Supermarkets Trying Gas-and-Groceries Combinations

NAPLES, FL-More gasoline stations are selling groceries, so now grocery stores are fighting back. A new 63,315-sf Albertson’s supermarket in northern Collier County 100 miles west of Miami, the chain’s third in the area, will be the first here to sell gas.

Operating under the name Albertson’s Express, the freestanding fuel center will also provide typical convenience-store groceries for shoppers in too much of a hurry to go into the nearby full-line food store.

The first Albertson’s Express opened in Idaho in 1997. The stations typically include six to eight fueling stations and an adjoining 1,500-sf convenience store.

Warehouse club chains like Costco and Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club have long offered gasoline at outparcel stations, and Publix is now testing the concept at some of its conventional supermarket locations in Florida.