that far behind Aldi's considering Lidl has fewer stores in the UK than fellow German grocer Aldi.

Despite the worsening economic conditions in the UK, taken as a whole the nation's supermarket chains still did fairly well, with sales up 6.6% overall in the 12-week period, according to TNS Worldpanel research director Garner.

Sector leader Tesco PLC saw a slight drop in market share of 0.2%, to 31.1% of the total food and grocery sales market, but still turned in period sales of ~6.4 billion pounds, which is a 6% year-on-year sales increase.

UK industry researchers and observers do say they are seeing a current shift from the mainstream supermarket sector--chains like Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons--to price-focused discounters like Aldi, Lidl, Iceland and Farm Foods, with a particular shift to Aldi.

TNS Worldpanel's Garner says Aldi's heavy investment in new stores "is being rewarded with strong growth in the current climate."

"This is virtually solely fuelled by new shoppers visiting the stores rather than existing shoppers spending more," adds Garner in offering his estimation about UK shoppers' trending towards discount grocers like Aldi.

Aldi and Lidl are the two best positioned to grow their store counts and capitalize on it if this trend by more shoppers to shop discount grocers continues or increases. Both German chain's are heavily capitalized and growing rapidly internationally.

In fact, Tesco is so concerned about the threat from these two fighting small-format tigers it's currently in the process of designing its own small-format, limited assortment, no frills discount grocery chain in the UK.

Tesco operates the small-format Tesco Express format throughout the UK. But those stores are more of a hybrid neighborhood grocery store/convenience store rather than a no frills, price-impact small-format retail format. Therefore, they don't compete for the same general market that Aldi and Lidl do.

However, since Tesco's internal research started showing a couple years ago the Aldi and Lidl stores were cutting into sales in all its formats, the giant retailer decided to create its own small-format discount grocery store format. There's no word as to when the first store of the new format will open in the UK. Most market observers though say the first one should open by early next year if development continues on track. Tesco isn't currently talking about the project.

It's going to be interesting to see if the sales growth trend which currently is favoring the price-focused retailers in the UK continues into the next reporting period.

Most economists don't expect an improvement in the nation's economy for the rest of the year, so the climate and conditions should remain steady for a repeat perhaps of this period's sales numbers and direction. If not, perhaps the movement towards the price-impact food retailing sector in the UK will then be seen to be more of a fad than an actual trend.

Retail Memo: The International Small Store Format Revolution Marches On

As our regular readers are aware, we've been reporting on, writing about, and offering analysis on the international small format food retailing revolution for the last 4-5 months.

We've written about Tesco's Express stores in Europe, the retailer's new Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market small store format in the USA, German grocer Aldi's no frills, price-impact, small format grocery markets throughout the world, and others.

Among the others include: U.S. grocer Giant Eagle's Express format stores, Whole Foods Market, Inc.'s Express prototype store soon to open in Boulder, Colorado, Wawa Grocery Markets, Trader Joe's, and Wal-Mart, which is developing two small format stores: a grocery market and a small footprint health and wellness-type store. (Check out the blog's archives for the numerous small format and related stories.)

We've termed the international proliferation of small format stores--some upscale, others no frills with price-impact positioning, and still others somewhere in the middle--no less than a revolution in food retailing.

This isn't because there haven't always been small food stores throughout the world. There has been. But rather it's because of the scale in which various retailers are developing the stores, the number of stores they are building, and the fact that those retailers getting into the small format food retailing business are among the largest chains in the world.

One of those retailers, Tesco, the third-biggest retailer in the world, is a key leader in multi-small format food retailing. It began with its Tesco Express stores in Britain, and is now locating the small format Express stores throughout Europe, and is planning to enter Russia with the convenience-style grocery markets soon.

Tesco also has opened about 30 of its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market small format grocery markets in the U.S. thus far--in just a two month period of time. The retailer plans to have as many as 200 of the combination basic grocery markets, fresh, prepared and specialty foods stores opened by the end of this year.

Now, Tesco is at it again: The retailer is developing a new, no frills, price-impact, small format food store for the United Kingdom (UK). The reason the retailer is developing the new format is to counter a growing threat in its home market from German grocers Aldi and Lidl, which operate price-impact, no frills, small format grocery stores throughout the UK.

The Aldi and Lild stores are becoming increasingly popular with UK shoppers, who like their limited assortments, low prices and convenience. Tesco sees these stores as a major threat to its market share in the UK, and has decided to fight back.

According to a story in today's London Telegraph.co.uk, Tesco has been hard at work on a top secret project in an old warehouse owned by its founder Jack Farmer, designing the new format. The retailer has created a mock German small format discount store (read Aldi and Lidl) in the warehouse and is using it as a model for their own future no frills, small format discount stores.

Tesco used this same strategy and model in developing its Fresh & Easy convenience-oriented grocery markets in the U.S. For about two years the retailer worked on the design of what today is a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in an old warehouse in the states. And just like the current project in Britain, Tesco was able to keep its Fresh & Easy project quiet for some time before the press got wind of it.

But the new discount grocery format project is out of the grocery bag now, so to speak. And, once again, we see the small format revolution marching even further on.

Based on the information we have from various sources--in addition to what was reported in the Telegraph.co.uk story--the new Tesco price-impact, small format market looks like it might be similar to its Fresh & Easy stores in the U.S.--a hybrid discount grocery store, combined with low-priced, upscale specialty groceries and prepared foods offerings.

This is largely do to the fact that Aldi, and to a lessor degree Lidl, have been doing extremely well in the UK offering specialty, gourmet and natural foods items at discount prices along with private label (and some national brand) basic groceries.

Aldi has especially become adept at this--no doubt in part because the German grocer has lots of experience with private label specialty items at its Trader Joe's subsidiary in the USA. Yes, it's that same Aldi. The one that operates 900 no frills grocery stores in the U.S., and upscale Trader Joe's as well. It's also the same Aldi that operates throughout the world, and is growing its small format, discount grocery business extensively worldwide.

Tesco, the UK's number one retailer, isn't about to let Aldi and Lidl take market share away from the company in the UK though, if it can help it. Therefore, it is developing its own version of these small, category-killer, discount grocery stores.

Further, Tesco isn't waiting until it has an actual store to fight back against the two German panzer divisions of grocery retailing. Beginning this week, the mega-retailer will match Aldi's and Lidl's retail prices on over 2,000 items the grocers' sell at hot, discount prices. (Aldi and Lidl sell on average about 10,000 grocery items in their small format stores respectively.)

Additionally, Tesco is launching this week a line of 300 no frills grocery products, similar to those sold in Lidl and Aldi's UK discount stores. Further, In a few months the retailer plans to rollout another 200 items in the no frills line. These items will be sold in all of Tesco's UK supermarkets. It's also expected that this will be a good test market for the items in terms of their merchandising potential in the future Tesco no frills, small format , discount food stores.

The small format food retailing revolution may not be being televised, but it's heating up throughout the world. Stay tuned.

Resources:

Read more about the Tesco's new no frills, small format, discount store plans here.

Read more about Tesco's new no frills product line here.

Retail Memo: The Small Format Revolution Continues to Heat Up

German food retailer ALDI is planning a major expansion of its small format, no-frills, price-impact supermarket chain in the U.S. The small format food retailing revolution in the USA is growing fast at both ends (low and high) of the food retailing spectrum, as well as in the middle. Where is it going? How fast will it get there?

ALDI USA's small format, limited assortment supermarkets (above) have about 15,000 square feet of retail selling space. The small format grocery stores are attractive but basic in design.

As our regular readers are aware, we've been writing about what we believe is nothing short of a small format food retailing revolution taking place in the U.S. It's not that small, neighborhood-style grocery stores haven't existed in the U.S. forever--they have. Rather, the reason we're calling it a small-format food retailing revolution is do to the scale of what's occurring, how fast it's happening, and the involvement of two large international retailers--Tesco and ALDI--who are leading the charge.

The catalyst for this so called small-format food retailing revolution is British grocer Tesco, which launched it's first Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets stores in Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada in mid-November, and in Arizona three weeks ago. Tesco has opened nearly 30 of the small format grocery markets in just a little over a month. The retailer plans to have 200 of the stores open by the end of 2008, and up to 500 stores in the U.S. in five years.

In addition to Southern California, Nevada and Arizona, Tesco will begin opening Fresh & Easy grocery markets in Northern California next year. Further, as we've reported and written about here, the grocer is looking for store sights in New York, Florida and Chicago, along with land to built a distribution center on near Chicago.

Fresh & Easy grocery markets average about 10,000 to 13,000 square feet. They're a hybrid basic neighborhood grocery store and semi-upscale prepared, fresh food retailer. We describe the store format as low-price leader, limited format grocery store meets Trader Joe's.

Price-point is a big focus on the basic grocery side of the operation. The stores' thus far opened have lower retails on national brand (a limited selection though) grocery items than traditional supermarkets like Ralph's, Von's, Stater Bros. and others in their trading regions. In fact, the prices are more in-line with the deep-discount limited assortment and warehouse format stores in Fresh & Easy's current operating areas.

On the fresh, prepared foods side of the business, Fresh & Easy offers a wide variety of ready-to-eat, ready-to-heat and grab-and-go prepared foods. These range from basics like mac n' cheese and meat loaf, to more high-end offerings like Beef Tips in Burgundy Sauce and upscale, ethnic prepared foods featuring Indian, Asian and other cuisines. The stores' even sell fully-prepared complete meals that come with dessert and a bottle of wine. The prices on the prepared foods, which are all branded under the Fresh & Easy private label, are very reasonable.

In addition to the basic grocery items and prepared foods, the stores' offer fresh produce, fresh meats, other perishables and a selection of specialty and natural grocery items. About 65% of the items in the grocery markets' are private label, including fresh milk and eggs, and about 35% are national brands.

Aldi to expand its small format, no frills, limited assortment supermarkets

German food retailer ALDI was operating in the U.S. long before Tesco even thought about and created its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets concept and venture. Unlike the big splash--and rapid store opening strategy--Tesco made in the U.S. with Fresh & Easy, ALDI USA's venture has followed a low-key, low-publicity, gradual-growth model.

The international food retailer first entered the U.S. market in 1976 with a handful of stores in southeastern Iowa. Today, nearly 32 years later, the international grocer with stores in 18 countries, is a major player in U.S. food retailing.

ALDI USA currently operates over 850 stores in 26 states, and is ranked as the country's 24th highest grossing (sales) supermarket chain. The stores' are located from the Midwestern USA (Kansas, Iowa, Illinois) to the Eastern Seaboard. (you can view a map of all 26 states ALDI USA has stores in here. When you get to the linked page, go to "What is ALDI and click where it says "view a map of where we operate and divisional offices."

The German grocer's U.S. supermarkets not only are small format (they average about 15,000 square feet), limited product assortment, and price-impact focused, they're also totally no-frills. The stores' design is attractive but bare bones. If customers want to use a shopping cart they have to pay 25-cents to do so. Aldi USA stores also charge for paper and plastic grocery bags, and encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable grocery carriers. The chain's retail positioning can be summed up as "Less is More."

The small format stores' sell their own branded private label grocery items almost exclusively; with the exception of a handful of national brands, which they primarily offer only on an in-and-out basis. The grocer uses sku rationalization to its fullest, constantly evaluating categories and items and adjusting store category and item assortments. The no-frills markets offer fresh produce, fresh meats, perishables, frozen foods and non-food items, all based on that same limited-assortment merchandising philosophy.

The no-frills markets carry a total of slightly over 1,000 items across all categories. Low-price is the prime category-wide focus of the small format stores. In their trading areas, the stores' generally undercut all food retailing formats on price, including Wal-Mart, warehouse stores, and other deep discounters. ALDI supermarkets have the reputation as being the low-price leader stores in the communities they operate in.

Bring on the revolution: ALDI USA's slow growth model is about to change

With 850 stores in the USA, ALDI is considered a major food retailing player based on any score card one uses. That it is 24th in the U.S. in gross sales is impressive considering its stores are a third or more smaller than today's average American supermarket.

But the small-format, price-impact grocer is about to explode on the American food retailing scene in an even bigger way. ALDI USA just announced it is going to excelerate its new store building program in the U.S. from about 20-30 stores per year, which is it's current rate, to as many as 100 stores a year beginning next year. Additionally, the small-format grocer is going to enter Florida and Rhode Island for the first time next year, and is planning a major new expansion into Texas in 2009.

With stores in Texas and Florida, the grocer will be entering two of the most competitive and lucrative states for food retailing in the U.S., as well as establishing a retail presence in the number two and three largest states in the country respectively.

It might be televised, but the small format revolution is real

ALDI USA's rapid growth plan is predicated on the huge success the grocer has had with its 850-plus store chain. It, along with others like Supervalu Inc.'s Save-A-Lot small format, price-impact chain, have proven not only the viability but success of the format at the lower-end of the food retailing spectrum.

Of course, the international grocer isn't a stranger to high-end, small store format food retailing in the U.S. either. It owns the fabulously successful Trader Joe's specialty grocery chain, which is expanding rapidly into new markets in the U.S. as well.

We don't think it's an accident Tesco positioned it's Fresh & Easy grocery markets as a combination price-impact, specialty and prepared foods hybrid market. They saw the success of no-frills, small format operations like ALDI USA , Save-A-Lot and others--as well as the success of Trader Joe's on the higher, specialty end. In part, this influenced Tesco to craft a format they believe can serve both customer demographics--price-conscious, basic grocery shoppers tired of huge superstores, and time-pressed consumers who are looking for specialty-oriented and convenient prepared foods at not out of this world prices. Like we said earlier, it's low-price, limited assortment grocery market meets Trader Joe's.

Of course the jury is still out on Fresh & Easy. They just opened their first stores last month after all. However, Tesco's plans are to have as many as 500 stores operating in the U.S. in five years. As such, Fresh & Easy isn't an experiment. Rather, it's a full-fledged venture.

Onward small format food retailing revolution

We see what we are calling the small format food retailing revolution going full-steam ahead. As we've reported recently, Safeway Stores, Inc. is currently negotiating with real estate interests in the San Jose, California area of the San Francisco Bay Area for locations to build five stores of a new and yet unnamed small format food retailing venture. The stores will be about 20,000 square feet, and it's believed will offer a wide variety of fresh, prepared foods in addition to groceries and other offerings.

We've also written much about Wal-Mart's research into two small store formats--one a small footprint grocery/food market and the other a small format health and wellness-oriented store, which would include a health clinic in-store. The mega-retailer had a team of executives working on the concepts in the San Francisco Bay Area for a number of months earlier this year. We expect some announcements as to what they might--or might not--do in terms of their small format retailing plans by early next year.

Other retailers like supermarket chain Giant Eagle are testing the small format food retailing waters. The chain, which operates primarily superstores and conventional supermarkets, has opened two Giant Eagle Express stores. The grocery markets are about 15,000 square feet and feature a mix of basic groceries, fresh produce and meats, and upscale offerings, including prepared foods, along with specialty, natural and organic groceries. The express markets also offer some standard convenience store items and have fueling pumps next door.

Further, supernatural grocer Whole Foods Market, Inc. plans to open a small format, convenience-oriented prototype store early next year in a former Wild Oats store in Boulder, Colorado. The grocer is currently remodeling the store into its Whole Foods Express prototype format. The express store will offer lots of prepared foods, especially convenient grab-and-go items. It's also expected to have a limited assortment of natural and organic groceries, fresh produce and meats. An in-store cafe also is likely.

Other food retailers are looking closely at the small format concept and thinking about whether or not it's something they should experiment with. And of course, the original small format food retailer, the neighborhood independent grocer, is smiling and thinking perhaps he was right all along.

We also must mention Pennsylvania-based Wawa Food Markets, which is the prime chain store innovator in the U.S. in terms of mixing convenience store-type retailing and more upscale grocery and specialty store merchandising into a single format.

For decades, Wawa has been successful in building a large chain of such hybrid stores throughout the eastern U.S. The retailer also is one of the early pioneers in offering quality prepared foods offerings in a convenience store setting. Its also one of the first chains to include larger than average grocery and perishables sections in its convenience stores, offering basic groceries at a decent price, compared to the normal convenience store retail prices in the category.

Hold on to your shopping carts folks. We're just seeing the beginnings of a small format food retailing revolution. The format's success on the no-frills, price-impact end is proven--and growing. Success stories like Wawa Food Markets and Trader Joe's--and the initial popularity of Tesco's first Fresh & Easy stores--are beginning to suggest that the small format hybrid food store concept also could become a big success at the middle-to-higher end of the spectrum as well.

Which retailer will be next to test the small format store retail waters; be it low-end, high-end, in the middle, or some combination of all three? We'll let you know. And, if you know of one--do let us know.

[To read numerous stories on the small format food retailing revolution search the blog using key words: Fresh and Easy, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets, Small Marts, The Invasion of the Small Marts, Whole Foods Express, Whole Foods Market, Giant Eagle Express, Wawa Food Markets, Safeway Stores, Inc. and Small Format Food Retailing.]