Food/Drug/Mass Merchandise

The way the drug store industry has been consolidating, it’s not at all surprising that CVS and Walgreen are the leaders in increasing market share among food, drug and mass merchandise retailers. Both have been gobbling up competitors — Long’s Drug Stores in the case of CVS, a number of smaller acquisitions prior to this year’s takeover of Duane Reade for Walgreen — as well as opening new stores throughout the recession. Rite Aid is more or less coast-to-coast now, but it continues to sputter in the aftermath of the Brooks and Eckerd acquisitions of a couple years ago.

Dollar General was able to push market share up a notch, which wasn’t easy considering almost everybody in the dollar store segment has been growing by leaps and bounds. Family Dollar, Dollar Tree and 99 Cents Only Stores have all prospered – and the momentum continues, so much so that Dollar General raised its 2010 earnings forecast after a first quarter in which income soared 64 percent.

Market share increase was hard to come by for Aldi as the company opened supermarkets in such highly contested markets as Florida and Texas. Ahold USA (Giant Food, Stop & Shop) rates a mention, if only because its market share remained flat.