Read that again, then sit with it. *Greg Buzek* said the number on the latest *Data Blades* podcast, and the number is correct. Eighty percent of grocery SKUs. Less than one unit a week.
That is the grocery assortment crisis the industry keeps not naming out loud. Most of the square footage in a US supermarket is dedicated to long-tail grocery SKUs that almost nobody buys. The fourteenth variant of vanilla extract. The ninth flavor of yogurt nobody finishes. The brand of cereal that has been on the bottom shelf since 2019.
This is the moment in IHL Group’s latest 2026 retail transformation research where shelf intelligence stops being a nice-to-have for grocery. When the data finally tells you which 80% of your grocery assortment is just sitting there, the format itself has to change. Some slow-movers still matter (the shopper who buys that one weird item every six months and walks out with a $300 basket). Most do not.
Shelf intelligence is going to force a remodel of the grocery format. The retailers who use the data to rebuild their grocery assortment around what actually sells will win. The ones who keep stocking 80% dead weight will keep losing square footage to long-tail grocery SKUs that should live in a fulfillment center, not on a front-facing shelf.
🎧 Watch the full Data Blades episode with Greg Buzek of IHL on shelf intelligence, RFID, computer vision, and what IHL’s 2026 retail transformation research actually says about grocery.
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from *The Retail Razor: Data Blades* #podcast
*S2:E7 Only 9.1% of Retailers Have This—And It's Reshaping Retail*
*Released on May 14, 2026*
*Guest info*
Greg Buzek. https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbuzek/
IHL Group. https://www.ihlservices.com/
*Chapters*
00:00 The 80 Percent Surprise
00:12 Deciding What Stays
00:31 Taming Shelf Overload
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