Target and Walmart top Cub Foods as Twin Cities' top grocers

Cub Foods, long the Twin Cities' dominant grocer, now only ranks third in market share here, according to a recent report from Chain Store Guide, a sales-tracking firm that examined 2020 grocery revenue in the 15-county metro.

The state of play: Cub, with its 74 metro stores, fell behind Target and Walmart — which have fewer stores but higher volumes.

• Cub's market share was north of 40% in the 1990s and, as recently as 2018, it remained on top with 20%, according to Chain Store Guide data published in the Star Tribune.

Flashback: In that Strib story, Cub Foods' then-parent company Supervalu said it was confident it could keep its top spot as a wave of new competitors flooded into the market, including Hy-Vee and Fresh Thyme.

• But it hasn't actually been Hy-Vee gobbling up most of the market share.
• Instead, Target jumped from 11.4% to 18.3 as it improved its e-commerce game.

What's next: There's yet another grocer coming to town, and it's one everyone should be paying attention to.

• Amazon is planning a major entrance into the market, with at least four of its checkout-free Fresh stores.

The bottom line: We've always lived in a competitive grocery market, and it's only grown more cutthroat in recent years.

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