Photo by Abby Bellow
Between the grocery superstores and people wanting healthier food options at places such as Whole Foods, local grocery stores in Oklahoma could become a relic of the past.
It is estimated that by 2018 traditional supermarkets‘ share of grocery dollars will shrink to 37.2 percent, according to JLL Research’s report “Retail ShopTopic.”
Professor of Marketing and Management Burt Smith said some stores are competing better than others.
“There’s been this massive consolidation taking place over the last 20 to 25 years,” Smith said. “The simple way to put it is that the big keep getting bigger and the small are getting smaller or they’re going away.”
Smith was raised near the grocery business market.
“I grew up in a family-owned grocery store,” Smith said. “So I know what it’s like trying to fight with the big guys.”
Larger grocery chains are able to buy more in bulk and more from different sources, which brings down prices.
“It really comes down to economy’s scale through buying power,” Smith said. “The bigger stores can give you better price, it’s really that simple.”
The recent recession made customers more mindful of grocery spending, Smith said.
“After that happened, everybody became price conscious and so that doesn’t help matters at all,” Smith said.
Smith said organic and healthier food stores, such as Whole Foods, are playing a larger part in local stores closing than before.
“That’s rather an interesting thing to watch because if you see what’s at work, there is value,” Smith said. “Organic food is preconceived as being more valuable. And as a result costumers are willing to pay more for it.”
Online grocery shopping has played a big part in people’s lives as well, making it so that they do not have to go to the physical store as often.
“Another thing that has become a big importance to the consumer is their time,” Smith said. “People’s time is so scarce, and they’ve got so many more activities that they want to do but don’t have time to do all the things they have to do. So anything that can help with that can make a big difference.”
Smith said family-run grocers could become a thing of the past.
“We could see a day where all of our groceries are delivered to our home,” Smith said.
Sophomore Hannah Graves said there is more competition between grocery stores today.
“I think that the local grocery stores, like Homeland, have a lot of competition with stores like Target and Walmart,” Graves said.
Graves said she believes that health-conscious individuals would potentially be interested in growing or making their own food.
“I think that people who want to eat healthy want to make their own food,” Graves said. “ I think that would actually help local grocery stores.”
Sophomore Daniel Fitzsimmons said grocery stores should have healthier options.
“There is an impression that buying local will give you better quality or more ‘organic’ products,” Fitzsimmons said. “With that in mind, I would suppose healthier eating would mean better business for local grocers.”
Fitzsimmons does not think that online shopping would have an affect on local grocery stores.
Fitzsimmons said there are a couple of other stores with better prices than the bigger and well-known stores in the area.
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