The Kroger Co. (KR), Safeway Inc. (SWY), SUPERVALU INC. (SVU): Three Numbers to Know Before Buying Grocery Stocks

Once again, here’s how the Big Three grocers have performed:

Source: SEC filings.

Drawing conclusions
With all three sets of information in mind, its now pretty safe to draw some conclusions. The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR), though its profit margins have stayed about the same since 2006, has consistently shown strong organic growth in sales without having to rely on building more stores.

SUPERVALU INC. (NYSE:SVU), on the other hand, has been a disaster, watching its sales at existing stores drop for years and actually failing to turn a profit. Some further investigation would show that SUPERVALU INC. (NYSE:SVU) had massive expansion plans (via acquisition) that came at the worst time — during the Great Recession.

And Safeway Inc. (NYSE:SWY) has remained between the two.

It should be no surprise, then, that investors following these three metrics since 2004 would have been much better off investing in Safeway Inc. (NYSE:SWY) or The Kroger Co. (NYSE:KR).

KR Total Return Price data by YCharts.

The article 3 Numbers to Know Before Buying Grocery Stocks originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Brian Stoffel.

Fool contributor Brian Stoffel has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Supervalu.

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