Number of food & beverage retail stores in the U.S. 2017-2021, by format

The number of food and beverage retail stores in the United States in 2021 amounted to about 154 thousand. Supermarkets and other grocery stores were the most represented, numbering around 62 thousand, followed by beer, wine, and liquor stores numbering nearly 36 thousand.

Employment size

Concerning the number of employees each retailer has, most of them fall on each end of the spectrum. Some retailers have less than five employees, relating them to smaller convenience stores. Other retailers have over 500 employees, which could be connected to bigger supermarkets chains or warehouse stores.

Evolution of grocery shopping

Due to inflation and global events, grocery shopping sales have grown exponentially across the years. Walmart, and online store Amazon are the leading retailers in the United States, which also shows the rapid expansion of online grocery shopping since the pandemic, and it is projected to continue growing. Traditional supermarkets are nevertheless not out of the picture, since shoppers still prefer to get groceries at a physical store.