Expert: Closures, Consolidation Coming To Overcrowded Grocery Market

By Steve Goldstein
Published: Friday, February 14, 2020 - 2:32pm

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Fry
Emma VandenEinde/KJZZ
The grand opening of a Fry's grocery store in downtown Phoenix on Oct. 23, 2019.

Downtown Phoenix recently got its first supermarket in decades, when a Fry’s opened on Jefferson Street. But even without that, the Valley has been incredibly competitive — with intersections in some neighborhoods featuring a grocery on nearly every corner.

Shoppers’ tastes are changing because of demographic and generational shifts, and the reality that fewer people are willing to spend an hour every Saturday and Sunday at the market, filling up their shelves and refrigerators for the work week.

Phil Lempert, the Supermarket Guru, joined The Show to help put this in perspective.

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