Tampa Grocery Competition

SEBRING – Ruth Frommer doesn't comparison shop for food so she can save extra cash, but her friends do.

Apparently a lot of people, like Frommer's friends, have started shopping in dollar stores, club stores and big-box stores, among others.

Nontraditional food retailers are going after their share of the lucrative grocery market and have been successful in taking it – at the expense of Sweetbay, Publix and Winn-Dixie.

According to research from consulting firm Willard Bishop LLC, based in Barrington, Ill., the traditional grocery channel lost about 1.1 percent of its market share in 2010, to 46.8 percent, and is expected to lose nearly 3 percent more by 2015, to about 43.9 percent.

To read the rest of the story, please go to:  Highlands Today