Mass
merchandisers have been on both the winning and the losing ends of the beverage
retail spectrum during the past year. Traditional mass merchandise outlets saw
the smallest sales growth among non-traditional grocery outlets last year,
according to retail analyst firm Willard Bishop, Barrington, Ill. Their
supercenter counterparts, however, have been the biggest gainers.
Supercenters
grew almost 12 percent to $152 billion in 2008, and increased store count by
almost 10 percent, Willard Bishop reported in its study “The Future of Food
Retailing.” Traditional mass merchandisers, on the other hand, gained only 1.6 percent
in dollar sales. That trend is expected to continue, the company says,
forecasting an annual sales loss of 6.2 percent into 2013 as more mass
merchandise stores are converted to supercenters.