Placer.ai: Supermarkets see ‘enormous’ year-over-year store traffic jump

For supermarkets, the increased demand due to the coronavirus outbreak really kicked off in the second week of March. 

Foot traffic analytics platform Placer.ai studied the latest data surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic by looking at top six supermarket chains nationwide: Kroger, Wegmans, Albertsons, Whole Foods Market, Safeway and Publix. (A link to the full report can be found here.)

The report found that, comparing the year-over-year numbers, Kroger, Wegmans, and Albertsons had a strong start to March after a weaker end to February. But Publix, Whole Foods and Safeway all experienced a bigger year-over-year decrease. 

Publix saw the biggest dips, with a 5.3% year-over-year decrease in February visits, and a 6.2% decrease in March. Wegmans had a very weak last week of February, with a 6.7% year-over-year decrease, but made a significant recovery in the first week of March. 

But the numbers didn’t remain down. Instead, Placer.ai found all supermarkets surged when looking at the Sunday through Friday of the second week of March.

•    All chains saw an enormous year-over-year jump, with Kroger and Albertsons leading the way with 36% and 40% year-over-year growth respectively.

•    For Kroger, Friday the 13th brought a 78% baseline growth when looking at the period from January 2018 to March 2020.

•    Albertson’s March 13th, 2020 also easily surpassed all other days in that period, including the holidays, with 132.9% growth over baseline. 

With supermarkets remaining one of the few local retailers to stay open, Placer.ai said it believes the grocery sector could potentially remain as the strongest players and will find ways to conduct business and continue building on customer loyalty, with timely restocking and home delivery options.