Supermarkets in Mexico: Expansion and spaces of insertion

Abstract

The expansion of supermarkets in Mexico, boosted by the arrival of Wal-Mart in the 1990s and its competition with national chains, has encouraged their location in increasingly smaller cities and newly urbanized areas as a result of the deconcentration of population; but supermarkets have mainly increased their numbers inside large cities. The proliferation of smaller formats that target lower income residents has allowed supermarkets to increase their population coverage; nevertheless, supermarkets keep showing a clear preference for low marginalized and high-income spaces, as well as for densely populated areas. In addition, there has been a growing concentration of supermarkets in the hands of a few large companies, with a clear supremacy of Wal-Mart in México.