Superstores, Grocery Store Foot Traffic Ring In Big Gains in Q3

Superstores and grocery chains both posted strong gains in the third quarter, with visits climbing more than 7% over 2019 levels.  

A new report from Placer.ai attributes the growth to factors including a reopened retail environment, the summer shopping season and “even potentially the rise of COVID cases.” 

“The increase in staycations this summer probably also contributed to the visit growth, as the ongoing pandemic continued throwing a wrench in vacation plans,” the report notes. “The impressive visit increase also indicates that the e-commerce boost the grocery and superstore sectors saw doesn’t necessarily pose a long-term threat to brick and mortar visits.”

But a dive into the data shows some interesting differences: the uptick in grocery visits is “more volatile,” Placier.ai’s Shira Petrack says, with year-over-two year visits decreasing by 2.9% in Q1 and rising by another 2.1% in Q2. Meanwhile, “the superstore increase is slower and steadier,” with visits rising by 1% in Q1 and by 1.7% in Q2 vover 2019 levels. 

“This speaks in part to the unique strength that superstores possess in addressing such a wide range of needs from grocery to apparel and even home goods,” Petrack says. “But it also speaks to the widespread distribution of locations enabling them to balance declines in harder hit areas with increases elsewhere. In grocery, the regional nature of many chains limits this, pushing some to see weakness when an area is particularly affected by COVID or weather.”

The big winners/? In the Mid-Atlantic region, ACME Markets saw the biggest year-over-two-year increase, followed by Food Lion Grocery Store and Piggly Wiggly (Midwest and Southeast). All of those chains saw increases in excess of 20% over 2019 numbers. In California, Stater Bros. Markets saw a visit hike of 18.2%, while visits to Southern grocer Publix rose by 13.3%. 

Earlier this year, a Placer.ai report noted that grocery was a strong performer during the pandemic.

“This panic-driven, stocking-up-oriented shopping drove massive visit growth in the first few weeks of March 2020, leading the relatively strong performances of the same period in 2021 to pale in comparison. And this can lead to significant mistakes….Not only is grocery not in a weak position, it’s actually gaining momentum even in the shorter term,” the study said.