Super Markets

Super markets will have gross sales this year of about $2,000,000,000 -- 22% of all U.S. retail food sales. This is the estimate presented last week by the U.S. Census Bureau's John Guernsey to a Philadelphia convention of the Super Market Institute (owners of more than 1,000 markets). How much larger a chunk of the nation's food bill super markets might eventually get, no one could guess. The U.S. had 9,250 super markets at year's beginning, has 10,100 now, is getting more all the time.

Super markets (defined by Guernsey as self-service groceries with at least a $100,000-a-year gross) buy groceries in carload lots, move them directly from freight car to customer; Super Market Merchandising estimates their operating costs at 12.9% (v. 19% to 21% for chains and 22% to 25% for most independents). As an economical method of distributing food, they got the blessings last week of not only Guernsey but also Corwin D. Edwards, who is in charge of the Justice Department's anti-trust investigation of the food industry.

The first super markets were independent units. Now some of the early operators have formed their own chains (Big Bear, King Kullen, etc.) and the old established chains are in the business too. A. & P. now has 1,540 super markets, Safeway 498. Taxes levied on chains according to the number of units in 19 States have encouraged this trend.

Although their coverage is spotty over the U.S., super markets do 52% of all food business in Houston, 50% in Syracuse, N.Y., 41% in Los Angeles. Some of their sales figures are enough to make an oldtime corner grocer weep. In a single two-day sale, two Big Bear stores in Columbus, Ohio attracted 50,000 customers, sold about 175 carloads of food.

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