By Type of Store

Grocery Store — Any retail store selling a line of dry grocery, canned goods or nonfood items plus some perishable items.

Supermarket—Any full-line self-service grocery store generating a sales volume of $2 million or more annually

Convenience Store— Any full-line, self-service grocery store offering limited line of high-convenience items. Open long hours and provides easy access. The majority sell gasoline with an annual sales of $2 million or more.

Independent — An operator of fewer than 11 retail stores.

Chain — An operator of 11 or more retail stores.

By Store Format

Conventional Supermarket - The original supermarket format offering a full line of groceries, meat, and produce with at least $2 million in annual sales. Conventional stores will realize 9% of their sales in GM/HBC. These stores typically carry approximately 15,000 items, offer a service deli and frequently a service bakery.

Superstore - A larger version of the conventional supermarket with at least 40,000 square feet in total selling area and 25,000 items. Superstores offer an expanded selection of non-foods (at least 10% GM/HBC).

Food/Drug Combo - A combination of superstore and drug store under a single roof, with common checkouts. GM/HBC represents at least one-third of the selling area and approximately 15% of store sales. These stores also have a pharmacy.
Warehouse Store - A low-margin grocery store offering reduced variety, lower service levels, minimal decor, and a streamlined merchandising presentation, along with aggressive pricing. Generally, warehouse stores don't offer specialty departments, e.g., Xtra.

Super Warehouse - A high-volume, hybrid format of a superstore and a warehouse store. Super warehouse stores typically offer a full range of service departments, quality perishables, and reduced prices, e.g., Cub Foods.
Limited-Assortment Store - A "bare-bones," low-priced grocery store that provides very limited services and carries fewer than 2,000 items with limited-if any-perishables, e.g., Aldi and Sav-A-Lot.
Other - The small corner grocery store that carries a limited selection of staples and other convenience goods. These stores generate approximately $1 million in business annually.

Convenience Store (Traditional) - A small, higher-margin store that offers an edited selection of staple groceries, non-foods, and other convenience food items, i.e., ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat foods. The traditional format includes those stores that started out as strictly convenience stores but might also sell gasoline.

Convenience Store (Petroleum-Based) - The petroleum-based stores are primarily gas stations with a convenience store.
Non-Traditional Grocery

Hypermarket - A very large food and general merchandise store with approximately 180,000 square feet of selling space. While these stores typically devote as much as 75% of the selling area to general merchandise, the food-to-general merchandise sales ratio is typically 60/40, e.g., Bigg's.

Wholesale Club - A membership retail/wholesale hybrid with a varied selection and limited variety of products presented in a warehouse-type environment. These 120,000 square-foot stores have 60% to 70% GM/HBC and a grocery line dedicated to large sizes and bulk sales. Memberships include both business accounts and consumer groups, e.g., Sam's Club, Costco, and BJ's.

Mini-Club - A scaled-down version of the wholesale club. The mi