Hypermarket

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In commerce, a hypermarket is a superstore which combines a supermarket and a department store. The result is a gigantic retail facility which carries an enormous range of products under one roof, including full lines of groceries and general merchandise. When they are planned, constructed, and executed correctly, a consumer can ideally satisfy all of his or her routine weekly shopping needs in one trip to the hypermarket.

Hypermarkets, like other big-box stores, typically have business models focusing on high-volume, low-margin sales. Due to their large footprints -- a typical Wal-Mart Supercenter covers 150,000 square feet, a typical Carrefour 210,000 square feet -- 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.

1 History
2 Success
3 List of Hypermarkets
4 Warehouse club
5 References

[edit] History

The concept was pioneered by Carrefour upon opening its first such store in 1962. <ref>Carrefour's History</ref> However Fred Meyer opened a similiar type of store in 1931 when it expanded a Portland, Oregon supermarket into a full-block grocery-general merchandise retail store.

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

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).

In France, hypermarkets are generally situated in shopping centers (In French: Centre Commercial) outside of cities. They are surrounded by extensive parking lots, and generally by other specialized large stores (for instance, selling clothing, sports gear, automobile items, etc.).

[edit] List of Hypermarkets

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] 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). Hypermarkets are very controversial in the U.S., with opposition coming primarily from preservationists who argue that they destroy conventional grocers, supermarkets, and downtowns. Hypermarkets have been most successful in northern states where adverse winter weather conditions make it inconvenient to visit multiple stores.

[edit] Canada

In Canada, Loblaw operates the Real Canadian Superstore. 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 Ancaster, London, and Stouffville in Ontario with another 14 projected to open across Canada by the end of the 2007. A number of existing stores may be expanded to reflect this change, where space allows.

[edit] Other countries

In France, the dominant chain is Carrefour which is the 2nd largest chain of hypermarkets in the world after Wal-Mart. Other important brands include Géant which has a presence in 113 countries.

In Japan, JUSCO (Aeon), Ito Yokado, YouMe Town, Fuji and Aoiyama are widely seen. Tokyo Hyper fish market, world's largest fishmarket, is a hypermarket as well.
In the United Kingdom, the first hypermarket in the UK opened in Irlam in 1976 by Tesco.^{[citation needed]} Tesco now operate some smaller hypermarkets known as "Tesco Extra" and also some Tesco Hypermarkets. ASDA (owned by Wal-Mart) also operates some hypermarkets "ASDA Wal-Mart Supercentres". Sainsbury's operated a dedicated hypermarket format from 1975 to 1999. These thirteen "Savacentre" stores were originally a joint venture with BhS and after 1989 a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1999 Savacentre stores were merged into the rest of the Sainsbury's supermarket chain.
In Spain, the largest hypermarkets are Eroski and Hipercor (short for Hipermercado El Corte Inglés). Carrefour also operates many stores in Spain. Spanish hypermarkets tend to be located in the industrial sprawl outside of Spain's dense urban cores.
In Germany, the biggest hypermarket brands are Real (Metro AG) 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 Italy and Italian speaking parts of Switzerland, the term is ipermercati, see Ipercoop
In Malaysia, Giant Hypermarket is the country's first own hypermarket.
In Hong Kong, there were some hypermarkets owned by Carrefour. Currently, there are four hypermarkets, all named PARKnSHOP Megastore.
In South Africa, the Pick 'n Pay chain uses the term for 14 of their largest stores.
In India, Géant and Big Bazaar are the major hypermarket chains though the recent opening up of the retail sector to foreign investors is likely to increase the numbers exponentially.
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 Mexico, Comercial Mexicana is the competitor to Walmex, the Mexican operations of Wal Mart
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 Poland, the most common hypermarkets are Carrefour, Géant, Real (which is a brand of Metro AG) and Tesco.
In Czech Republic, Tesco has several hypermarkets around the country. The film Czech Dream explores the relationship between the general public and hypermarkets.
In Australia, Coles Myer tried the hypermarket concept in the mid to late eighties with more than 35 Super K Mart stores. However these were converted to K Mart and Coles Supermarkets in the early nineties. Coles Myer still have two hypermarkets in Brisbane named Pick 'n Pay.However, Coles Myer are opening a group of hypermarkets called Coles Supercenters in late 2007.
In Denmark Bilka is the biggest chain of hypermarkets (operated by Dansk Supermarked), the 2nd biggest chain is Kvickly xtra (formerly known as OBS) (operated by Coop). Opening of new hypermarkets have decreased resently because of restriction on store sizes to protect the stores in city centers.
In Slovenia is the biggest Mercator, the 2nd biggest is Spar and the third is Tuš.

[edit] Warehouse club

Another category of hypermarket is the membership based wholesale warehouse clubs that are popular in North America, pioneered by Fedco and today including Costco and Sam's Club, the latter of which is a division of Wal-Mart. However, it is debatable whether the warehouse clubs are true hypermarkets owing to their sparse interior decor, restrictive membership, and broad-not-deep selections that maximize inventory turnover.