Who Shops Where for Groceries – A Look at US Grocery Store Demographics

Executive Summary

Our top takeaways from our recent analysis of survey data on US grocery shoppers include the following:

• Nonspecialist retailers account for three of the four most-shopped retailers for groceries: Walmart is in first place, Target is second and Costco is fourth. Kroger is the only supermarket retailer in the top four.
• By age and affluence, the average shopper at Aldi is very similar to that at Walmart and Kroger, suggesting that Aldi’s aggressive expansion plans could present a particular threat to these two retailers.
• Younger shoppers turn disproportionately to mass merchandisers Walmart and Target for groceries, while Costco and some supermarket chains such as Publix see a skew toward older shoppers.
• Walmart and Target grocery shoppers register a number of differences: Target attracts significantly younger shoppers, Target sees more consistent shopper penetration across income groups and Amazon Prime members overindex at Target but underindex at Walmart.
• Amazon Prime members overindex strongly at Whole Foods Market, and this is likely to be a reflection of higher income levels among both Prime members and Whole Foods shoppers.