Hypermarket

Asian hypermarket in thePhilippines,a branch ofSM HypermarketinSM Mall of AsiainPasay,Metro Manila

Ahypermarketorsuperstoreis abig-box storecombining asupermarketand adepartment store.The result is an expansiveretailfacility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including fullgrocerylines andgeneral merchandise.In theory, hypermarkets allow customers to satisfy all their routine shopping needs in one trip. The termhypermarket(French:hypermarché) was coined in 1968 by French trade expert Jacques Pictet.

Hypermarkets, like otherbig-box stores,typically have business models focusing on high-volume, low-marginsales.Typically covering an area of 5,000 to 15,000 square metres (54,000 to 161,000 sq ft), they generally have more than 200,000 different brands of merchandise available at any one time.Because of their largefootprints,many hypermarkets choosesuburbanor out-of-town locations that are easily accessible by automobile.

History

Canada

Loblawsestablished itsReal Canadian Superstorechain in 1979. It sells mainly groceries, while also retailing clothing, electronics and housewares. Its largest competitor in Canada isWalmart.These are the two major Canadian hypermarkets.

Europe

The Belgian retailerGrand Bazaropened three hypermarkets in a short span in 1961 under the nameSuperBazarafter Belgian law restricting the size of department stores was abolished in January 1961. The firstSuperBazar,opened inBrugeson 9 September 1961, initially designed to become a non-food department store, however only covered a surface area of 3,300 square metres (36,000 sq ft), and was later converted into a regular supermarket. The substantially larger store that opened a week later inAuderghem,Brussels, covering 9,100 m²(98,000 sq ft), is regarded as a more proper hypermarket that brought the concept to fruition.It was Belgian market development engineerMaurice Cauwe,who adopted the concept from his frequent trips to the United States, particularly inspired from theGrand Union's "Grand Way" center inParamus, New Jersey.

Carrefouropened its first hypermarket in 1963, atSainte-Geneviève-des-Bois,France,The co-founders were influenced by the teachings of Colombian-born American marketing executiveBernardo Trujillo,who taughtexecutive educationas part of theNCR Corporation's marketing campaign.

In France, hypermarkets are generally situated inshopping centers(French:centre commercial or centre d'achats) outside cities, though some are present in the city center. They are surrounded by extensive car parking facilities, and generally by other specializedsuperstoresthat sell clothing, sports gear, automotive items, etc.

After the successes of super- and hyper-markets and amid fears that smaller stores would be forced out of business,Franceenacted 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 (theLoi Galland).

Japan

The predecessor toIto Yokadowas founded in 1920 selling western goods, went public in 1957, and switched to that name in 1965.Seibu Department Storeswas founded in 1956, and opened up its grocery chainSeiyu Groupin 1963.Isao Nakauchifounded the firstDaieiinKobein 1957, selling clothing, electronics, furniture and groceries all in one store.Juscowas created in 1970, and eventually became known asÆON.

In Japanese, hypermarkets are known as tổng hợp スーパー (Sougou Suupaa, General Merchandise Stores). There is a distinction in Japanese between スーパー (Supers) and デパート (Departs) with the former being discounters, but the latter selling luxury brand clothing and quite often high-end groceries as well.

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 salonsand other services all in the same store. A recenttrend has been to combine thedollar storeconcept with the hypermarket blueprint, giving rise to the "hyakkin plaza" —hyakkin( bách quân ) orhyaku en( bách viên ) means 100yen(roughly 1US dollar).

United States

Packaged food aisles at aFred Meyerhypermarket inPortland, Oregon

Until the 1980s, large stores combining food and non-food items were unusual in the United States, although early predecessors existed since the first half of the 20th century.The term "hypermarket" itself is still rarely used in the US.

ThePacific NorthwestchainFred Meyer,now a division of theKrogersupermarket company, opened the first suburban one-stop shopping center in 1931 in theHollywood DistrictofPortland, Oregon.The store's innovations included a grocery store alongside adrugstoreplus off-street parking and an automobile lubrication and oil service. In 1933, men's and women's wear was added, and automotive department, housewares, and other nonfood products followed in succeeding years. In the mid 1930s, Fred Meyer opened a central bakery, a candy kitchen, an ice cream plant, and a photo-finishing plant, which supplied the company's stores in Portland and neighbouring cities with house brands such as Vita Bee bread, Hocus Pocus desserts, and Fifth Avenue candies. By the 1950s, Fred Meyer began opening stores that were 4,200 to 6,500 m²(45,000 to 70,000 sq ft), and the 1960s saw the first modern-sized Fred Meyer hypermarkets.

TheMidwest(then grocery) chainMeijer,which today operates about 235 stores in six US states, coined the term "super center",and opened the first of its hypermarket format store inGrand Rapids, Michigan,in June 1962, under the brand name "Thrifty Acres".

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the three major USdiscount storechains –Walmart,KmartandTarget– started developing similar format chains. Wal-Mart (as it was known before its late-2000s rebranding as Walmart) introducedHypermart USAin 1987, followed byWal-Mart Supercenterin 1988;The same year, French chainsCarrefourandAuchanopened hypermarkets inPhiladelphiaandGreater Houston,respectively.Kmart opened its first Super Kmart Center in 1991;and Target came with the first Target Greatland stores in 1990, followed by the larger SuperTarget stores in 1995.Most Greatland stores have since been converted to SuperTarget stores, while some have been converted into regular Target stores with the exception of 2 entrances (one example of this is theAntioch, Californialocation).

In the early 1990s, US hypermarkets also began selling fuel. The idea was first introduced in the 1960s, when a number of supermarket chains and retailers likeSearstried to sell fuel, but it didn't generate sufficient consumer interest at the time. Today there are approximately 4,500 hypermarket stores in the US selling fuel, representing an estimated 14 billion US gallons (53 billion litres) sold each year.

Australia

In Australia, hypermarkets were at their peak during the 1980s. This was especially prevalent during the era of South African ownedPick n Pay Storesand a now discontinued format ofKmart AustraliaStores known as Super Kmart. This trend in the Australian market soon lost its appeal into the 1990s. Super Kmart stores were discontinued andColes Supermarketsand Kmart Stores opened in the former location. Pick n Pay continued to operate in Australia until the 2000s when their locations atAspleyandSunnybank Hillswere converted into Coles Supermarkets and Kmart Department Stores.

As of 2022, the only hypermarket or Big-Box Store operational in Australia areCostcoWholesale Warehouses with currently thirteen stores in Australia - four stores inMelbourne,three stores inSydney,two stores inBrisbaneand one store each inNewcastle,Canberra,AdelaideandPerth,with construction underway on the fourteenth store in Queensland'sGold Coast.There were plans for German hypermarket companyKauflandto open stores in Australia announced in 2019; these plans were cancelled in 2020.

Iran

Hypermarkets did not exist in Iran until 2009 (1388 ه.ش.). Before that, there were some local hypermarkets, but international branches were nonexistent. Despite their late arrival, hypermarkets in Iran have achieved a significant degree of growth. The first branch was opened in Tehran under the name ofIran Hyperstarthrough a collaboration between Carrefour and Majid Al Futtaim Group based in The United Arab Emirates. The Emirati holding is the main shareholder with about 75% of the company's shares. New branches were established after Iran Hyperstar’s first store found relative success. Now, other branches have been established in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Ahvaz, etc.

Size

The produce section of a typicalWalmart Supercenter(Walmart's hypermarket brand) in Mexico

The averageWalmart Supercentercovers around 16,500 m²(178,000 sq ft), with the largest ones covering 24,000 m²(260,000 sq ft).A typicalCarrefourhypermarket still covers 10,000 m²(110,000 sq ft), while the European trend in the 2000s has rather turned towards smaller hypermarkets of 3,000 to 5,000 m²(32,000 to 54,000 sq ft).In France,INSEEdefines hypermarkets (French:hypermarché/s) as non-specialized markets with a minimum size of 2,500 m²(27,000 sq ft).

Future

Despite its success, the hypermarket business model may be under threat from online shopping and the shift towards customization according to analysts likeSanjeev Sanyal,Deutsche Bank's Global Strategist, until 2015.Sanyal has argued that some developing countries such as India may omit the hypermarket stage and directly go online.

Warehouse club

Main article:Warehouse club

Another category of stores sometimes included in the hypermarket category are the membership-basedwholesalewarehouse clubsthat are popular inNorth America,pioneered byFedcoand today includingSam's Club,a division of Walmart;Costco,in whichCarrefourowned some sharesfrom 1985 to 1996;BJ's Wholesale Clubon the East Coast; andClubes City Clubin Mexico. In Europe,Makro(owned byMETRO AG) leads the market.

However, warehouse clubs differ from hypermarkets in that they have sparse interior decor and require paid membership. In addition, warehouse clubs usually sell bigger packages and have fewer choices in each category of items.

See also

• List of hypermarkets
• Types of retail outlets
• Shelf-ready packaging

References

Bibliography

• Grimmeau, Jean-Pierre (10 June 2013)."A forgotten anniversary: the first European hypermarkets open in Brussels in 1961".Brussels Studies(67).doi:10.4000/brussels.1155.ISSN2031-0293.Retrieved28 March2020.

External links

• Media related toSupermarketsat Wikimedia Commons