The small grocers burrow along

In my Empoprise-BI business blog, I recently wrote about how stores tend to grow bigger, so that markets become supermarkets and supermarkets become warehouses. As the smaller real estate spaces open us, various stores move in to fill the gaps, thus creating smaller markets that will compete with the big boys.

Two recent stories illustrate this trend. PE.com:

The competitive Inland grocery scene gets another player [July 10] when Phoenix-based Sprouts Farmers Market opens its first Inland store in Riverside.

Now I have a different perspective than the Riverside folks, and am therefore well aware that Sprouts has a store in Claremont.

PE.com also ran a story about a new distribution center in Fontana:

Trader Joe's has bought a 574,000-square-foot distribution center in Fontana and will eventually use it to supply its Southern California grocery locations....

Why expand? The Sprouts story indicates why:

The company in the past two years has gradually been building its Southern California presence, in many locations taking advantage of slumping commercial real estate prices.

If you have the money to expand and maintain, now's the time to establish your presence.