The Top 25 Grocers Worldwide
The No. 2 supermarket chain in the world is France's Carrefour, which reported $112.4 billion in sales last year from its approximately 13,411 markets and "hypermarkets" in Europe, South America, Asia, and, increasingly, in North America.
No. 1 on the list compiled by Supermarket News was, of course, Wal-Mart.
Kroger is the top-rated American chain that is strictly in the grocery business, coming it at No. 5 with $70.2 billion in sales. (Well, Kroger does operate about 400 jewelry stores, but unlike Wal-Mart, groceries by far make up the lion's share of its business.)
Each of the entries on the list links to a page of basic information and news articles about each company. Those are mostly restricted to subscribers, but the site does offer a meaty chunk of the first part of each article.
Interesting side note: On the 2007 list, Albertson's was No. 14. The rankings are based on the sales in the previous calendar year. Now that Supervalu owns Albertson's, it's finally on the list â€" at No. 20.