There is a position in business that looks safe and is actually the most dangerous place to stand.
The middle.
Not the cheapest. Not the most special. Somewhere in between, doing a lot of things reasonably well.
In grocery, that is exactly where a mid-sized regional chain sits. Below it are discounters and supercenters that will always win on price. Above it are premium and specialty stores that will always win on distinctiveness.
The middle gets squeezed from both directions, and the squeeze never stops.
Which is why the American grocery landscape is full of chains that used to matter. They were fine at everything and better than nobody, and fine is not a position.
So the question worth asking is what a middle chain has to do to stay relevant, because a lot of them are still here and the ones that survive did something specific.