Supermarkets Expanding Brands By Filling Tanks and Carts

NEW YORK–As gas prices nationwide continue to hover above the $1.50 per gallon figure, supermarkets and mass retailers increasingly are finding that the way to consumers’ wallets is through their gas tanks.

Kroger, Albertson’s, Safeway, Costco, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Meijer and H.E. Butt will control 74% of hypermarket gasoline sales and 16% of total gasoline sales with approximately 7,000 combination retail/gas locations by 2005, according to a just released study by Energy Analysts International, Westminster, Colorado.

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