The supermarket is dead. Wal-Mart opened its 1,000th supercenter last year and Costco has expanded into five more states, need I say more?
But wait a minute. Can it be true? Supermarkets, excluding supercenters, experienced a 3.5% increase in dollar sales according to the 55th Annual Consumer Expenditures Study. Industry observers cite the increase of epicurean/gourment-style stores and general consumer trade-up to more expensive products.
The beverage business leads the pack. If you still have accounts that poo-poo alcoholic beverages, you might want to show them this article. Sales of beverage alcohol rose 6.9%, with malternatives contributing much to that number. Malternatives were up 126.9% to $252 million, making them the largest percentage gainer of any category in the store.
Beer was up 5.7%, coolers were up 62.6% (including malts and traditional coolers), liquor was up 7%, and wine was up 5.6%.
A few stats surprised me. One was the percentage of people who purchased beer at least once in 2001 was only 43%. Compare that number to the 97.7% who have purchased carbonated soft-drinks and I thought it would be more than that. -BDM
