A supermarket is a self-serviceshop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket or big-box market. In everyday American English usage, however, "grocery store" is often casually used as a synonym for "supermarket". The supermarket retail format first appeared around 1930 in the United States as the culmination of almost two decades of retail innovations, and began to spread to other countries after extensive worldwide publicity in 1956.
The supermarket typically has places for fresh meat, fresh produce, dairy, deli items, baked goods, and similar foodstuffs. Shelf space is also reserved for canned and packaged goods and for various non-food items such as kitchenware, household cleaners, pharmacy products and pet supplies. Some supermarkets also sell other household products that are consumed regularly, such as alcohol (where permitted), medicine, and clothing, and some sell a much wider range of non-food products: DVDs, sporting equipment, board games, and seasonal items (e.g., Christmaswrapping paper, Easter eggs, school uniforms, Valentine's Day themed gifts, Mother's Day gifts, Father's Day gifts and Halloween).
A larger full-service supermarket combined with a department store is sometimes known as a hypermarket. Other services may include those of banks, cafés, childcare centers/creches, insurance (and other financial services), mobile phone sales, photo processing, video rentals, pharmacies, and gas stations. If the eatery in a supermarket is substantial enough, the facility may be called a "grocerant", a portmanteau of "grocery" and "restaurant".
The traditional supermarket occupies a large amount of floor space, usually on a single level. It is usually situated near a residential area in order to be convenient to consumers. The basic appeal is the availability of a broad selection of goods under a single roof, at relatively low prices. Other advantages include ease of parking and frequently the convenience of shopping hours that extend into the evening or even 24 hours of the day. Supermarkets usually allocate large budgets to advertising, typically through newspapers and television. They also present elaborate in-shop displays of products. (Full article...)
Australian Liquor Marketers is the liquor arm of Metcash. It distributes liquor to businesses around Australia and New Zealand, and runs a franchise of almost 2900 liquor stores operating as The Bottle-O, Cellarbrations, IGA Liquor, Duncans, Thirsty Camel, Big Bargain, Porters and Merchants Liquor.
The company has 13 distribution centres across every state and territory of Australia, and a distribution centre in New Zealand. It is Australia's largest supplier of liquor to independently owned liquor retailers and largest broad-range liquor wholesaler, supplying to 12,000 liquor customers. (Full article...)
It was established in 1976 as a partnership of eight independent grocery stores. In the same year, Metro opened its first self-branded supermarket in Athens. Today (2015) the company has 108 stores all over Greece. 62 of its stores (usually sized between 1000-2000 m2) operate under the brand name My Market, while the remaining 46 (usually sized over 2000 m2) operate under the brand name Metro Cash & Carry. Metro is the sixth largest supermarket chain in Greece as measured by market share. (Full article...)
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Foodtown was a New Zealand supermarket chain owned by Progressive Enterprises (now Woolworths New Zealand). As with Woolworths, the Foodtown brand was phased out in the late 2000s, with all stores rebranded as Countdown by the end of 2011. Foodtown supermarkets were typically integrated with a shopping centre; the chain had few stand-alone stores. (Full article...)
Atac (styled ATAC) is a brand of predominantly food stores operating supermarkets, created by the Docks de France in 1982, and a subsidiary of the Auchan Group since 1998.
The idea of the Atac concept was a supermarket which was near bare, with no frills and low prices. One of their slogans was "ATAC, attack prices". Most Atac stores disappeared in 2009, when most stores took the name and brand of Simply Market. There are today still around 80 Atac stores left, mainly in Bourgogne, which are owned by the associated group Schiever. (Full article...)
Nike, Inc. (stylized as NIKE) is an American athletic footwear and apparel corporation headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, United States. It is the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, with revenue in excess of US$46 billion in its fiscal year 2022.
The company was founded on January 25, 1964, as "Blue Ribbon Sports", by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, and officially became Nike, Inc. on May 30, 1971. The company takes its name from Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Nike markets its products under its own brand, as well as Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Nike+, Nike Blazers, Air Force 1, Nike Dunk, Air Max, Foamposite, Nike Skateboarding and Nike CR7. The company also sells products under its Air Jordan brand and its Converse subsidiary. Nike also owned Bauer Hockey from 1995 to 2008, and previously owned Cole Haan, Umbro, and Hurley International. In addition to manufacturing sportswear and equipment, the company operates retail stores under the Niketown name. Nike sponsors many high-profile athletes and sports teams around the world, with the highly recognized trademarks of "Just Do It" and the Swoosh logo. (Full article...)
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Promodès is a former Frenchgroup of retailers. It was owned up to 56% by the Halley family. Paul-Auguste Halley, which was a simple grocer in the Manche in the 1950s, had the idea of importing the concept of supermarkets in France.
With his two sons, Paul-Louis and Robert, he founded the group Promodis (future Promodès) in 1961 in Caen (Calvados) by combining several Norman families of wholesalers: the Halley's, the Duval-Lemonnier and the Marette. (Full article...)
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REMA 1000 (Bokmål: Rema tusen) is a Norwegian multinational no-frills soft-discount grocery chain owned entirely by REITAN. REMA is a short for Reitan Mat (Reitan Food), referring to Odd Reitan (founder of the company). 1000 refers to offering a selection of only one thousand different products (see the history section).
With their headquarters located in Oslo, Norway, REMA 1000 includes businesses in Norway and Denmark. The chain is based on a franchiseddiscount concept: buying large quantities of a limited range of products and offering these to semi-independent owners under their brand. By the end of 2016, Rema 1000 had a total amount of 868 shops spread across Norway and Denmark. (Full article...)
Casino Group is the source of many innovations, such as the first distributor's brand in 1901, the first self-service store in 1948, or even the display of a sell-by date on consumer products in 1959. (Full article...)
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EziBuy is a New Zealand and Australian multi-channel retailer. It sells clothing, homeware and gifts through a multi-channel model in both countries.
Products can be purchased through catalogues, and four retail stores around New Zealand. The retailer has a cell centre and distribution centre in Palmerston North, where it has been based since its inception in 1979. (Full article...)
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The Just Group owns and operates a total of seven retail brands: the clothing chains Just Jeans, Jay Jays, Jacqui E, Portmans, Dotti, Peter Alexander Sleepwear, and the stationery chain Smiggle. The group has over 1,000 stores throughout Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom. The group is part of the ASX-listed investment company Premier Investments. (Full article...)
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Jay Jays is an Australian apparelchain store. It is owned and operated by the Just Group. Jay Jays focuses on clothing for younger people. At present, the chain has over 200 stores located in Australia and New Zealand. (Full article...)
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Cotton On Group is an Australian retail company known for its fashion, clothing and stationery brands. As of 2020, it has over 1,500 stores in 18 countries employing 22,000 people across eight brands: Cotton On, Cotton On Kids, Cotton On Body, Factorie, Typo, Rubi, Supré, Ceres and Cotton On Foundation.
The design team in the company's Australian office, control the steps of production from merchandise planning to establishing specifications, and production is outsourced to approximately 850 suppliers and factories globally. Cotton On Group sources its materials and products from a number of locations worldwide with the majority of its suppliers being located in China, Bangladesh, India and Australia. It also works with suppliers in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, the United States and other parts of Asia. These facilities are used for horizontal division of labour, rather than being integrated. (Full article...)
Foodland has established itself as an well-known brand in the South Australian retail sector and directly employs over 7,000 staff and indirectly more than 1,500 South Australian staff. There were 96 stores covering South Australia and Broken Hill in 2023. (Full article...)
... that before Angeli Foods was sold this year, the first self-service grocery store in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan had been owned by three generations of a single family?
... that the rapper Jords did not know his father was a musician until a chance encounter in a British supermarket?
Three people are killed and fifteen others are injured in a mass stabbing at a supermarket in Songjiang district, Shanghai, China. Police arrest a 37-year-old man at the scene, adding that the man had come to Shanghai in order to "vent his anger due to a personal economic dispute". (Reuters)(BBC News)
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