Grocery store

Piggly Wiggly was the first self-service grocery store, opening in 1916.

A grocery store a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are called supermarkets. Small grocery stores that mainly sell fruits and vegetables are known as produce markets (U.S.) or greengrocers (Britain), and small grocery stores that predominantly sell snack foods and sandwiches are known as convenience stores or delicatessens.

History

Europe

Traditional grocery store in Portugal

Because many European cities (Rome, for example) are already so dense in population and buildings, large supermarkets, in the American sense, may not replace the neighborhood grocery store. However, 'Metro' stores have been appearing in town and city centres in many countries, leading to the decline of independent smaller stores, and large out-of-town supermarkets and hypermarkets, such as Tesco and Sainsbury's in the United Kingdom, have been steadily sapping the trade from smaller stores.

However, traditional stores throughout Europe have been preserved because of their history and their classic appearance. They are mostly found in rural areas, though they are rapidly disappearing.

Canada and United States

Interior of a dry grocer's shop in downtown Vancouver, Washington, circa 1909.

Polish grocery, 1922, Detroit.

U.S. grocery stores are descended from trading posts, which sold not only food but clothing, household items, tools, furniture, and other miscellaneous merchandise. These trading posts evolved into larger retail businesses known as general stores. These facilities generally dealt only in "dry" goods such as flour, dry beans, baking soda, and canned foods. Perishable foods were instead obtained from specialty markets: Fresh meat was obtained from a butcher, milk from a local dairy, eggs and vegetables were either produced by families themselves, bartered for with neighbours, or purchased at a farmers' market or a local greengrocer.

Many rural areas still contain general stores that sell goods ranging from cigars to imported napkins. Traditionally, general stores have offered credit to their customers, a system of payment that works on trust rather than modern credit cards. This allowed farm families to buy staples until their harvest could be sold.

The first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee by Clarence Saunders, an inventor and entrepreneur. Prior to this innovation, customers gave orders to clerks to fill. Saunder's invention allowed a much smaller number of clerks to service the customers, proving successful (according to a 1929 Time magazine) "partly because of its novelty, partly because neat packages and large advertising appropriations have made retail grocery selling almost an automatic procedure."

The US Labor Department has calcuated that food purchased at home and in restaurants are 13 percent of household purchases, behind 32 percent for housing and 18 percent for transportation. The average US family spent $280 per month or $3,305 per year at grocery stores in 2004. The newsletter Dollar Stretcher survey found $149 a month for a single person, $257 for a couple and $396 for a family of four.[1]

Frozen durian fruit grown in East Asia at a Chinese grocery in Ottawa, Canada. Grocery stores specializing in imported so-called "ethnic" foods are popular in many immigrant communities, offering imported food that large supermarket chains do not.

Example of an American grocery store aisle.

American grocery stores operate in many different styles ranging from rural family-owned operations, such as IGAs, boutique chains, such as Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's to larger supermarket chain stores. In some places, food cooperatives or "co-op" markets, owned by their own shoppers, have been popular. However, there has recently been a trend to larger stores serving larger geographic areas. Very large "all-in-one" hypermarkets such as Wal-Mart and Target have recently forced consolidation of the grocery business in some areas. The global buying power of such very efficient companies has put an increased financial burden on traditional local grocery stores as well as the national supermarket chains.

When a small grocery store is in competition with large supermarkets, the grocery store often must create a niche market by selling unique, premium quality, or ethnic foods that are not easily found in supermarkets. A small grocery store may also compete by locating in a mixed commercial-residential area close to, and convenient for, its customers.

Latin America

Jumbo Hypermarket view

Grocery stores in Latin America have been growing fast since the early 80s. A big percentage of food sales and other articles are done by the grocery stores today. Some examples are the Chilean chains Cencosud (Jumbo and Santa Isabel covering Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Peru), D&S (Líder and Ekono) as well as Falabella (Tottus in Chile and Peru and Supermercados San Francisco in Chile). These three chains are subsidiaries of big retail store companies which also have other kind of business units like department stores and home improvement outlets. All three also operate its own credit cards, which is a key driver, and sell as well insurances and have travel agencies. These companies are also running some malls in many countries like Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia.

Two other chains started in 2008, Unimarc, which bought several small local chains and has over 20% of the grocery segment in Chile and Southern Cross, a Chilean Investment Fund that has around 8.6% of the supermarket segment, mainly oriented to the southern areas of the country. In Puerto Rico, popular grocery stores include Pueblo Supermarkets and Amigo.

Food waste

Surplus food for sale in the U.S. in 1936

Main article: Food waste

As of 2011, 1.3 billion tons of food, about one third of the global food production, are lost or wasted annually. The USDA estimates that 27% of food is lost annually. Some grocery stores donate leftover food (for example, deli foods and bread past their expiration date) to homeless shelters or charity kitchens.

Cultural impact

Some groceries specialize in the foods of a certain nationality or culture, such as Italian, oriental or Middle-Eastern. These stores are known as ethnic markets and may also serve as gathering places for immigrants. In many cases, the wide range of products carried by larger supermarkets has reduced the need for such speciality stores.

Many teenagers find their first employment in grocery stores.

See also

• Bulk foods
• Convenience store
• Greengrocer
• Grocer
• List of supermarket chains in Canada
• Supermarket

External links

• The dictionary definition of grocery at Wiktionary