Experts see huge appetite for new supermarket chains in Western Pa. as Meijer, Wegmans move in

Western Pennsylvania shoppers will have their appetites for new grocery stores put to the test once supermarket chains Wegmans and Meijer arrive in the region.

Experts believe customers have room to spare.

“You still have one of the most acute shortages of supermarket chains anywhere in the continental United States in the greater Pittsburgh market,” Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of New York City-based Strategic Resource Group, told TribLive Wednesday.

The shortage is characterized by too few options in some high-density areas, he said.

That might be tough to imagine. A small stretch of Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair, for example, is home to a Giant Eagle Market District, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Fresh Market. Pockets of Pittsburgh have a similar concentration of supermarkets.

But others areas, like parts of the Mon Valley and Pittsburgh’s Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood, are devoid of grocery stores, according to a food access map from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Grocers often fight for space in wealthier neighborhoods and skip over the lower-income ones, creating different perceptions across Western Pennsylvania of whether the market is crowded.

“Having more grocers in town can be a good thing, but it kind of depends on where they are and who they’re serving,” said Dawn Marie Clepper Hall, director of community food access at Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Just Harvest.

Buckle up for competition

The relative lack of options that Flickinger sees in the Pittsburgh area ties back to the 1980s, the grocery industry veteran said, when Kroger shuttered its 45 Pittsburgh-area supermarkets rather than meet the demands of its unionized workers.

“That created a huge vacuum for the Shapira family, and Giant Eagle quickly and strategically capitalized on it,” he said, referring to the family that ran the Cranberry-based grocer for much of its history.

Today, Giant Eagle has more than 200 stores across five states.

Other regional chains were too preoccupied with their own struggles to make inroads, according to Flickinger.

Around the same time as the Kroger labor dispute, brands that might may have otherwise grown — like SuperValu, Food Land and Shop ‘n Save — were hamstrung by a strike at New Stanton-based wholesaler Charley Brothers.

Over the years, Rite Aid used prepackaged snacks to become “a pretty formidable force in food retail,” Flickinger noted, but started slashing its store counts in the 2010s as it barreled toward multiple bankruptcies.

Those less-cutthroat days appear to be over.

“Pittsburgh, while being under-stored and less competitive than most of the top 50 U.S. markets, is going to be one of the most competitive markets in America between 2026 through the end of the decade,” Flickinger said.

Cheaper prices possible

There have been signs of change beyond Meijer snapping up area properties and Wegmans targeting late 2027 to open their first Pittsburgh-area store, in Cranberry.

Aldi is on an ambitious expansion drive that includes Pennsylvania. The German grocer, known for its compact stores and low prices, plans to add 800 new stores to its U.S. portfolio by the end of 2028.

The chain has popped up in Allegheny Township, Hempfield, Lower Burrell, New Kensington, Wilkinsburg and other Southwestern Pennsylvania communities in just the last few years. Construction is underway for an Aldi on Banksville Road in Pittsburgh’s Banksville neighborhood, not far from a Kuhn’s supermarket.

Giant Eagle has gone from undisputed market leader in the late 2010s to dueling with Walmart for the top spot. Each rake in about a quarter of Pittsburgh-area grocery revenues, according to data from Chain Store Guide.

Community Supermarket general manager George Sears has cited a nearby Walmart as a reason for closing the grocer’s Harrison store, which is set to happen by the end of October.

Dollar General and Target have also grown their slice of the pie lately.

A more crowded market can lead to cheaper prices as grocers vie for customers, according to Jonathan Raduns, owner of South Carolina-based retail consulting firm Merchandise Food.

Larger chains are usually best suited to withstand price wars. Giant Eagle will spend more than $100 million by the end of 2026, in part to lower prices. On Thursday, the company slashed prices on more than 300 common products and pledged to keep them there through this year as part of its wider strategic vision.

“If you have deeper resources, you can weather a storm longer or lose money in a market or offer better pricing to slowly undermine competition,” Raduns said.

‘They sense weakness’

But customers care about more than just cost. Selection matters, and small grocers might be able to bring new products to market faster than large corporations.

Old players are also protected by the realities of grocery store real estate.

“A Wegmans can’t just build a shop anywhere, because they’re huge,” Raduns said. “So some of these small independents are still serving a level of convenience in the community.”

Doug Sprankle, co-owner of Sprankles Neighborhood Markets, expects Meijer, Wegmans and any other newcomer grocery chains to target places with the most money and people at first.

That’s a plus for his family’s stores in Leechburg, Kittanning and Saxonburg.

But if there’s a market worth being in, the big grocery players will eventually go there.

“They sense weakness,” he said.