Just as SKU proliferation has allowed consumers more choices for their food and beverage purchases, the retail channel market has seen its own proliferation of new stores for these products. Natural and organic retailers, also referred by some analysts as fresh format stores, are one channel that has presented competition to traditional supermarket share.

According to Long Grove, Ill.-based Willard Bishop, an Inmar analytics company, fresh format stores are among the Top 3 segments experiencing sales increases. In the market research firm’s 2015 “The Future of Food Retailing” report, fresh format, eCommerce and limited-assortment segments outpace every other segment by a minimum of two to one.