Hypermarket
In commerce, a hypermarket is a superstore combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including full groceries lines and general merchandise. In theory, hypermarkets allow customers to satisfy all their routine shopping needs in one trip.
Overview
Hypermarkets, like other big-box stores, typically have business models focusing on high-volume, low-margin sales. A typical Wal-Mart Supercenter covers anywhere from 150,000 square feet (14,000 m2) to 235,000 square feet (21,800 m2) and a typical Carrefour covers 20,000 m² (210,000 square feet). They generally have more than 200,000 different brands of merchandise available at any one time. Because of their large footprints, many hypermarkets choose suburban or out-of-town locations that are easily accessible by automobile.
History
Fred Meyer, which today are very large stores which combine a supermarket and a department store, opened its first one-stop shopping center in 1931. It included a grocery store alongside a drugstore plus home products, off-street parking, gas station, and—eventually—clothing. In 1962, Meijer opened its first hypermarket in Grand Rapids, Michigan, entitled "Thrifty Acres",[1][2] and calling the format a "Supercenter", and in Europe by Carrefour, which opened its first such store in 1963 at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, France.[3][4][5] In the Americas, the format remained in regional use only until the late 1980s. The now defunct retailer Steinberg has operated four hypermarkets in Québec under the name Steinberg Beaucoup from 1974 until early 1990's. [6]
The hypermarket concept spread in the United States in 1987, both with the introduction of stores by Carrefour, and by major American chains.[7] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the three major discount store chains in the United States—Wal-Mart,[8] Kmart[9] and Target—started developing discount stores in the hypermarket format. Wal-Mart introduced Hypermart USA in 1987 and later Wal-Mart Supercenter, and Kmart developed Super Kmart.
In the early 1990s, hypermarkets selling fuel begin to make inroads in the United States. H-E-B was among the stores selling fuel in the Southwest. The concept was first introduced to the United States in the 1960s when a number of supermarket chains and retailers like Sears tried to sell fuel, but it did not generate sufficient consumer interest.[10] In 1991, Dayton-Hudson Corporation (now Target Corporation) expanded its Target Greatland discount store chain into Columbus, Ohio, where it learned that its general merchandise superstores were unable to compete against the Meijer hypermarket chain.[11][12] In response, Dayton-Hudson entered the hypermarket format in 1995 by opening its first SuperTarget store in Omaha, Nebraska.[13]
Today there are approximately 4,500 hypermarket stores selling fuel, representing an estimated 14 billion US gallons (53,000,000 m3) sold each year.[10]
Success
After the successes of super- and hyper-markets and amid fears that smaller stores would be forced out of business, France enacted laws that made it more difficult to build hypermarkets and also restricted the amount of economic leverage that hypermarket chains can impose upon their suppliers (the Loi Galland).
In France, hypermarkets are generally situated in shopping centers (French: centre commercial or centre d'achats) outside of cities, though some are present in the city center. They are surrounded by extensive parking lots, and generally by other specialized superstores that sell clothing, sports gear, automotive items, etc.
In Japan, hypermarkets may be found in urban areas as well as less populated areas. The Japanese government encourages hypermarket installations, as mutual investment by financial stocks are a common way to run hypermarkets. Japanese hypermarkets may contain restaurants, Manga (Japanese comic) stands, Internet cafes, typical department store merchandise, a full range of groceries, beauty salons and other services all inside the same store. A recent trend has been to combine the dollar store concept with the hypermarket blueprint, giving rise to the "hyakkin plaza"—hyakkin (百均) or hyaku en (百円) means 100 yen (roughly 1 US dollar).
List of hypermarkets
Brazil
Bulgaria
Former brands:
Canada
- In Canada, Loblaw's operates the Real Canadian Superstore, Atlantic Superstore and in Quebec Maxi & Cie. Walmart has been operating stores in Canada since 1994. Initially, Walmart stores offered only dry goods with very few basic groceries (mostly candy, with some snacks and staples), but in more recent years has included a larger selection of grocery items in their stores. This includes an aisle or two of refrigerated and frozen goods. As of 2006, the majority of stores have been modified to reflect this change. However, in 2006, Walmart began building larger stores similar to the Supercenter format in the United States. The first three opened in Hamilton, London, and Stouffville in Ontario; by 2011, Walmart operated 124 Supercentres (using the Canadian spelling) across Canada. A number of existing stores may be expanded to reflect this change, where space allows.
Chile
Croatia
Czech Republic
Former brands:
- Carrefour - stores taken over by Tesco
- Hypernova - renamed to Albert hypermarket
Denmark
Defunct brands:
Estonia
Finland
France
Carrefour was the earliest European hypermarket, starting in 1963 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, but today, E.Leclerc is the dominant chain in France. Worldwide Carrefour is still the largest hypermarket chain in terms of size, and second-largest (after Walmart) in terms of revenue. Other important brands includes Auchan, Géant, Hyper U, Casino (with 127 hypermarkets in France) and Cora.
Georgia
Germany
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Italy
- Auchan
- Bennet
- Billa Superstore (REWE Group)
- Carrefour
- Cityper Sma, Ipersimply Sma and Maxisimply Sma (Auchan)
- E.Leclerc-Conad
- Esselunga Superstore
- Il Gigante
- Interspar and Iperspar (Spar)
- Iper
- Ipercoop, IperCoopca, Coop&Coop and Coop Superstore (Coop)
- Iperfamila, Galassia, Emisfero, Famila Superstore, Alìper, Mega, Emi Superstore, IperZerbimark, Big Store, IperDì and IperPan
- Ipersidis, Sidis Superstore, Megasidis, Oasi, IperLeDune, Migross Superstore, La Girandola and IperTe
- IperSigma, Sigma Superstore and Ipersì Sigma
- IperSisa and Sisa Superstore
- Panorama, Pam Superstore and Supéral (Gruppo PAM)
- Pellicano Ipermercati (Gruppo Lombardini)
Latvia
- Aibe
- Beta
- Elvi
- IKI
- LaTS
- Maxima (Maxima X, XX and XXX)
- Mego
- Prisma
- Rimi (Rimi Hypermarket, Rimi Supermarket and Supernetto)
- Sky
- top!
Lebanon
Malaysia
Mexico
Morocco
- Marjane (Acima brand are stores that cannot qualify to hypermarkets because they are smaller. It belongs to the same retail group than Marjane)
- Metro
- Label’Vie Carrefour (Label'Vie is a retail group owning several brands: "Label'Vie" are supermarkets, "Label'Express" are small stores, "Label'Gallery" are small malls, and "Label'Shop" are franchise shops)
- Aswak Assalam
Norway
Pakistan
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Romania
Russian Federation
- Auchan
- Real
- Globus (hypermarket)
- Metro Cash & Carry
- SELGROS Cash&Carry
- Karusel (Карусель)
- Lenta (Лента)
- OK (О'Кей)
- Nash Hypermarket (Наш Гипермаркет -Седьмой Континент)
- Mosmart (Мосмарт)
- Vester (Вестер)
- Liniya (Линия)
Serbia
Singapore
Slovakia
Spain
Syria
Monoprix (France) Grand Mart
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Main article:
Big-box storeStores in the United States tend to be single-level enterprises with long operating hours; many of them, especially Walmart, are continuously open (except on certain holidays).
Defunct U.S. hypermarkets
- bigg's - merged with Remke Markets and lost general merchandise section (see Remke Markets bigg's)
- Twin Valu - division of ShopKo/SuperValu
- Hypermart USA - division of Wal-Mart
- American Fare - division of Kmart/Bruno's[14]
- Auchan (France) - Tested in the Houston and Chicago areas. Houston stores closed in 2003.
- Leedmark, a joint-venture involving E.Leclerc of France, operated a single 306,000-square-foot (28,400 m2) store in Glen Burnie, Maryland, from 1991 until 1994
- The Treasury
- The Real Superstore- a division of the defunct National Tea Company, the former US subsidiary of the Canadian Loblaws chain, which runs The Real Canadian Superstore (see listings for Canada in the Canadian section).
- Carrefour opened hypermarkets in Philadelphia and Voorhees Township, New Jersey, in 1988 and 1992 respectively. Both stores closed in 1993. Some associates wore roller skates to facilitate moving about the large building. The Voorhees location now houses a Kohl's department store, a Raymour & Flanigan furniture store, and a Marshalls discount clothing store. The Philadelphia location (an outparcel of the Franklin Mills mall) houses a Walmart and a few other stores.
Other countries
- In Argentina, the most common hypermarkets are Carrefour, COTO and Norte (until it was bought out by Carrefour).
- In Australia, Coles Myer tried the hypermarket concept in the mid- to late 1980s with more than 35 Super K-Mart stores. However, these were converted to K-Mart and Coles Supermarkets in the early 1990s. Coles Myer still have two hypermarkets in Brisbane named Pick 'n Pay. Coles Myer had planned to open a group of hypermarkets called Coles SuperCentres in late 2007, but due to lower than expected financial performance of the company as well as the fact that it has put itself up for sale to private equity firms, the rollout of the hypermarkets has been delayed.[15]
- In Bahrain, there are several hypermarkets including Géant, Carrefour, and Lulu Hypermarket.
- In Belarus, there is a hypermarket called Gippo (Гиппо) in Minsk.[16]
- In Bosnia and Herzegovina,the largest hypermarket retailer is Bingo in Tuzla.[17]
- In Brazil, there are hypermarkets open 24 hours a day, such as Extra (from the Pão de Açúcar business group), as well as foreign companies, such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour.
- In Chile, the principal hypermarkets are Líder, Jumbo and Tottus.
- In China, the largest hypermarket retailer is Shanghai-based Bailian (百联), followed by Beijing-based Hualian (华联). Foreign retailers such as Carrefour, Wal-Mart, Metro, Tesco, Auchan and Ito Yokado also have a large presence in China.
- In Colombia major hypermarkets are Carrefour and Almacenes Exito
- In Croatia, Mercator and Konzum have hypermakets in major towns.
- In Serbia, Tempo Centar, METRO Cash & Carry and Mercator have hypermakets in major towns.
- In Denmark, Bilka is the biggest chain of hypermarkets (operated by Dansk Supermarked); the 2nd biggest chain is Kvickly xtra (formerly known as OBS, and operated by Coop). Opening of new hypermarkets have decreased recently, as of 2010, due to restrictions on store sizes to protect the stores in city centers.
- In Ecuador, the most popular hypermarket chain is Megamaxi, a division of Corporación Favorita, which has several other store formats.[18][19]
- In El Salvador there are three hypermarket chains, Price Mart, Hiper Europa, and Hiper Paíz.
- In Egypt there are three hypermarket chains; Carrefour, Hyper One and Spinneys in the shopping mall City Stars. There is also a Carrefour in Alexandria at the City Centre Mall.
- In Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the biggest chains are Maxima, Norfa, Iki, Rimi, respectively. Several foreign supermarkets are also present.
- In Finland the largest hypermarkets are Prisma (S-Group), Citymarket (Kesko) and Euromarket (Tradeka).
- In Germany, the biggest hypermarket brands are Real (METRO AG), Kaufland (which belongs to Lidl) and Marktkauf (which is a brand of AVA, which in turn belongs to EDEKA). However, for various reasons, such as the strong competition by more focused discounters such as Aldi and Lidl, as well as legal restrictions on store size, pricing policy, and opening times, the hypermarket concept is not as widespread in Germany as in other countries.
- In Hong Kong, there were some hypermarkets owned by Carrefour, which were closed down by 2000. As of July 2011, there are 5 Æon (永旺百貨) JUSCO hypermarkets, 19 Wellcome Superstores (惠康超級廣場), and 43 PARKnSHOP Superstores (百佳超級廣場) there.
- In Hungary the biggest hypermarket presence is that of Tesco. Auchan, Cora, Metro and Spar also operate several hypermarkets in the country.
- In Italy and Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland, the term is ipermercati. The biggest hypermarkets are Auchan, Carrefour, Iper, Panorama, Ipercoop, Iperstanda, Il Gigante, Interspar/Iperspar, Iperfamila, E. Leclerc.
- In Japan, JUSCO (Aeon), Ito Yokado, YouMe Town, Fuji and Uny are widely seen.
- In Kuwait, hypermarkets include the Sultan Center, CityCentre, Lulu Hypermarket and a Carrefour. The Sultan Center has 11 locations in Kuwait that target expatriate shoppers.[20] CityCentre has two hypermarkets in Kuwait, one in Shuwaikh and one in Salmiya.[21] Carrefour has one hypermarket at The Avenues, located in Shuwaikh a few minutes out of downtown Kuwait City
- In Kenya there are hypermarkets like Uchumi and Nakumatt hypermarkets in the capital city Nairobi, and some of them operate 24/7.
- In Lithuania, there is the homegrown chain of Maxima supermarkets which range in sizes from neighborhood convenience stores to giant supercenters that stock over 65,000 different brands. The chain has 399 stores open throughout Lithuania and its neighboring countries.
- In Mauritius, retailer Shoprite runs a hypermarket in Quatre Bornes.
- In Mexico, Soriana, Comercial Mexicana, Casa Ley and Chedraui are the main competitor to Walmex, the Mexican operations of Wal-Mart.
- In New Zealand, The Warehouse operated three hypermarkets in the North Island between 2006 and 2009 under the "Extra" banner. These stores were closed due to poor performance.[22]
- In Norway the Coop chain operates hypermarkets under the Obs! name.
- In Peru, the Wong and its sister hypermarket Hipermercados Metro are the biggest chain in Peru. Their main competitor is Tottus which has the largest stores in South America.
- In Poland, the most common hypermarkets are Auchan, Carrefour, Géant, Real (which is a brand of METRO AG) and Tesco.
- In Portugal, there are a considerable number of hypermarket chains in operation, including Continente (the biggest and the first Portuguese chain to go international), Jumbo/Pão de Açúcar, Pingo Doce, Lidl and Intermarché. Most of these chains also operate supermarkets and smaller stores.
- In Saudi Arabia, Carrefour and Hyper Panda are the major hypermarkets.
- In Slovenia the biggest is Mercator, the 2nd biggest is Spar and the third is Tuš.
- In South Africa, the Pick 'n Pay chain uses the term for 14 of their largest stores. Checkers runs 24 hypermarkets under the "Checkers Hyper" name.
- In South Korea, the largest hypermarket chains are E-Mart(Shinsegae Group), Lotte Mart(Lotte) and Home plus(Tesco)
- In Sri Lanka, Arpico Supercentres have few around the capital city, Colombo.
- In Sweden, the largest hypermarket chains are Coop Forum and MAXI ICA Stormarknad.
- In Taiwan, Carrefour operates the majority of hypermarkets. Various large combination stores also exist.
- In Vietnam, some supermarkets have been developed into hypermarkets. These include Me Linh Plaza furniture Hypermarket, Big C Thang Long and Metro Thang Long, all of which are in Hanoi.
Warehouse club
Main article:
Warehouse clubAnother category of stores sometimes included in the hypermarket category is the membership-based wholesale warehouse clubs that are popular in North America, pioneered by Fedco and today including Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart; Costco, in which Carrefour has a small ownership percentage;,[23] BJ's Wholesale Club on the East Coast and Clubes City Club in Mexico. In Europe, Makro (owned by METRO AG) leads the market.
However, warehouse clubs differ from what is normally considered a hypermarket because of their sparse interior decor, restrictive membership, and broad-not-deep selections that maximize inventory turnover.
See also
Notes
- ^ Meijer: History
- ^ Column: Meijer's first Supercenter past its prime but full of good memories
- ^ Carrefour's History
- ^ "Top 5 Retailers", Extended Retail Solutions, issue 147.
- ^ Jean-Mark Villermet, Naissance de l'hypermarche, 1991, ISBN 2200372639, Colin (publisher).
- ^ Facts & Figures
- ^ [1]
- ^ The Wal-Mart Story
- ^ Kmart At A Glance
- ^ a b The History of Gasoline Retailing
- ^ Discount Store News article Target to introduce Small Market stores - Dayton-Hudson Corp. Target Stores
- ^ Discount Store News article Greatland may need food to succeed - Dayton Hudson Corp. Target Stores' Greatland superstores
- ^ Discount Store News article The test takes off: SuperTarget cautiously picks up the pace - The Power Retailers: Target
- ^ [2] Bruno's former link to American Fare and Kmart
- ^ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10429675
- ^ http://www.psk.by/v_object_torg_gippo.php
- ^ http://www.bingotuzla.com.ba/
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ http://www.thesultancenter.com
- ^ http://www.citycentre.com.kw
- ^ Tapaleao, Vaimoana (10 October 2008). "Warehouse plans to phase out its one-stop outlets". The New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10536750. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
- ^ Robert Spector, "Carrefour enters U.S. via share in Costco", Supermarket News, January 1985.