Supermarket

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(Redirected from Groceries)

Template:Globalize A supermarket is a store that sells a wide variety of food. A supermarket is larger in size and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store. Most supermarkets also sell a variety of other household products that are consumed regularly, such as alcohol (where permitted), household cleaning products, medicine, clothes, and some sell a much wider range of non-food products. Supermarkets are often part of a chain that owns or controls (sometimes by franchise) other supermarkets located in the same or other towns; this increases the opportunities for economies of scale. In the United States, supermarket chains are often supplied from the distribution centers of a larger business.

Supermarkets usually offer products at low prices by reducing margins. Certain products (typically staples such as bread, milk and sugar) are often sold as loss leaders, that is, with negative margins. To maintain a profit, supermarkets attempt to make up for the low margins with a high overall volume of sales, and with sales of higher-margin items. Customers usually shop by putting their products into shopping carts (trolleys) or baskets (self-service) and pay for the products at the check-out. At present, many supermarket chains are trying to reduce labour costs further by shifting to self-service check-out machines, where a group of four or five machines is supervised by a single assistant.

A larger full-service supermarket combined with a department store is sometimes known as a hypermarket. Other services that supermarkets may have include cafés, creches, photo development, pharmacies, and/or gas stations.

1 History
2 Typical supermarket merchandise
3 See also
4 Patent
5 Further reading
6 References
7 External links

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History

In the early days of retailing, all products had to be fetched by an assistant from shelves on one side of a counter while the customers stood on the other side and pointed to what they wanted. Also, many foods did not come in the individually wrapped consumer-size packages taken for granted today, so an assistant had to measure out the precise amount desired by the consumer. These practices were obviously labor-intensive and therefore quite expensive.

The concept of a self-service grocery store was developed by Clarence Saunders and his Piggly Wiggly stores. A&P was the most successful of the early chains in the United States, having become common in American cities in the 1920s. The general trend in retail since then has been to stack shelves at night and let the customers get their own goods and bring them to the front of the store to pay for them. Although there is a higher risk of shoplifting, the costs of appropriate security measures will be ideally outweighed by the economies of scale and reduced labor costs.

According to the Smithsonian Institution, the first true supermarket in the United States was opened by ex-Kroger employee Michael J. Cullen, on August 4, 1930, in a 6,000 square foot (560 m²) former garage in Jamaica, Queens, New York.<ref>Anonymous, "The place where supermarketing was born," Mass Market Retailers 19, no. 9 (17 June 2002): 172.</ref> The store, King Kullen, following King Kong, operated under the slogan "Pile it high. Sell it low." When Cullen died in 1936, there were seventeen stores in operation.

Existing grocery chains like Kroger and Safeway at first resisted Cullen's idea, but eventually were forced to build their own supermarkets as the American economy sank further into the Great Depression and consumers became price-sensitive to an degree never seen before.<ref>Ryan Mathews, "1926-1936: entrepreneurs and enterprise: a look at industry pioneers like King Kullen and J. Frank Grimes, and the institution they created (Special Report: Social Change & the Supermarket)," Progressive Grocer 75, no. 12 (December 1996): 39-43.</ref> Kroger took the idea one step farther and pioneered the first supermarket surrounded on all four sides by a parking lot.

Supermarkets proliferated in the United States along with suburban areas after World War II. At present, American supermarkets are often co-located with smaller retailers in strip malls and are generally regional rather than national. Kroger is probably the closest thing in the U.S. to a national chain but has preserved most of its regional brands like Ralphs, City Market and King Soopers.

It was formerly common for supermarkets to give trading stamps. Today, most supermarkets issue store-specific "members cards," "club cards," or "loyalty cards" which are scanned at the register when the customer goes to check-out. Typically, several items are given special discounts if the credit card-like devices are used.

In Britain, France and other European countries, the proliferation of out-of-town supermarkets has been blamed for the disappearance of smaller, local grocery stores and for increased dependency on the motor car (and the consequent traffic). In particular, some critics consider the practice of selling loss leaders to be anti-competitive, and are also wary of the negotiating power large retailers have with suppliers.

Today supermarkets face price competition from discount retailers such as Wal-Mart (non-union labor and greater buying power) and warehouse stores such as Costco (savings in bulk quantities).

In 2006, there are approximately 55,000 grocery stores in the United States, accounting for $959 billion, according to the 2006 U.S. Industry & Market Outlook by Barnes Reports.

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Typical supermarket merchandise

Image:Supermarket check out.JPG

Larger supermarkets in the United States typically sell many different types of items, such as:

Alcoholic products (where state and/or local laws allow; individual state control as to beer, wine, hard liquor, etc.)
Electrical items
Personal financial products (mortgages, credit cards, savings accounts, etc.)
Pet foods and products
Car care products
Baby foods and products
Beauty products (cosmetics)
Newspapers, books and magazines, including supermarket tabloids
Luggage
DVDs, CDs and videos
Breakfast cereals
Confectionery
Clothing and footwear
Dairy products

Image:Soft drinks 800x600.jpg

Diet foods
Medicines and first aid items (mostly over-the-counter, some supermarkets have pharmacies)
Feminine hygiene products, like maxi pads, tampons, and pantiliners
Flowers
Frozen foods
Fruits and vegetables
Greeting cards
Housecleaning products
Lottery tickets
Meat
Non alcoholic beverages, such as refreshments and water
Personal hygiene and grooming products
Snacks
Toys (most supermarkets in the US have toy sections)
Video rentals (some supermarket chains)
Western Union money orders and wire transfers

Image:Beer and wine aisle.jpg

In other countries, the range of products is sometimes more narrowly focused on food products, although the ranges sold are broadening in many countries as average store sizes increase.

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