The Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) initiative is an industry-wide, collaborative effort to reengineer the grocery supply chain. While the success of ECR depends on widespread adoption, the details of ECR implementation will almost certainly differ across firms in any segment of the supply chain, across geographic and market divisions within individual firms, and even across product categories within a single firm. This paper reports findings from an exploratory study of ECR adoption in Minnesota grocery stores. Data were collected through a series of forty interviews with store managers. The overall objective was to describe ECR adoption in the retail store segment of the grocery supply chain. Three general conclusions can be drawn from this study. (I) Location in a major metropolitan area facilitates adoption of some components of the ECR initiative. (2) Stores that are part of a chain, especially a large corporate chain, are making faster progress toward implementation of ECR initiatives than are single stores. (3) ECR adoption and superior performance are closely associated.