{
  "meta": {
    "snapshotId": "us-grocery-stores-2026-09-08-v1",
    "countryCode": "US",
    "exportedAt": "2026-09-08T23:31:01.341896+00:00",
    "scope": "50-states-and-dc",
    "methodologyVersion": "grocery-banner-format-identity-v1",
    "temporaryClosurePolicy": "Include temporarily closed stores; exclude permanently closed and publicly suppressed listings.",
    "unit": "A physical store of one of four selected retail banners.",
    "selection": "ALDI, Publix, Kroger banner and Walmart. No claim to count all US grocery stores.",
    "formatPolicy": "Walmart formats are classified from explicit store names. Other Walmart stores are not assumed to have a full supermarket assortment.",
    "geographyPolicy": "Use the database state assignment; exclude missing or non-state/DC assignments. Alaska and Hawaii are included.",
    "deduplicationPolicy": "Official store identity, normalized street address within city/state, then same-brand locations within 60 meters unless explicit store identities differ.",
    "futureOpeningsPolicy": "Explicit future-opening labels are excluded, but the database does not provide a consistently reliable future-opening flag. Counts include temporarily closed stores and do not represent only stores open today.",
    "pageId": "methodology",
    "title": "How we count ALDI, Publix, Kroger and Walmart stores",
    "url": "https://www.spherescout.io/en/studies/united-states/grocery-stores/methodology/",
    "selectedBrandIds": [
      "aldi",
      "publix",
      "kroger",
      "walmart"
    ],
    "selectedTotal": 10184,
    "temporaryIncluded": 18,
    "populationYear": 2025,
    "countScope": "Four selected chains across the 50 states and Washington, DC. The totals do not include other grocery chains or independent stores.",
    "formatColumns": "Formats partition their parent brand; do not add format counts to brand totals."
  },
  "brands": [
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      "id": "aldi",
      "name": "ALDI",
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      "states": {
        "AL": 59,
        "AR": 22,
        "AZ": 19,
        "CA": 111,
        "CT": 33,
        "DC": 3,
        "DE": 10,
        "FL": 333,
        "GA": 95,
        "IA": 42,
        "IL": 219,
        "IN": 93,
        "KS": 29,
        "KY": 27,
        "LA": 30,
        "MA": 25,
        "MD": 71,
        "ME": 1,
        "MI": 123,
        "MN": 83,
        "MO": 108,
        "MS": 20,
        "NC": 95,
        "ND": 3,
        "NE": 13,
        "NH": 10,
        "NJ": 72,
        "NV": 4,
        "NY": 144,
        "OH": 182,
        "OK": 32,
        "PA": 174,
        "RI": 9,
        "SC": 58,
        "SD": 6,
        "TN": 68,
        "TX": 130,
        "VA": 76,
        "VT": 3,
        "WI": 90,
        "WV": 16
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      "temporaryIncluded": 3,
      "sourceIds": [
        "aldi-locator",
        "aldi-growth"
      ],
      "formats": [
        {
          "id": "grocery-store",
          "name": "Grocery stores",
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          "states": {
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            "DC": 3,
            "DE": 10,
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            "IL": 219,
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            "MO": 108,
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            "OH": 182,
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      }
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        "FL": 923,
        "GA": 225,
        "KY": 12,
        "NC": 65,
        "SC": 80,
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        "publix-facts"
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        {
          "id": "grocery-store",
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      "id": "kroger",
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        "IN": 104,
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        "LA": 7,
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      "sourceIds": [
        "kroger-locator"
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          "id": "grocery-store",
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        "AZ": 114,
        "CA": 275,
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        "TX": 524,
        "UT": 54,
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        "WI": 90,
        "WV": 39,
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        },
        {
          "id": "neighborhood-market",
          "name": "Neighborhood Markets",
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            "CA": 62,
            "CO": 13,
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        {
          "id": "other-walmart-store",
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            "WA": 8,
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      "name": "Alabama",
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      "locationsPer100000": 5.361515427519856
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      "code": "PA",
      "name": "Pennsylvania",
      "fips": "42",
      "population": 13059432,
      "counts": [
        174,
        0,
        0,
        138
      ],
      "total": 312,
      "locationsPer100000": 2.3890778710743317
    },
    {
      "code": "RI",
      "name": "Rhode Island",
      "fips": "44",
      "population": 1114521,
      "counts": [
        9,
        0,
        0,
        10
      ],
      "total": 19,
      "locationsPer100000": 1.7047682367582129
    },
    {
      "code": "SC",
      "name": "South Carolina",
      "fips": "45",
      "population": 5570274,
      "counts": [
        58,
        80,
        13,
        110
      ],
      "total": 261,
      "locationsPer100000": 4.685586382285683
    },
    {
      "code": "SD",
      "name": "South Dakota",
      "fips": "46",
      "population": 935094,
      "counts": [
        6,
        0,
        0,
        15
      ],
      "total": 21,
      "locationsPer100000": 2.2457635275170196
    },
    {
      "code": "TN",
      "name": "Tennessee",
      "fips": "47",
      "population": 7315076,
      "counts": [
        68,
        63,
        120,
        140
      ],
      "total": 391,
      "locationsPer100000": 5.3451256008823425
    },
    {
      "code": "TX",
      "name": "Texas",
      "fips": "48",
      "population": 31709821,
      "counts": [
        130,
        0,
        206,
        524
      ],
      "total": 860,
      "locationsPer100000": 2.7120935182825536
    },
    {
      "code": "UT",
      "name": "Utah",
      "fips": "49",
      "population": 3538904,
      "counts": [
        0,
        0,
        0,
        54
      ],
      "total": 54,
      "locationsPer100000": 1.5258961531592834
    },
    {
      "code": "VT",
      "name": "Vermont",
      "fips": "50",
      "population": 644663,
      "counts": [
        3,
        0,
        0,
        6
      ],
      "total": 9,
      "locationsPer100000": 1.396078261044918
    },
    {
      "code": "VA",
      "name": "Virginia",
      "fips": "51",
      "population": 8880107,
      "counts": [
        76,
        25,
        69,
        134
      ],
      "total": 304,
      "locationsPer100000": 3.4233821732103005
    },
    {
      "code": "WA",
      "name": "Washington",
      "fips": "53",
      "population": 8001020,
      "counts": [
        0,
        0,
        0,
        64
      ],
      "total": 64,
      "locationsPer100000": 0.7998980130033421
    },
    {
      "code": "WV",
      "name": "West Virginia",
      "fips": "54",
      "population": 1766147,
      "counts": [
        16,
        0,
        38,
        39
      ],
      "total": 93,
      "locationsPer100000": 5.2656998539759154
    },
    {
      "code": "WI",
      "name": "Wisconsin",
      "fips": "55",
      "population": 5972787,
      "counts": [
        90,
        0,
        0,
        90
      ],
      "total": 180,
      "locationsPer100000": 3.013668493452052
    },
    {
      "code": "WY",
      "name": "Wyoming",
      "fips": "56",
      "population": 588753,
      "counts": [
        0,
        0,
        0,
        12
      ],
      "total": 12,
      "locationsPer100000": 2.0382061747456066
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "aldi-locator",
      "label": "ALDI US store locator",
      "url": "https://info.aldi.us/stores",
      "date": "2026-09-08"
    },
    {
      "id": "aldi-growth",
      "label": "ALDI 2026 expansion announcement",
      "url": "https://corporate.aldi.us/newsroom/news/aldi-us-doubles-down-on-growth-in-2026",
      "date": "2026-09-08",
      "note": "Nearly 2,800 stores is a year-end 2026 target, not a current store count."
    },
    {
      "id": "publix-facts",
      "label": "Publix facts and figures",
      "url": "https://corporate.publix.com/home/about-publix/company-overview/facts-figures",
      "date": "2026-09-08",
      "benchmark": {
        "total": 1442,
        "states": {
          "AL": 96,
          "FL": 897,
          "GA": 219,
          "KY": 7,
          "NC": 63,
          "SC": 74,
          "TN": 62,
          "VA": 24
        }
      },
      "note": "Company page observed on the research date; it does not provide a separate effective date for its store count."
    },
    {
      "id": "kroger-locator",
      "label": "Kroger grocery store directory",
      "url": "https://www.kroger.com/stores/grocery",
      "date": "2026-09-08",
      "benchmark": {
        "total": 1230,
        "stateCount": 16
      },
      "note": "Kroger banner only, not all banners owned by The Kroger Co."
    },
    {
      "id": "walmart-facts",
      "label": "Walmart US location facts by store format",
      "url": "https://corporate.walmart.com/about/location-facts",
      "date": "2026-09-08",
      "effectiveDate": "2026-07-31",
      "benchmark": {
        "total": 4615,
        "supercenters": 3569,
        "neighborhoodMarkets": 674,
        "discountStores": 351,
        "smallFormats": 21
      },
      "note": "Corporate US segment counts include small formats outside this study's physical-store scope; Sam's Club is listed separately and excluded here."
    }
  ],
  "geography": {
    "populationYear": 2025,
    "boundaryYear": 2025,
    "scope": "50-states-and-dc",
    "projection": "CONUS Albers EPSG5070; Alaska EPSG3338 and Hawaii EPSG26904 rescaled insets",
    "insets": "Alaska and Hawaii inset, not to common scale; outlying Hawaiian islands omitted visually",
    "sources": {
      "boundaries": {
        "url": "https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/GENZ2025/shp/cb_2025_us_state_20m.zip",
        "sha256": "9340b6d995e971b2b4230518f4fa85e6cd9e7fe6811afabc90a6a8b1191530f6"
      },
      "population": {
        "url": "https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/2020-2025/state/totals/NST-EST2025-ALLDATA.csv",
        "sha256": "92188e29cb0a67dcf95afa7d6c47359409782f086478b70ea4128eb70e223ca9"
      }
    }
  },
  "quality": {
    "unlocated": 23,
    "duplicatesRemoved": 189,
    "excludedTerritories": 0,
    "candidateRows": 99298,
    "transactionReadOnly": "on",
    "unlocatedNote": "Candidates lacking state assignments are excluded before retail classification; this is not a confirmed-store count."
  }
}
