Kentucky’s Largest Grocery Chains — #1 Surprised Me

When Kroger opened on West Parrish Avenue in 1994, it immediately smoked the Wesleyan Park Plaza store (at the time) in terms of size. It's all anyone could talk about. "Have you been to the new Kroger? It's enormous." Then the old, established Wesleyan Kroger expanded and upgraded years later and dwarfed the still impressive Parrish location.

When I travel, I like to visit supermarkets and prepare a few things where I'm staying. In doing so, I've found a number of chains that are regional in nature and will never come to Owensboro. Wegman's in western New York is an example. It's huge.

Kentucky's Top Ten Grocery Chains

I searched a list of the largest grocery chains in Kentucky and was admittedly VERY surprised at the name I saw at the top of the list. Apparently, my definition of a

First, let me make a clarification about the store you'll see at number 10. The minor spoiler alert is that there are only TWO Publix stores in Kentucky, but that will change rapidly in the near future. The recent announcements of new stores in Owensboro and Elizabethtown will bring the Publix total to 12. That will move it up a few notches on the list you are about to see.

10. Publix -- 2 locations

Because there are only two Publix locations in Kentucky (for now), I'm guessing this list covers grocery store chains in the Commonwealth in their entirety.

9. Gordon Food Service -- 7 locations

Again, I need to loosen my strict definition of "grocery chain." That said, I'm not surprised here. I see tons of Gordon Food Service semis on the highway all the time.

8. Ruler -- 7 locations

Ruler is an offshoot of Kroger and lands ahead of Gordon, despite have the same number of locations, because its seven locations are in seven different cities. Gordon is only present in five cities.

7. Meijer -- 11 locations

At first, I thought that sounded like a small number, but Meijer isn't the kind of chain that would locate in smaller cities and towns like those ahead of it would.

6. Food City -- 15 locations

Outside of the Food City 500 NASCAR race, I was completely unfamiliar with this chain until I started researching this story. But there's a good reason for that. It's an eastern Kentucky chain, and the closest one to me is in Middlesboro, some 272 miles away.

5. Aldi -- 24 locations

Count me among the many fans of "Aldi finds," those great little surprises that show up from time to time on the Aldi shelves. Sometimes they're popular brands that Aldi doesn't always carry; sometimes they're unusual varieties of brands Aldi always carries. I make special trips to Aldi every so often, after giving them time to freshen up the "finds."

4. Kroger -- 108 locations

Thought it would be higher? Me too.

3. Kroger Company -- 116 locations

When you look at that graphic for the Kroger Company, you'll see a collage of stores, only two of which are actually IN Kentucky--Kroger and Ruler. So that makes this placement very confusing.

2. Family Dollar -- 212 locations

This one and the next one are what raised my eyebrows. Again, it's all about what constitutes a grocery store according to Scrape Hero.

1. Dollar General -- 768 locations

As big as that number is, I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been bigger. Congratulations, DG, and I am not surprised (anymore).

Now, here's my thing. I gather that if the store sells groceries at all (DG, Family Dollar, Meijer), it counts. So where's Walmart?

Then again, the retail behemoth ranks high on so many OTHER lists, it hardly needs this one.