Being the world’s largest retailer, Walmart has vast bargaining power over its suppliers. Many suppliers are heavily reliant on Walmart’s distribution and will exchange lower prices for the higher volume.
To keep costs down, Trader Joe’s buys directly from suppliers whenever possible, they purchase items at high volume, products that aren’t selling are quickly pulled from shelves to make room for other things, and they stock their shelves.
They focus primarily on three essential products – groceries, pharmacies, and fuel. There are nearly 700 Walmart Neighborhood Market stores nationwide.
Lidl stores have a solid international presence, having nearly 12,000 locations in 31 countries. Of the 12,000 locations, only 165 sites are in the United States.
Amazon Fresh stores take grocery store technology to a whole new level. Shoppers use dash carts, shopping carts with a touchscreen, barcode scanner, cameras, and various sensors to count items placed and removed from the cart automatically.
WinCo Foods is a privately held, primarily employee-owned supermarket chain. WinCo is based out of Boise, ID, and has locations in eight other states in the western half of the United States.