There is a new leader in town for the first time in 47 years. Walmart has overtaken Giant Food as the largest retailer in the $63 billion 89-county Mid-Atlantic market covered by Food World. While Walmart’s gains came solely from its strong comparable store sales increases throughout the region which runs from Central PA to the Tidewater region of Virginia, Giant still maintained share of market dominance in the Baltimore-Washington area, the region’s largest market.
The market study 12-month measuring period runs from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025.
As for the overall “year in food retailing,” merchants again reported that consumer spending was tight and that overstoring and differentiated competition made significant gains difficult. Inflation was up slightly from last year, but nowhere near the levels that retailers experience during COVID and the post-pandemic inflationary cycle.
Of the more than 30 retailers we interviewed to discuss market conditions, a large majority expressed great concern about the future, citing tariffs, reductions in SNAP benefits, and a potential economic recession.
Here’s the statistical breakdown of the top 10 retailers in the Mid-Atlantic market.
While Walmart once again didn’t open any new stores (in fact it closed a conventional discount unit in Towson, MD), the company’s strong price image fueled significant comp store sales increases and helped the country’s largest retailer ($276 billion in annual grocery sales in the U.S.) jump into the leadership position for the first time since Food World first published its Mid-Atlantic market study in 1979. Now operating 157 stores, including 94 SuperCenters, the “Bentonville Behemoth” posted estimated extrapolated sales of $6.56 billion for the 12-month period ended March 31, 2025.
Sales-wise it was a flat year for Giant Food. The perennial Balt-Wash market leader opened two new stores (Parkville, MD and a replacement store in Bowie, MD) and closed stores in Baltimore City and Reston, VA. Estimated annual sales for the Ahold Delhaize USA (ADUSA) brand were $6.50 billion.
While CVS remained the leader among all drug retailers, it was a poor year for the entire channel, which saw hundreds of drug stores close during the past 12 months. CVS reduced its Mid-Atlantic store count from 612 to 593, but the Woonsocket, RI-based operator managed to eke out a small sales increase to an estimated $3.77 billion, primarily by picking up revenue from the many shuttered Rite Aid and Walgreens stores near their locations.
Remaining in fourth place among all Mid-Atlantic merchants was Food Lion which continued to be the best performing brand in the ADUSA portfolio. The Salisbury, NC-based grocery chain now operates 256 stores (same as last year) and saw estimated sales increases from $3.49 billion to $3.55 billion. During the past year, long time Food Lion president Meg Ham retired to replaced by veteran operations chief Greg Finchum.
Albertsons Mid-Atlantic, which includes the Safeway, Acme and Balducci’s banners in this study, had another steady year locally. Nationally, the situation was much different as the Boise, ID-based chain saw its merger effort with Kroger collapse in December 2024, to be followed by finger-pointing and lawsuits from each merchant. For the sixth year in a row, Albertsons opened no new stores in the region (it closed one store in Rockville, MD). Sales increased slightly to $3.5 billion at its 123 stores, most of which are located in the Balt-Wash market. Last month, the big chain promoted veteran Susan Morris to chief executive, replacing Vivek Sankaran, who retired.
The Giant Company (TGC), the ADUSA brand based in Carlisle, PA, remained sixth-ranked among all grocery retailers in the Mid-Atlantic region. Sales at its 63 Giant and Martin’s stores (same as last year) in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia rose to an estimated $3.11 billion, up from $3.02 billion in 2024.
The convenience store leader in the $63 billion market remained 7-Eleven. Operating both corporately-owned and franchised c-stores, the Dallas, TX-based operator, which is owned by Japanese juggernaut Seven & i Holdings, now operates 1,141 stores in the Mid-Atlantic which produced an estimated $2.96 billion in annual sales.
Eighth-ranked Harris Teeter was another conventional supermarket retailer that again experienced flat sales. The Matthews, NC-based Kroger subsidiary rang up estimated sales of $2.56 billion at its 78 area stores (same store count as last year).
Holding down ninth place among Mid-Atlantic retailers was Wegmans, which operated 26 large supermarkets in the region. The Rochester, NY uber-retailer did not open any new stores during our measuring period, however, it is slated to open a new 80,000 square foot store in Rockville, MD, its second in Montgomery County. Wegmans same store sales were better than the industry norm and its estimated annual revenue of $2.43 billion made it the highest per store average supermarket operator in the entire region.
Rounding out the area’s top 10 were the 141 International Markets (specialty and ethnic supermarkets that are at least 20,000 square feet in size are grouped together in this survey) that operate in the Mid-Atlantic. On the strength of two additional stores, those ethnic and specialty supermarkets (mostly Hispanic and Asian) amassed an estimated $2.27 billion in annual sales.
Other retailers that topped the $1 billion mark in annual sales in the 89-county region included: Target, which found the sales battle difficult and produced flat estimated extrapolated sales of $2.20 billion at its 112 stores; Costco – 30 stores, estimated extrapolated annual sales of $2.15 billion (one of the best performers in the region); Weis Markets with 99 stores and annual revenue of $2.10 billion; Walgreens (one of the worst performers in the survey) – 311 stores (11 fewer than last year) and $1.87 billion in estimated annual sales; Amazon Grocery (which includes Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh), with 45 total stores (including three new Amazon Fresh units) doing an estimated annual revenue of $1.61 billion; regional convenience store power Wawa (another strong performer this year), whose 210 c-stores (19 more than last year) rang up annual sales of $1.58 billion; Aldi, (another excellent performer) with 153 stores (four more than last year) and estimated annual revenue of $1.44 billion; Kroger, which continued to operate 37 conventional supermarkets and Marketplace stores in the Richmond and Tidewater markets, garnering estimated annual sales of $1.40 billion (during the past year, Kate Mora replaced the now retired Lori Raya as president of the chain’s Mid-Atlantic division based in Richmond); BJ’s Wholesale Club – 30 stores (the same as 2024) year) enjoyed a very productive year with estimated extrapolated annual sales of $1.22 billion; and Sam’s Club (a unit of Walmart), which operated 26 club units in the Mid-Atlantic region (no change from last year), which amassed an estimated extrapolated annual volume of $1.17 billion.
By class of trade, the leaders are: supermarkets – Giant Food (Landover) with 159 stores, $6.50 billion in sales; clubs – Costco with 30 stores, $2.15 billion in estimated extrapolated sales; mass – Walmart with 157 stores and $6.56 billion in estimated extrapolated sales; drug – CVS with 593 stores and $3.77 billion in estimated sales; and convenience stores – 7-Eleven with 1,141 stores and an estimated $2.96 billion in revenue.
Additionally, the 20 military commissaries in the region rang up annual sales of $592.2 million, a $51.7 million increase over last year.
Viewed as a group, the 48 corporate chains in the market operated 5,110 stores and accrued an estimated $61.9 billion in annual sales, good for 98.2 percent of the Mid-Atlantic region’s $63 billion food and drug market.
Among all independent retailers (those operating between two and 17 stores), Mechanicsburg, PA-based Karns Prime & Fancy Foods led all merchants with annual sales of $186 million at its 10 Central PA stores. Baltimore-based B. Green, which operates stores under the Green Valley and Food Depot banners, ranked second among all indies with seven stores (it acquired Angels Market earlier this year) and $146.4 million in annual volume. Also surpassing the $100 million sales mark was Family Owned Markets, the Millersville, PA retail marketing group that supervises six independent stores in Central PA and northern MD that had annual sales of $103.9 million.
As a combined group, the 10 multi-store independent retail organizations in the Mid-Atlantic operated 52 supermarkets which garnered estimated annual sales of $762.8 million, a decline of nearly $24 billion from last year. Collectively, those stores controlled 1.21 percent of the region’s food and drug revenue.
