Giant Food is D.C. area's most popular grocer by market share

Locally born Giant Food is the most popular grocery chain in the D.C. metro area, with 21.3% of the market share as of last year.

• Walmart and Safeway are the second- and third-most-popular grocers, with 13% and 12.1% 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.

• "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.

Zoom in: Giant, which opened its first store in 1936 on Georgia Avenue and Park Road NW, still dominates the region.

• But Walmart has shot up in popularity, from 7.5% of market share in 2020 to 13% last year, displacing Safeway as #2.

By the numbers: The amount Americans spend on groceries is getting crushed by the amount we spend 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: 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.