Look at dwell time in these regions (see charts in the image gallery), and the InMarket data paints a different picture. In the South, shoppers are spending more time at The Fresh Market (based in North Carolina), Whole Foods and Lowe’s (Carolinas). Up north, ShopRite leads in lingering shoppers, followed by Market Basket (New England) and C-Town Supermarkets (New York).
In the Midwest, consumers are shopping longer at Marc’s, a 60-store grocery and drug chain based in Ohio; Whole Foods; and Fresh Thyme, a regional chain with headquarters in the Chicago suburbs. Meanwhile, out West, Whole Foods leads in shopper dwell time, according to the InMarket data, followed by Colorado-based Natural Grocers and El Super, a Hispanic chain with 59 stores throughout California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas.
“It’s no surprise that grocery is a regional game, but now we have a more clear-cut picture as to how these chains stack up,” Peebles says. “You can look at a Northeast-only chain like Stop & Shop, which at 12th overall wouldn’t make a national Top 10 for loyalty. But relative to the rest of the Northeast, its performance is quite impressive.”
How do national chains like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Aldi stack up against fierce regional competition? “They’re typically in the middle of the pack, with Whole Foods ranking No. 3 in the Midwest as the best showing,” Peebles notes. “Aldi is toward the bottom in each region. It’s clear that shoppers still prefer their regional stores over the national chains.”