North America Council, 1980: Retail food store sales reached $199 billion in the U.S. in 1979 — $93 billion in food chains, $96 billion in independent food stores, and $10 billion in convenience stores. Dollar sales increase over 1978 was 11%, somewhat less than the 13.3% annual rate of inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index. Such results have been reasonably consistent throughout the decade of the 1970′s — dollar sales increases achieved through price gains with tonnage movement remaining relatively flat.
Effects of inflation on the food distribution industry were widely evident during the 1970′s. Two decades of relative food price stability following World War II had given the industry some insulation from public criticism. This period of calm ended abruptly with sharp price increases, beginning in the late 1960′s and continuing throughout the 1970′s. A storm of criticism from a new breed of consumer activists and government interventionists made the retail food store a focal point for public complaints about the havoc inflation can wreak on family budgets.