Walmart dominates NWA's grocery market

Walmart is by far the most popular grocery chain in Northwest Arkansas, with 68.4% of the market share last year, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick and Erin Davis report.

Driving the news: Sam's Club, Walmart's membership-based warehouse chain, is runner-up with 11.5% of the market share, meaning about 80% of groceries in NWA are purchased at Walmart-owned stores, according to new data from Chain Store Guide, which tracks the retail and food service industries.

• Harps Food Stores follow with 9.6%, which includes Harps-owned 10Box Cost Plus.

The intrigue: Dollar General makes up 2.8% of the market share, and all other grocery stores, such as Target and ALDI, represent less than 2% each.

The big picture: While national grocery behemoths like Walmart are often among the most popular — if not the most popular — in any given city, local and regional favorites can give the big-box stores a run for their money. But in NWA, Walmart is local.

• "At a time when politics divides opinion nationally on many big brands, grocery brands have been able to maintain loyalty and trust across demographics by maintaining a steady presence in their communities," Axios' Sara Fischer and Emily Peck write.

By the numbers: The sum Americans spend on groceries is getting crushed by the total cost of dining out in the post-pandemic era.

• "People spent 20.7% more at restaurants than they spent on groceries in 2022 — and that figure rose to 29.5% in the first two months of the year, according to Commerce Department data compiled by JLL," Axios' Nathan Bomey writes.

What's next: Whole Foods, which has one NWA store in Fayetteville, accounts for 1.8% of the market share in the region. We'll see what happens when its Rogers location opens next year.

• Amazon, which acquired Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.4 billion, is looking to dramatically expand the grocery wing of its commerce empire, Axios' Richard Collings and Kimberly Chin write.
• "We need a broader physical-store footprint, given that most of the grocery shopping still happens in physical venues," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently wrote in a letter to shareholders.