Dive Brief:
- Wakefern Food Corp. recorded retail sales of $21.5 billion during fiscal 2026, up 2% compared with the previous year, the grocery cooperative announced Monday.
- Wakefern’s members opened seven stores during its latest fiscal year, including five ShopRite locations, one Price Rite Marketplace location and one The Fresh Grocer store.
- Like other supermarket chains, Wakefern has seen its sales growth tail off as traditional grocery stores contend with powerful competition from mass retailers, discounters and other retailers.
Dive Insight:
While Wakefern notched a modest sales increase in fiscal 2026, that rate of growth was the slowest the co-op has recorded since 2021, when sales declined following the boom in grocery spending spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. Wakefern’s latest fiscal year concluded Oct. 3 and lasted 53 weeks.
Wakefern’s sales rose 3.1% during fiscal 2025, a significant jump over the 2.2% rate of growth it saw the year before. The co-op’s sales moved ahead by 5.5% in fiscal 2023 and 4.7% in fiscal 2022.
Even as sales growth lost momentum, Wakefern’s members invested over $150 million during fiscal 2026 on new stores, renovations and other improvements, the co-op reported. In addition, Wakefern expanded its wholesale business, including by making its Di Bruno Bros. line of Italian and European specialty grocery products available in all 50 states. Wakefern acquired the brand in 2024.
The co-op noted that it broadened its e-commerce operations, such as its delivery and pickup offerings, during its latest fiscal year. The co-op, which is marking its 80th year of operations, said it also stepped up training and development programs for retail and corporate employees.
Wakefern reorganized its sales and marketing team earlier this year in a move Wakefern said reflected its decision to refocus customer communications efforts around its eight banners. The restructuring involved the replacement of 79 roles with 73 newly created positions within Wakefern and at an outside media agency, according to the co-op.
Wakefern’s members operate stores under banners including ShopRite, The Fresh Grocer, Morton Williams, Price Rite Marketplace, Gourmet Garage, Fairway Market, Dearborn Market and Di Bruno Bros. The co-op encompasses more than 380 independently owned supermarkets in nine East Coast states.
