Grocery stores are a place that provides convenience and offers various types of items, and gives opportunities for communities to grow. The grocery store system has several negative long-term consequences for both communities and the environment. The Grocery business has already integrated itself with almost everybody's lifestyles, creating a dependency that would be hard to separate. The grocery store system has caused several environmental, ethical, and economic issues from start to end - beginning in the supply chain to the consumers. The root cause started from the customers.

The grocery store system offers various products to serve people's needs, but people are tentatively overbuying. On the business side, it is good because they benefit from this behavior. However, grocery stores have to have all the supplies fully stocked to maintain a happy customer base. It rigs the actual supply and demand needed, resulting in an overflow effect in overproduction. The loss to production includes labor, time, investment, and environmental waste from flaw assumption and education on product. The system leaves a long-term and long-lasting environmental impact from direct and indirect actions within the supply chain: single-use plastic, food waste, carbon emission, landfills, product transportation, etc.

Consequently, ethical issues arise regarding labor from the production resources standpoint, such as unfair treatment, underpay, poor working conditions, child labor, and slave labor. If no action is taken on this matter, the consequences will continue to rise. Thus, the grocery store and its supply chain are decaying.

Nowadays, people have become more aware and educated on sustainability, and we are beginning to see the shift to a more sustainable society. The movement, lifestyle, and behavior of people have been changing. With that, society seeks someone to blame for the consequences that have arisen from being unsustainable over all these years, and society has the grocery stores as the target because they are the ones who have power control from beginning to end. The grocery business and the whole food supply chain ecosystem have become the target for society to blame. Which, in hindsight, twisted demand, causing supply to overflow from overproduction which partially has come from customer behavior. The demand for a corporation's reformation from customers has pressured the business to act on it.

Businesses are facing a problem because not all of it is directly created by them. Actuality is driven by the customers, pushing companies to lower their prices and increase their variety to appeal to the growing needs of the end consumer. With this dilemma, companies are trying to find the right balance that can satisfy the end consumer yet still fulfill their obligations and overall still be environmentally and economically sustainable.

Losing the customer is not an option; grocery stores need to adapt quickly to the customer's needs. By doing this, they lean towards a more unsustainable solution that takes a toll on both the corporation and the supply chain ecosystem. The real questions come as to how grocery stores and the supply chain can find the middle ground, where the grocery store can maintain its successful business yet and address unsustainable concerns. Balancing the performance of grocery stores and their supply chain with their service will always be challenging. Still, it has to be done to ensure the sustainability of the system or not, and there could be something new to replace the whole grocery system that consumers might find a better alternative.