---
title: "Brick-and-Mortar Still Beats Online for Groceries"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/8b4c45e7-da99-4b07-b44f-0e9d91d874cc
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/brick-and-mortar-still-beats-online-for-groceries-2708229
category: "Grocery"
industry: "Retail"
segment: "Grocery"
published: 2018-10-19T16:11:01.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T01:47:37.101Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/8f27db7a24ea188e51769f20e8a3d5ab7555.jpg
---

# Brick-and-Mortar Still Beats Online for Groceries

**TL;DR:** Conventional brick-and-mortar supermarkets remain the preferred outlets for grocery shopping among consumers, despite online competition, according to a TABS Analytics study. 75 percent of surveyed U.S. adults cited traditional grocery stores as their regular source for groceries.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2018-10-19. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/brick-and-mortar-still-beats-online-for-groceries-2708229).*

## Story

Supermarkets may be one segment that has not been completely disrupted by online competition, at least not yet. According to a study by TABS Analytics ( via Nation’s Restaurant News ), conventional brick-and-mortar supermarkets, including Walmart, remain the preferred outlets for grocery shopping among consumers.

The study surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults, 75 percent of whom cited traditional grocery stores as their regular source for groceries. That’s good news for supermarkets for now, but the trend is not promising. Compared to last year’s survey, two-percent fewer consumers cited brick-and-mortar supermarkets as their preferred venue. Curiously, two-to-four-percent more consumers this year cited dollar stores and drug stores as their grocery-shopping preference.

According to the study, “Large-format outlets — mass market, food and club — account for 57 percent of transactions, while small-format — dollar and drugstores, convenience stores and value grocery — is only 38 percent. Despite the disparity, small-format and online are gaining at the expense of larger format, with the biggest increases coming from small-format brick-and-mortar, not e-commerce.”

Predictably, among online food-and-beverage retailers, Amazon was the most preferred venue, cited by 24 percent of consumers surveyed.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Retail (sector)
- Nation's Restaurant News (publication)
- Amazon (company)
- Walmart (company)
- brick and mortar (topic)
- grocery shopping (topic)
- online competition (topic)
- supermarket trends (topic)

---
Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/brick-and-mortar-still-beats-online-for-groceries-2708229). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/8b4c45e7-da99-4b07-b44f-0e9d91d874cc).