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The Retail Grocery Landscape

I spent a few minutes wandering around Smart & Final for the first time. Based on my trip through the aisles, it appears that their business model is the food version of Home Depot's strategy---leverage both the home and business markets. Home Depot's initial strategy was dual-pronged: provide the types of materials and supplies that contractors need; use the cachet of contractors to attract the home improvers, who provide higher volume to in turn lower prices for both the contractors and home markets.
These huge bags of chocolate first caught my attention. I doubt that a huge home market exists for giant bags of fondue chocolate.
And how many home cooks even have room for containers this large?
Down the road, a visit to CVS presented this interesting combination of items.
Their array of bourbons is truly impressive. Who knew? I certainly didn't.
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