Every year, Supermarket News compiles an analysis and insight into the food and consumer goods industry. This analysis includes a list of rankings of the Top 50 food and grocery retailers and wholesalers in the US and Canada, including supermarkets, mass merchandisers, dollar stores, convenience stores, and drugstores.
It’s no surprise that Ralphs, Kroger’s largest subsidiary, made it to the list. Who else made it to the list? Some of the biggest Ralphs competitors. Read on to find out more about some of the largest supermarket chains in the country that is neck to neck with Ralphs.
Who Are The Biggest Ralphs Competitors in 2023?
Ralphs, the largest subsidiary of Kroger operating throughout California, competes with the most prominent competitors like Walmart, Whole Foods Market, Costco, Walgreens, Target, Safeway, and Albertsons, among others.
Sometime in the early 2000s, Ralphs made one of the most significant moves to undercut competing grocery chains’ progress by lowering most items’ prices on its shelves.
Walmart
Walmart is an American global retail firm headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. They operate a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores throughout the United States.
Sam Walton launched the corporation in neighboring Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962, and it was incorporated on October 31, 1969, under the Delaware General Corporation Law. Sam’s Club retail warehouses are also owned and operated by the company.
Walmart had 10,593 stores and clubs in 24 countries as of January 31, 2022, operating under 48 distinct names. In the US, the corporation is shown as Walmart.
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market L.P., based in Austin, Texas, is an American global supermarket chain that provides items free of hydrogenated fats, artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. The chain is well-known for its organic offerings and is a USDA Certified Organic grocer in the US.
As of March 4, 2019, Whole Foods had 500 locations in North America and seven in the United Kingdom.
Amazon bought the company on August 28, 2017. Amazon’s e-commerce holdings now include 400 physical locations. Whole Foods’ stock price soared after the announcement of the transitions, which was valued at $13.7 billion.
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation is a multinational corporation based in the United States that owns and runs a chain of membership-only big-box retail locations (warehouse clubs). As of 2016, Costco was the world’s fifth-largest retailer and leading retailer of choice and prime beef, organic groceries, rotisserie chicken, and wine.
Costco was rated #10 on the Fortune 500 list of the top firms in the US by total revenue in 2021.
This company was the first corporation to increase sales from zero to $3 billion in less than six years. Its sales totaled $97.062 billion in the fiscal year ending in August 2012, with a $1.079 billion net profit. Sam’s Club, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Walmart, and Kroger are Costco’s primary competitors.
Walgreens
Walgreen Company is an American corporation that manages the country’s second-largest pharmacy chain after CVS Health. Prescriptions, health and wellness items, health information, and photo services are among its specialties.
It was formed in 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, and is based in Deerfield, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. Walgreens and Alliance Boots, located in Switzerland, amalgamated on December 31, 2014, to become Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., a new holding company.
The new firm kept its Deerfield headquarters and trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol WBA. Walgreens became a subsidiary of the new company.
Local Walgreens locations used to be linked to local grocery stores. They partnered with either Eagle Food Centers or Dominick’s Finer Foods in Chicago, their flagship market, frequently with a “walkthru” to the neighboring shop and often sharing personnel.
This model was implemented to compete with Jewel-Osco/Albertsons-Sav-popular On’s dual-store format. They subsequently cut ties with Eagle and concentrated on establishing a connection with Dominick’s outlets. PharmX-Rexall filled the abandoned Walgreen locations connected to Eagle stores.
Target
Target Corporation, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is an American big-box retailer. It is the US’ eighth largest retailer and a component of the S7P 500 Index. In 1962, Target was founded as the bargain division of the Minneapolis-based Dayton Company.
In the 1980s, as part of the Dayton-Hudson Corporation, it began growing the business nationwide, and in the 1990s, it debuted new shop concepts under the Target name. The brand has achieved success in the sector as a low-cost, high-style player.
In 2000, the main business was renamed Target Corporation, and in 2004, it sold off its last department store chains.
Target runs 1,926 shops in the US as of 2021 and is rated 37th on the Fortune 500 list of the Top US Corporations by total revenue in 2020. Target, the hypermarket SuperTarget, and “small-format” stores originally known as CityTarget and TargetExpress before being merged under the Target brand are among its retail formats.
Albertsons
Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American supermarket chain headquartered in Boise, Idaho. With 2,253 shops and 270,000 employees as of the third quarter of the fiscal year 2020, the firm is the second-largest grocery chain in North America behind Kroger.
Albertsons was rated 53rd on the Fortune 500 list of the top firms in the United States by total revenue in 2018. It had 1,075 supermarkets in 29 states under 12 different labels before its $9.2 billion merger with Safeway Inc. in January 2015.
Albertsons, Inc., the company’s progenitor, was renamed Albertsons LLC and sold to AB Acquisition LLC, a Cerberus Capital management-led consortium.
AB Acquisition stated in 2015 that it would alter its name to Albertsons Companies Inc. after buying back the majority of its previous locations that it had sold to SuperValu in 2006. Albertson’s Inc. was the company’s official name until 2002 when the apostrophe was dropped.
Safeway
Marion Barton Skaggs launched the Safeway store company in American Falls, Idaho, in April 1915. The supermarket chain sells groceries, food, general merchandise, bakery, delicatessen, floral and pharmacy departments, and Starbucks coffee shops and gasoline stations.
After being acquired by private equity investors led by Cerberus Capital Management in January 2015, it became a subsidiary of Albertsons. Safeway’s main activities are in the Western United States, with a few locations in the Eastern Seaboard’s Mid-Atlantic region.
Safeway announced FreshPass in August 2021, a premium subscription service that includes unlimited free delivery/pickup and exclusive discounts and offers for members. In select markets, the program was launched with a new mobile app that facilitates scan-and-pay shopping.
Safeway has added QR payments and digital receipts with the upgraded mobile app. With the launch of FreshPass, the “Just for U” rewards program (often referred to as J4U) was simplified to “for u.”
Who Are The Biggest Ralphs Competitors In Terms of Employment?
Whole Foods Market, Albertsons Companies, Vons, Kroger, and Food 4 Less are among Ralphs’ competitors. When compared to its competitors, Ralphs scores second in Gender Score. CEO Rankings, Product & Services, NPS, Pricing, Customer Service, Overall Culture Score, eNPS, Gender and Diversity Scores were used to make this comparison.
Conclusion
Ralphs, a subsidiary of The Kroger Company, is the largest grocery chain globally. But, even if a Ralphs store isn’t there, one of the brand’s other supermarkets, such as Ralphs, King Soopers, Harris Teeter, Food 4 Less, and Dillon’s, is likely to be.
As per capita disposable income rises, consumers spend more on groceries to buy premium and organic goods. The industry’s revenue has increased as a result of this transformation. Supermarkets also see strong sales of private or store-label brands, which are less expensive for the consumer and less costly to produce.