HEMA (store)

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A HEMA branch in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
A HEMA branch in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Inside a HEMA store
Inside a HEMA store

HEMA (originally an acronym for Hollandse Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam, "Dutch Standard Prices Company Amsterdam") is a Dutch department store chain. It was part of the Maxeda company until June 2007, when it was bought by Lion Capital LLP.The chain is characterized by relative low pricing of generic housewares, which are mostly made by and for the chain itself.

The first HEMA opened in Amsterdam on November 4th, 1926. Originally, as a price-point retailer, goods were sold using standard prices (hence its name), with everything costing 25 or 50 cents, and later also 75 and 100 cents. After World War II, this model could not be sustained and the standard pricing system was abandoned. But a period of rapid expansion followed: now almost every town of any importance in the Netherlands has a HEMA. Locations carry a wide variety of goods, including clothing, food, bicycle equipment, gardening tools, and office supplies.

Since the 1990s, HEMA has also expanded in Belgium and Germany. Today HEMA operates 56 stores in Belgium and 9 in Germany.

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