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Hypermarket

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Packaged food aisles at Fred Meyer in Portland, Oregon

In commerce, a hypermarket is a superstore which combines a supermarket and a department store. The result is a very large retail facility which carries an enormous range of products under one roof, including full lines of groceries and general merchandise. In theory, hypermarkets allow customers to satisfy all their routine weekly shopping needs in one trip.

Overview

Hypermarkets, like other big-box stores, typically have business models focusing on high-volume, low-margin sales. Because of their large footprints — a typical Wal-Mart Supercenter covers anywhere from 150,000 square feet (14,000 m2) to 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2), and a typical Carrefour covers 210,000 square feet (20,000 m2) — and the need for many shoppers to carry large quantities of goods, many hypermarkets choose suburban or out-of-town locations that are easily accessible by automobile.

History

The format was pioneered in North America by Meijer, which open its first hypermarket in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1962, 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, with the Oshawa group introduced a hypermarket near Montreal in 1973.[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 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.[10][11] In response, Dayton-Hudson entered the hypermarket format in 1995 by opening its first SuperTarget store in Omaha, Nebraska.[12]

Success

The produce section of a typical Wal-Mart Supercenter (Wal-Mart's hypermarket brand)

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). Large retailers for the most part work around the law by using loopholes.[citation needed] As of 2004, the Loi Galland has become increasingly controversial and there have been calls to amend it.[citation needed]

In France, hypermarkets are generally situated in shopping centers (Template:Lang-fr) outside of cities, though some are present in the city center. They are surrounded by extensive parking lots, and generally by other specialized superstores (for instance, selling 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[when?] 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

Denmark

France

Carrefour was the earliest European hypermarket, starting in 1963 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois. It remains the dominant chain in France, and worldwide is the largest hypermarket chain in terms of size, and second-largest (after Wal-Mart) in terms of revenue. Other important brands includes Auchan, Leclerc, Géant, Hyper U, Casino (with 127 hypermarkets in France) and Cora.

Germany

India

Indonesia

Italy

Norway

Pakistan

In Pakistan Metro Cash & Carry and Makro Cash & Carry opened their doors in 2007-08. Technically these are wholesale centres but they also engage in retailing. Now in 2009 First Hypermart opened in Lahore at Fortress Stadium for consumers actually with the name of Hyperstar by the Carrefour (Al Futtain Group, UAE).

Philippines

mall and department store operator Shoemart has blanketed the islands with the hypermarket concept using the SM brand as an anchor store to their malls. Large hypermarkets can be found inside or outside shopping malls. Hypermarkets are being ran by SM Group of Companies by the Sy Family, as well as companies, such as Wal-Mart.

Spain

Turkey

United Kingdom

United States

Stores in the United States tend to be single-level enterprises with long operating hours; many of them, especially Wal-Mart, are continuously open except on major holidays (typically Thanksgiving and Christmas). There is some controversy to hypermarts in the U.S., with opposition coming primarily from preservationists who argue that they destroy conventional retail districts, including independent grocers and supermarkets and downtowns. Hypermarkets have been most successful in northern states where adverse winter weather conditions make it inconvenient to visit multiple stores.

Defunct U.S. hypermarkets[13]

  • 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. These stores were reduced in size from between 220,000 and 260,000 square feet (20,500 to 24,000 m2) to between 150,000 and 220,000 (14,000 to 20,500), since 1995 as Wal-Mart Supercenter and Super Kmart.
  • Leedmark, a joint-venture involving E.Leclerc of France, operated a single one 306,000-square-foot 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 below.)
  • 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 Wal-Mart and a few other stores.

Canada

  • In Canada, Loblaw's operates the Real Canadian Superstore, Atlantic Superstore and in Quebec Maxi & Cie. Wal-Mart has been operating stores in Canada since 1994. Initially, Wal-Mart 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, Wal-Mart 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 June 2009, Wal-Mart operated 57 Supercentres (using the Canadian spelling) across Canada. A number of existing stores may be expanded to reflect this change, where space allows.

Other countries

Warehouse club

Another 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;[22] and BJ's Wholesale Club on the East Coast. 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.

Notes

  1. ^ Meijer: History
  2. ^ Column: Meijer's first Supercenter past its prime but full of good memories
  3. ^ Carrefour's History
  4. ^ "Top 5 Retailers", Extended Retail Solutions, issue 147.
  5. ^ Jean-Mark Villermet, Naissance de l'hypermarche, 1991, ISBN 2200372639, Colin (publisher).
  6. ^ Facts & Figures
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ The Wal-Mart Story
  9. ^ Kmart At A Glance
  10. ^ Discount Store News article Target to introduce Small Market stores - Dayton-Hudson Corp. Target Stores
  11. ^ Discount Store News article Greatland may need food to succeed - Dayton Hudson Corp. Target Stores' Greatland superstores
  12. ^ Discount Store News article The test takes off: SuperTarget cautiously picks up the pace - The Power Retailers: Target
  13. ^ Forbes magazine, February 13, 1995, p. 55, "Squeezing the tomatoes."
  14. ^ [2] Bruno's former link to American Fare and Kmart
  15. ^ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10429675
  16. ^ http://www.psk.by/v_object_torg_gippo.php
  17. ^ http://www.thesultancenter.com
  18. ^ http://www.citycentre.com.kw
  19. ^ Warehouse plans to phase out its one-stop outlets[3]
  20. ^ http://www.auchan.ru/en/shops/
  21. ^ Carrefour Singapore
  22. ^ Robert Spector, "Carrefour enters U.S. via share in Costco", Supermarket News, January 1985.
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