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...)
As of December 31, 2008, the Luxottica Group operated 2,286 stores around the world, most of those as part of the Sunglass Hut brand. By 2024 there were over 3,000 retail outlets under this brand name. (Full article...)
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Metro AG is a German multinational company based in Düsseldorf which operates business membership-only cash and carry stores primarily under the Metro brand. As of September 2024, Metro is operating 624 wholesale stores in 21 countries, including Europe and Pakistan.
The company was established in 1964 by Ernst Schmidt and Wilhelm Schmidt-Ruthenbeck. In 2010, it was the fourth-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues, after Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco. Until 2020, it was also active in the general retail business through the Real division, which was sold to an investor consortium. Its current incarnation was launched in 2017 as a spun-off of old Metro AG, which continued to be a consumer electronics retailer and renamed itself Ceconomy. (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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Antakalnis (literallyLithuanian: 'the place on the mountain') is an eldership in Vilnius, Lithuania. Antakalnis is one of the oldest, and largest historical suburbs of Vilnius. It is in the Eastern section of Vilnius, along the left bank of the Neris, with the river running along the whole Western side of the district. Antakalnis Eldership is the second-largest in Vilnius, with an area of 77.14 km2 (29.78 sq mi).
Bunnings Group Limited, trading as Bunnings Warehouse or Bunnings, is an Australian hardware and garden centre chain. The chain has been owned by Wesfarmers since 1994, and has stores in Australia and New Zealand.
Bunnings was founded in Perth, Western Australia in 1886, by brothers Arthur and Robert Bunning, who had emigrated from England. Initially, a limited company focused on sawmilling, it became a public company in 1952 and subsequently expanded into the retail sector, purchasing several hardware stores. Bunnings began to expand into other states in the 1990s and opened its first warehouse-style store in Melbourne in 1994. As of 2022, the chain has 381 stores and over 53,000 employees. (Full article...)
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Match is a Belgian multinational chain of supermarkets owned by Louis Delhaize Group. As 2023, the supermarket chain is present with 77 supermarkets in Belgium, 115 in northeast France and 25 in Luxembourg. The network also includes Smatch supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg.
Louis Delhaize Group, which owns Cora, Match and Smatch supermarkets, announced in 2023 that it will exit from food retail by selling activities in Belgium to Colruyt, in Luxembourg to E.Leclerc and in France to Carrefour. (Full article...)
Goldmark Jeweller is an Australian jewellery retailer. It was one of the brands included with the Angus & Coote purchase in March 2007 by James Pascoe Group. The current logo was introduced in 2000. Goldmark has over 130 stores across Australia, with over 1,000 employees throughout Australia and New Zealand. Goldmark sells jewellery as well as fashion brand watches. Before JPG ownership, in January 2003, Goldmark launched the gClub loyalty program. In June 2009 the gClub card was introduced.
Currently there are 15 stores in New Zealand, of which 12 are located as a store within a store within branches of Farmers department store. Goldmark's image and product range of 'contemporary female fashion jewellery' aligned with JPG's view of wanting to attract a younger audience to their New Zealand fashion department store Farmers. As part of the JPG brand family, Goldmark also now carries watches and jewellery branded with the Chisel Farmers menswear store-brand. (Full article...)
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Restaurant Brands New Zealand Limited, trading as Restaurant Brands, is a New Zealandfast food company. Restaurant Brands currently operates and owns the master franchising rights for the Carl's Jr., KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell brands in New Zealand. Restaurant Brands operates most of New Zealand's stores for the brands they own rights to and provides management and support services to New Zealand's independent franchisees of the remaining stores. (Full article...)
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3 Guys (also operating as Gubays) was a New Zealand, Irish and US supermarket chain that operated between 1973 and 2003. (Full article...)
It owns the trademarks Hyper U, Super U, UExpress and Utile, which are used by its members. (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...)
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SuperValue is a chain of locally owned and operated supermarkets in New Zealand, established in 1964. The stores are operated under franchise agreements, with franchise and group operation controlled by Wholesale Distributors Limited (WDL).
There are 38 SuperValue stores around New Zealand, including 6 in Auckland. The franchise is owned and operated by Woolworths New Zealand (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...)
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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 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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Electronics Boutique Australia Pty Ltd, trading asEB Games Australia, is an Australian video game, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise retailer. EB Games mainly sells video games, consoles, and accessories for Nintendo, PC, PlayStation and Xbox systems as well as merchandise related to pop culture/gaming.
The company operates 375 stores in Australia and 41 stores in New Zealand. These stores operate under the EB Games and Zing Pop Culture brands. EB Games' headquarters is located in Eagle Farm, Queensland (a suburb of Brisbane). The company is a subsidiary of GameStop. (Full article...)
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The hospitality industry in New Zealand is a major industry operating around the country. It is one of the largest employment sectors in the country, contributing about 1.7% of GDP, equivalent to NZ$5 billion annually.
Businesses in the sector can be divided into four broad categories: Quick Service Restaurants; Takeaways; Pubs, Taverns and Bars; and Cafes and Restaurants. More than half of the sector's workforce work in cafes and restaurants, and more than half of sales occur in the Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington regions. (Full article...)
Bazaar supermarkets is a soft discount supermarket and Cash & Carry chain in Greece. As of 2023, it operates around 191 retail stores all over Greece, including 10 Cash & Carry stores. It belongs to the Veroukas Group A.E. (Full article...)
There were 134 stores in Hungary in February 2018. (Full article...)
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The Trusts are a group of two community-owned organisations (licensing trusts) with a near monopoly on the sale of alcohol in West Auckland. They are one of the largest alcohol retailers in New Zealand.
... that during a 1989 visit to the United States, Boris Yeltsin said that "there would be a revolution" if the average Soviet citizen knew of the quality of grocery stores in the United States?
... that the rapper Jords did not know his father was a musician until a chance encounter in a British supermarket?
... 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?
... 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?
BritishsupermarketchainMorrisons announces that it will permanently close 52 cafés and 17 stores as part of cost-cutting measures, with the loss of at least 365 jobs expected. (BBC News)
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