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Research Outline
Prepared for David P. | Delivered January 15, 2021
Grocery Buyers
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Goals
Identify and provide details of the grocery buyers for the 5 top retail stores in the U.S.
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Early Findings
According to the
National Retail Federation
, the top 5 retail stores, that sell at least a small portion of grocery, products in the United States based on sales are Walmart, Kroger, Costco,
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, and CVS. The 6th retailer is Target. The top 5 grocery retailers, excluding the 2 pharmacy chains, include Walmart, Kroger, Costco, Target, and
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. Amazon, The Home Depot, and Lowes are among the largest retailers in the U.S., but either do not have physical stores or do not sell grocery products. Both
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and CVS are pharmacy store chains and sell a variety of products, including some grocery items. The basis for details of the buyers for the top 5 retailers that sell grocery products may be found in the
attached spreadsheet
.
Walmart insists on a specific process to become one of their suppliers, regardless of the item to be sold to the retail giant. They provide step-by-step instructions directly on their website. One
page describes the process
and another
allows a supplier to apply
. In addition, the 8th & Walton website very clearly
explains the entire process
in great detail.
The Kroger Company has a similar process to Walmart: The process begins by becoming a supplier in the company's
Supplier Hub
. Full details are explained on
Kroger's website
, as well as a detailed
explanation written by Mr. Checkout
. Kroger employs both buyers for certain grocery categories and category managers. However, a list of buyers or category managers for the company does not exist in the public domain.
Mr. Checkout
details the process to become a buyer for Costco. They recommend a step approach to finding the specific buyer: "Call the Costco’s corporate phone number and ask for the names of the buyer and assistant buyers in your category. Always leave voicemail with whomever the dispatch will connect you. Use that information to connect with them on LinkedIn, RangeMe and any other professional social platform. Ask your representative at your trade bureau to connect you to the Costco buyers as they will potentially have a better history."
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has created a
beginner's guide
to selling to Costco complete with a video.
Vendor inquiries
are specific to regional divisions and may be found on the company's website.
Target also requires a registration process to become a vendor. Full details are explained on their
website
, and they have a separate page to begin the
vendor registration
process.
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explains the process
in detail on their website.
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