10 Grocery Chains That Will Take Over In 2026

There's nothing humble about today's grocery chains. The grocery stores of yore used to be mom-and-pop shops where you'd pick up all of your goods for the week while you chatted with the neighbors you bumped into. Now, grocery chains are locked in a fierce battle with each other for territory and expansion, and some of the main players, like Walmart and Target, feel like faceless corporations that are set on getting as big as possible. This has meant, of course, that some old-school grocery store chains have been edged out — but it's also meant that larger chains have grown like never before. Going into 2026, this looks set to happen more than ever.

It's kinda hard to fathom that chains like the aforementioned Walmart and Target could get even larger, but as 2026 rolls around, you can expect to see even more of them across the country. Other massive players like Kroger, Costco, and Aldi are also going to be taking names in the next 12 months. You may well also see smaller chains like Sprouts Farmers Market and Save A Lot looking a bit more prominent in the coming year. Let's talk about which grocery stores are looking unstoppable right now.

Is it any shock that Aldi's going to get bigger in the next year? We don't think so. The German retailer is the fastest-growing supermarket in the United States, and hundreds of stores have been springing up over the last couple of years. In 2025, alongside some major changes, Aldi announced that it planned to open over 200 new stores in the U.S., and that it expected to have approximately 2,600 locations in total by the end of the year. This would put it almost on a par with Kroger and would give it roughly half the footprint of Walmart, which is, of course, the largest in the country.

As we head into 2026, though, Aldi's not sitting back on its former successes. The store is pushing forward with a huge expansion plan as it runs towards its medium-term aim of 3,200 locations by the end of 2028. It's doing this through a combination of new store openings and conversions, with the brand snapping up old Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket locations and turning them into Aldi. It's fair to say that customers are loving its offer of lower-price groceries, and the brand's clearly aware of this — otherwise, it wouldn't be expanding as relentlessly as it currently is. Aldi doesn't announce its individual new stores that far in advance, but given that it's got dozens of units slated to open at the end of 2025, we're sure that more will follow at the start of 2026.

Earlier this year, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Kroger was in trouble — because it kinda was. A costly failed merger with Albertsons left egg on the face of the brand, with Kroger facing a lawsuit from Albertsons, which alleged that the former chain didn't try hard enough to make everything work. This, combined with news of dozens of stores closing, made it look like Kroger was shrinking instead of expanding.

However, it's bounced back in a big way, and going into 2026, it looks set to be making waves once again. Kroger announced in September 2025 that it would be opening 30 new stores, while also stating that it would look to increase its openings by 30% throughout 2026. Kroger simultaneously told its investors and customers that it would be debuting a revamped layout in its stores. At the same time, Kroger has been working hard to improve its e-commerce offer, which will hopefully give it a bigger online presence throughout 2026 — no doubt driving further sales. It's going to be a big year for the store.

How could Costco get any bigger? Just watch, it'll show you. The big-box store is supersized in almost every way, and it looks set to increase its unit number to even larger proportions in 2026. In September 2025, it announced that it was planning a whopping 35 new warehouses in fiscal 2026. This was an increase on the 27 built the previous year, which speaks both to the health of Costco's revenue and the demand it's experiencing from customers for its services, as well as the confidence it has that it will continue to thrive as the years go on.

Crucially, Costco is also expanding so boldly to tackle a big problem it has with some of its stores: Overcrowding. Its more popular locations have a huge amount of traffic, and by building new units, it hopes to ease the pressure on these stores and give customers more options for their bulk-buy items. This will also refresh some of Costco's older stores: On average, its more established locations are around 20 years old, and they have the size and layout to prove it. Now that Costco's rejigging and expanding, maybe it could address some of those food items that have jumped up in price.

Target's already pretty big as it is, and as it's such an established brand already (and has several of its own), it's hard to imagine that it could get much bigger. Well, it can, and it will. Target is ploughing an eye-watering amount of money into its new stores in 2026, as well as into remodels of its existing locations. In total, it's looking as though it'll be spending $5 billion overall on its stores throughout the year, which will doubtless improve its business, and multiple new locations popping up.

This all ties into its long-term goals for expansion, which are bold to say the least. Target's planning on opening over 300 stores over the next decade, building considerably on the nearly 2000 units it currently operates. The end of 2025 has seen a flurry of new stores opening, too, with seven units across multiple states. It looks as though it's all steam ahead for the supermarket chain, and judging by the amount of money that's being spent on its advancement, it'll be around for decades to come.

Of all the grocery chains that are set to expand in 2026, one name stands out: Save A Lot. This chain may not be the biggest name in the bunch (as of the start of 2025, it has around 750 locations, way less than some of the larger retailers out there), but that smaller size has meant that it's been able to be nimbler and arguably more impressive in its growth journey. The last few years have been good to the chain, which has seen it launch an app and a loyalty program, both setting the stage for bigger things to come.

As 2026 blows in, Save A Lot's going to be making some pretty big moves. The retailer is focused on growth throughout the next year, and it's cornering some impressive markets. It's got a new store planned in Atlantic City, and its arrival will mark the first full-service grocery chain in the area in roughly two decades. Looking beyond this, Save A Lot is hoping to triple its unit count over the coming years, targeting high-volume areas like Brooklyn as a way to do so. When you combine all this with a brand revamp and an expansion of its own-brand line, Save A Lot's looking like a pretty good bet right now.

It's always a good sign that a brand's doing well when they're expanding, no matter how localized said expansion is. That's why we've got an eye on H-E-B in 2026. The retailer's slowly but surely scaling up, and it's using an assertive push into North Texas as an indicator that it's ready to do big business. Although this is just one part of the country, North Texas has a highly competitive grocery market, and the fact that it's pressing onward and building new stores in the area is a clear sign that it feels capable of going toe-to-toe with other big names.

The expansion has already begun, too. In November 2025, it came to light that it was planning a new multimillion-dollar store in Fort Worth, which would also boast a fuel station and car wash. That same month, it also broke ground on a new store in San Marcos, which it had announced the previous year. With such a flurry of activity and the press surrounding it, it's clear that H-E-B isn't shy about building a bigger future for itself. We just hope that customers feel the same way.

Sprouts Farmers Market has managed to cultivate a much more sophisticated image than a lot of other retailers — each of its branches even has a culinary director — but don't let that fool you into thinking that it doesn't have an eye on growth. The store is planning on opening over 40 new units in 2026, a pretty astonishing rate of expansion by any brand's standards. These new units build on its openings in 2025, in which Sprouts Farmers Market aimed to cut the ribbon on 37 new stores, an increase from the 35 it had originally planned. Feels like a good time to be invested in Sprouts, right?

All of this heads towards a massive 10% increase in the volume of Sprouts Farmers Market stores in 2027. Sprouts is fuelling all of this growth by throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at the brand, in hopes that it'll all pay off. Although we're not business experts, we wouldn't be surprised if it does. Sprouts gives customers a slightly more personalized alternative than the likes of Walmart, Costco, and Aldi, and its new stores have been very well-received by the communities in which they're located. It feels like the demand's there, and so why shouldn't it respond?

Whole Foods is expanding in 2026, but perhaps not in the way that you might think. Rather than focusing on building huge new stores for its customers, the brand is instead committed to expanding its operations in urban areas. It's doing this via its Daily Shop concept, which consists of smaller, more focused units that are slightly more akin to convenience stores. Whole Foods opened several new Daily Shop locations in 2024 and 2025 across Manhattan, and it's got four more planned in 2026.

Capturing the ultra-urban New York City market will undoubtedly be a challenge for Whole Foods, but if it pays off, it'll pay off big-time. We don't anticipate the brand having much trouble by way of finance, considering that it's owned by Amazon — so honestly, the sky's the limit here. Having said all this, Whole Foods is still also making moves to build new, larger locations throughout 2026, with a new unit planned in Sarasota. This store will come in at almost 36,000 square feet, and will be one of the first tenants of a redeveloped former mall. Hopefully, it'll have a few foods that are a bit more worth the price than some of its other options. 

Not every year can be a year that grocery stores build hundreds of new locations, but even just a handful is a good sign that a brand's committed to taking up a lot more space. This seems to be the case with Wegman's. The store's got a flurry of new units planned throughout 2026, during which it'll also break ground on locations for the years beyond that. A prominent new unit will be built in North Carolina, on the Ballantyne Campus, which builds on its previous success in the state. It's also expanding into Pittsburgh, in a long-awaited move that's been requested by countless customers throughout the years.

Wegman's will also begin construction on a new store in Holly Springs towards the end of 2026. All of this extends upon several new openings in 2025, a year that saw Wegman's gently increase its market prominence and dominance. In the grand scheme of things, Wegman's is still small — it has just over 110 stores in just eight states — and so these openings are very significant. They may not rival the size of competitors like Aldi or Walmart, but this is a brand that's definitely getting bigger.

Okay, so we understand that this one might make you sigh a little. After all, Walmart's already a behemoth, with thousands upon thousands of stores across the country. Regardless, it's not stopping in 2026, and you should be prepared for it to be even bigger as the year rolls on. The store's planning on opening 150 new stores in the next couple of years, and it's marching forward with a new Supercenter model that promises to take up even more space than its previous units. The first of these Supercenters, which boasts a pharmacy, a fuel station, an optician's, and an expanded product range, opened in April 2025 in Cypress, Texas. We do not doubt that more are going to follow.

Going into 2026, Walmart's revenue is also astoundingly high for a business of its size, with an increase of almost 6% year-on-year in its fiscal third quarter. Plus, it's opening a new milk processing facility in Texas in 2026, which is set both to create hundreds of jobs and streamline operations — which will, inevitably, power growth. There's no denying it: Whether you like it or not, Walmart's not going anywhere.