The most popular grocery stores in the San Francisco Bay Area
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Safeway is the most popular grocery chain in the San Francisco Bay Area, with 25.1% of the market share as of last year.
- Costco and Food Maxx are the second- and third-most-popular grocers, with 18.4% and 8.8% of the local market share, respectively.
- That's according to new data from Chain Store Guide, which tracks the retail and food service industries.
The big picture: While national grocery behemoths such as Walmart are typically among the most popular grocers — if not the most popular — in any given city, local and regional favorites can give the big box stores a run for their money.
- Shoppers often develop allegiances toward their local favorites, too.
- "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.
Between the lines: Bi-Rite, along with other smaller stores like Haight Street Market and Gus's, are mixed into the "other" stores, accounting for 17.6% of the Bay Area's market share.
- Bi-Rite plans to open its third San Francisco store this year in Russian Hill.
What's next: 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.
- Of note: In the Bay Area, Whole Foods has just 7.2% of the market share.
- "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.