NEW YORK -- Discounters will gain market share from other retail segments in 2002, while supermarkets will remain stable, predicted Fitch Inc., the credit rating agency based here, in the retail review and outlook it issued last week.
roy, Mich., "continues to struggle to keep its turnaround on track."
Fitch also noted that discounters, particularly Wal-Mart and Target, are encroaching more and more on the traditional domain of supermarkets.
"An increasing proportion of food in the discount segment's merchandise mix is also lending some top-line stability in the current slowdown," the report said.
This move by the discounters' supercenters into food could hurt some food retailers, Fitch observed. While the larger supermarket companies are likely to prove "highly recession-resistant," supercenters could pose a challenge to "the smaller or poorly run operators."
As in 2001, supermarket acquisitions will continue to be "limited to the larger operators acquiring small, independent retailers or groups of stores from larger companies in existing or contiguous markets," according to the report.
