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The Supermarkets Portal
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...)
Big C, operated by Big C Supercenter Public Company Limited under Big C Retail Corporation Public Company Limited, is a grocery and general merchandising retailer headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. Big C is as of 2016 Thailand's second-largest hypermarket operator after Tesco Lotus. It has operations in five countries, namely Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Hong Kong.
The company was founded by Central Group in 1993 and the first Big C opened on Chaengwattana Road in Bangkok in 1994. Big C operates 153 hypermarkets, 63 Big C markets, and 1,018 Mini Big C stores. (Full article...)
Selgros is a cash and carry chain in Europe, owned by Transgourmet Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of Coop (Switzerland). It started in 1989 as a joint venture between Rewe Group (50%) and Otto Group (50%). In March 2008, Rewe took over 100% of the company, and in October 2008 formed the Transgourmet Holding company with Coop. In 2011, Coop purchased the remaining interests of Transgourmet, which included Selgros. (Full article...)
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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...)
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Unity Books is an independent New Zealand bookseller. It has a flagship store in Wellington, and a location in Auckland with separate adult and children's bookshops.
The business was founded by Alan Preston in 1967. (Full article...)
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Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home products and food products. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
M&S was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds. In its 2024 results the company stated that it was aiming at reducing locations to 180 full-line and 420 food stores in the UK, commenting that legacy stores were more expensive to operate. Through its television advertising it asserts the exclusive nature and luxury of its food and beverages. It also offers an online food delivery service through a joint venture with Ocado. (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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Z Energy is a New Zealand fuel distributor with branded service stations. It owns some of the former assets of Shell New Zealand and Chevron New Zealand. It has been a subsidiary of Australian petroleum company Ampol since May 2022.
Shell left the New Zealand fuel distribution business in April 2010, selling its operations to Infratil and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, with the operations being rebranded as Z Energy in 2011. Z Energy acquired Chevron's New Zealand subsidiary Caltex in June 2016. (Full article...)
Masoutis (Greek: Μασούτης) is a supermarket chain in Greece. Its headquarters are located in Thessaloniki. The company was established in 1976 by Diamantis Masoutis, its current owner, and the first Masoutis supermarket opened the same year in Thessaloniki city center. Masoutis is the largest regional retail grocery chain in Greece, and the seventh largest supermarket chain in Greece in terms of market share. As of 2010, the company had 193 retail and 17 cash-and-carry stores, all located in Northern Greece and Northeastern Aegean. The company has no plans to expand into Southern Greece or the Greek islands as of 2023. (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...)
The overall size of the sector has been increasing since the end of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, with retail sales increasing by 30% between 1999 and 2005. One contributing factor was the growth of larger stores with greater buying power and economies of scale, at the cost of smaller bricks and mortar merchants. Another contributing factor was low price inflation, with the price of imported goods falling 12% during that period. (Full article...)
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Haywrights was a New Zealand department store chain that was founded in 1929 and eventually grew to be one of the largest department store chains in New Zealand. (Full article...)
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Retail Apparel Group is an Australian and New Zealand clothing retail company, wholly owned by the Foschini Group. The company operates stores under the Tarocash, Connor, yd., Johnny Bigg, Rockwear and AXL+Co brands. (Full article...)
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SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR (Dutch pronunciation:[dəˈspɑr]), is a Dutch multinational franchise that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, and consists of 13,996 stores in 48 countries. Its headquarters are in Amsterdam. The company operates a partnership programme and has a presence in most European countries, as well as many others throughout Asia, Africa and Oceania. (Full article...)
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Accent Group is an Australian and New Zealand footwear and clothing retail, wholesaling and distribution company. It has more than 800 retail stores, along with 19 brands, and more than 20 online platforms.
Supercheap Auto is an Australian automotive parts and accessories retailer. It was founded in 1972, operating as a mail-order business and opened its first store in Brisbane in 1974. It now has 300 stores across Australia and New Zealand. (Full article...)
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Spark New Zealand Limited is a New Zealand telecommunications and digital services company providing fixed-line telephone services, mobile phone services, broadband, and digital technology services (including cloud, security, digital transformation, and managed services). Its customers range from consumers to small - medium business, government agencies and large enterprise clients. It was formerly known as Telecom New Zealand until it was rebranded to Spark on 8 August 2014. It has operated as a publicly traded company since 1990. Spark's mobile network reaches 98% of New Zealand, with over 2.5 million mobile connections and 704,000 broadband connections
Spark is one of the largest companies by value on the New Zealand Exchange (NZX). As of 2007, it was the 39th largest telecommunications company in the OECD. (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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Mein Real (stylized mein real; real until 2022 and real,- until 2017) was a chain of hypermarkets in Germany, until 2020 owned by Metro AG. It was formed in 1992, from the merger of chains divi, Basar, Continent, Esbella and real-kauf. Until 2014 it was also active internationally, in Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey; most of these operations were bought by French retail company Auchan Group. In 2018, Metro decided to divest the Real chain and in 2021, many markets were taken over by either Edeka, Kaufland, Globus, Rewe or V-Markt and got rebranded with the brand of the respective new owner. The process of selling was finished by mid of 2022. However, the original plans to liquidate real completely were dropped in early 2022 when it was decided that the remaining 60 stores will continue under the real brand name under new ownership. Real's former website (real.de) was replaced by kaufland.de in 2021. The new website can be found at meinreal.de.
In September 2023, the remaining company filed for bankruptcy. After some rescue attempts failed, the remaining 45 stores that will not be taken over by competitors will close by the end of March 2024 and the company will finally cease trading and be liquidated. (Full article...)
The overall size of the sector has been increasing since the end of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, with retail sales increasing by 30% between 1999 and 2005. One contributing factor was the growth of larger stores with greater buying power and economies of scale, at the cost of smaller bricks and mortar merchants. Another contributing factor was low price inflation, with the price of imported goods falling 12% during that period. (Full article...)
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Independent Grocers of Australia is an Australian chain of supermarkets. The IGA brand is owned by Australian conglomerate Metcash under their Food & Grocery division, but individual IGA stores are owned and operated independently. Its main competitors are Aldi, Coles and Woolworths. IGA is the fourth largest supermarket chain in Australia, following Aldi overtaking Metcash in supermarket revenue. (Full article...)
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Palmers Garden Centre or Palmers is a chain of New Zealand garden centres. It has 12 stores, including three in Auckland, selling a range of plants and gardening equipment.
... that the rapper Jords did not know his father was a musician until a chance encounter in a British supermarket?
... that a British supermarket uses barriers to prevent shoppers grabbing food with yellow discount stickers out of the hands of staff?
... 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 food was left to rot outside after the supermarket Supie went out of business?
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