A supermarket is a self-serviceshop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store 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 United States usage, however, "grocery store" is often used to mean "supermarket".
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...)
Fiesta Mart, L.L.C., formerly Fiesta Mart Inc., is a Latino-Americansupermarket chain based in Houston, Texas that was established in 1972. Fiesta Mart stores are located in Texas. The chain uses a cartoon parrot as a mascot. As of 2004 it operated 34 supermarkets in Greater Houston, 16 supermarkets in other locations in Texas, and 17 Beverage Mart liquor store locations. During the same year it had 7.5% of the grocery market share in Greater Houston. Many of its stores were located in Hispanic neighborhoods and other minority neighborhoods.
The chain caters Hispanic and other foods also serves hot cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner for customers; Allison Wollam of the Houston Business Journal said "The company has been successful at targeting the Hispanic market and specifically catering to their needs and shopping styles." Bernie Murphy, a spokesperson for Fiesta, said in 2006 that at some stores Hispanics make up to 70% of those stores's clientele. Fiesta caters to these customers with a large selection of foods and ingredients that are generally not available at a typical grocery store. Fiesta stores also often include several other stores owned by independent operators, such as discount jewelry and banking. Fiesta also operates Fiesta Liquor Stores, where only alcohol is sold. (Full article...)
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...)
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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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Veropoulos (Greek: Βερόπουλος) was a large retail group based in Greece until 2016. It held the SPAR retail franchise for Greece, with the franchise still present in the country after Spar's cooperation agreement with the Asteras Group. As a result of bankruptcy, Veropoulos was bought in 2016 by the Metro Group, which re-branded the stores soon after as My Market stores. In Crete, Veropoulos operated stores under the name of Chalkiadakis. Outside Greece, Veropoulos operated supermarkets in the North Macedonia as Vero, and in Serbia as SuperVero. The company was established in 1973, when the first Veropoulos supermarket opened in Athens. As of 2012, the company owned 185 stores in Greece, 10 stores in the North Macedonia and six hypermarkets in Serbia. In Greece, Veropoulos was the fourth-biggest supermarket chain in terms of market share. The firm belonged to the Veropoulos family who are also the founders of the company. (Full article...)
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The Alnatura Produktions- und Handels GmbH is a chain of organic food supermarkets and producer of organic food headquartered in Darmstadt, Hesse in Germany. The company was founded in 1984 by Götz Rehm and distributes food and textiles, produced according to ecological aspects, under the trademark Alnatura. The company is based on ideas of the esoteric anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner, which is founder Götz Rehm strongly influenced by. The company is like Demeter and others, part of the pseudoscientific anthroposopical community in Germany.
These products are sold both by various drugstore and retail chains as well as the captive organic supermarket [de] chain Alnatura Super Natur Markt. Alnatura currently operates 107 supermarkets in Germany, each with 500 to 800 square meters of retail space, mainly in Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. (Full article...)
Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue of A$43.5 billion in the 2023 financial year, it is one of Australia's largest companies by revenue. Wesfarmers is also one of the largest private employers in Australia, with approximately 107,000 employees.
Wesfarmers was founded in 1914 as a co-operative to provide services and merchandise to Western Australian farmers. It was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1984 and grew into a major retail conglomerate. (Full article...)
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H & J Smith Holdings Ltd, branded as H & J Smith (known colloquially as H&J's or Smith's) was a company which operated in the lower South Island of New Zealand. The company was founded in 1900 and closed in 2023. It operates a network of franchises. The company previously operated department stores around the South Island with the flagship store in Invercargill. (Full article...)
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Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarketchains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when they took over their mother's store in Essen. The business was split into two separate groups in 1960, that later became Aldi Nord, headquartered in Essen, and Aldi Süd, headquartered in neighbouring Mülheim.
In 1962, they introduced the name Aldi (a syllabic abbreviation for Albrecht Diskont), which is pronounced [ˈaldiː]ⓘ. In Germany, Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd have been financially and legally separate since 1966, although both divisions' names may appear as if they were a single enterprise with certain store brands or when negotiating with contractor companies. The formal business name of Aldi Nord is Aldi Einkauf GmbH & Co., while the formal business name of Aldi Süd is ALDI SÜD Dienstleistungs-SE & Co. Each company is owned and operated independently, but they do have contractual business with one another. (Full article...)
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Harris Farm Markets is an Australian grocery chain with over 30 locations in New South Wales and Queensland with the majority of stores existing within the Sydney metropolitan area, the Brisbane metropolitan area, and various regional areas in New South Wales including Newcastle, Orange, Bathurst and Albury. The markets specialise in fruit, vegetables, cheeses, breads, delicatessen and gourmet grocery items.
They are Australia's biggest individual retailer of fruit and vegetables and promote 'odd-shaped' fruit called "Imperfect Picks" at lower prices in an initiative to reduce landfills. Harris Farm Markets also produce many of their products in Flemington, including yogurt, frozen goods, salads, juices and milk. (Full article...)
Independent Timber Merchants or the Independent Timber Merchants Society (usually shortened as ITM) is a New Zealand co-operative of independent building supplies and hardware retailers. Its stores sell a range of products to both tradespeople and consumers, including building supplies, power tools, kitchens and paint.
The co-operative is the largest group of independent trade merchants in New Zealand. It is the second largest supplier of timber to the New Zealand building industry after Fletcher Building subsidiary PlaceMakers. There are 95 ITM member stores around New Zealand, including 16 in Auckland. (Full article...)
Named after Roger Drake who opened the first store in Mitcham, Adelaide in 1974, Drakes has since expanded to become one of Australia's largest independent supermarket chains, operating over 60 stores in South Australia and Queensland. Drakes has an online shopping website which delivers groceries from eight stores in South Australia and one store in Queensland. It also has an online store for corporate platters called "Drakes' Little Site of Platters. This was rebranded to Feed me by Drakes in 2021, feedme.drakes.com.au". (Full article...)
As of June 2023, the company operates 218 stores across Australia and New Zealand including 202 JB Hi-Fi and JB Hi-Fi Home stores in Australia, and 16 JB Hi-Fi stores in New Zealand, in addition to 106 The Good Guys stores in Australia. (Full article...)
As of June 2023, the company operates 218 stores across Australia and New Zealand including 202 JB Hi-Fi and JB Hi-Fi Home stores in Australia, and 16 JB Hi-Fi stores in New Zealand, in addition to 106 The Good Guys stores in Australia. (Full article...)
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Kvickly was in the beginning a Swedish food market chain owned by the 'consumers organization' ('Konsumentföreningen') in Sweden. The first store opened in the 1950s in the Stockholm area. The company name was changed to Domus in Sweden in the late 1960s/early 1970s when the stores became superstores selling more than food.
The first Kvickly store was opened by FDB in Denmark in 1961. In Denmark, the sister chain remains Kvickly, which has a large selection of items, and were in 2010 named by the Danish Ministry of Health as the easiest place in Denmark to buy healthy food. Kvickly's headquarters are in Albertslund,and it has 81 stores. (Full article...)
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The S Group (Finnish: S-ryhmä, Swedish: S-gruppen) is a Finnishretailingcooperative organisation with its head office in Helsinki. Founded in 1904, it consists of 19 regional cooperatives operating all around Finland in addition to SOK, Suomen Osuuskauppojen Keskuskunta (The Central Finnish Cooperative Society). S Group operates in the markets for groceries, consumer durables, service station, hotel and restaurant services. It is engaged in close competition with Kesko, with which it shares an oligopolistic position in many of the markets it operates in.
The group has businesses in Finland and Estonia. The S Group also had businesses in Latvia and Lithuania, but announced withdrawal from these markets in May 2017. It also withdrew from the Russian market in 2022. (Full article...)
Smiggle is an Australian-based retail store chain that sells stationery and related accessories. It was founded in Melbourne by Stephen Meurs and Peter Pausewang in 2003 and acquired by the Just Group in July 2007. As of February 2016, the chain has stores located across Australia (135), New Zealand (23), Singapore (17), United Kingdom (100), Hong Kong (14), Malaysia (22) and the Republic of Ireland (3). Smiggle is renowned for its use of vibrant bold colours and quirky graphics on most of its branded products. (Full article...)
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Postie, formerly Postie Plus, is a New Zealand clothing store chain. It was founded in 1909 by Thomas Dellaca. As of October 2022, Postie has 61 stores as well as an online platform. Together with Australian retailer Best & Less, it forms the Best & Less Group. (Full article...)
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Domino's Pizza, Inc., commonly referred to as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960. and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware-domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor Township, near Ann Arbor, Michigan. As of 2018, Domino's had approximately 15,000 stores, with 5,649 in the United States, 1,500 in India, and 1,249 in the United Kingdom. Domino's has stores in over 83 countries and 5,701 cities worldwide. (Full article...)
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Mountain Designs is an outdoor clothing and equipment business based in Australia. They sell hiking, rockclimbing and general outdoor and recreational equipment. The company stocks a variety of international and local brands, as well as their own brands of clothing, accessories, sleepwear and bags. (Full article...)
Hannahs operates at 70 locations around New Zealand: 34 under its main Hannahs brand, 16 under its low-price Number One Shoes brand, and 20 as combined Number One Shoes and Hannahs stores. (Full article...)
... that the rapper Jords did not know his father was a musician until a chance encounter in a British supermarket?
... that when Mexia Supermarket was abandoned because of its owners' bankruptcy, all of the food inside was left to rot for more than three months?
... that a British supermarket uses barriers to prevent shoppers grabbing food with yellow discount stickers out of the hands of staff?
... that food was left to rot outside after the supermarket Supie went out of business?
... 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?
Four people are killed and ten others are wounded in a shooting at the Mad Butcher supermarket in Fordyce, Arkansas, United States. The suspect, Travis Eugene Posey, is shot and arrested by Arkansas State Police. (AP)
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