Do you buy your sushi at the grocery store? Apparently a lot of people do. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that national grocery chain Kroger sold over 40 million pieces of sushi in 2022, making it the biggest sushi seller in America.
Kroger, based in Cincinnati, has more than 2,700 stores across the U.S. and sells sushi at two-thirds of them, according to Axios. Kroger began selling sushi in 1991 and has grown its in-house sushi business since, The Journal reports. Kroger is expanding in North Texas, with plans to open three of its new, larger Marketplace stores next year.
“When customers think of sushi, we want them to think of Kroger,” Stuart Aitken, chief merchant and marketing officer at Kroger, told The Journal.
Sushi sales have grown at other grocers, including Whole Foods and Albertson’s. The Journal quoted consumer research firm Circana Group, which reports that sales of sushi sold at U.S. retailers is up more than 50 percent over the last year. Consumers have purchased 43.7 million servings of sushi at grocery stores in the last year.
