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Carrefour

[kar-uh-foor, kar-uh-foor]

Carrefour SA () is a French international hypermarket chain, with a global network of outlets. It is the second largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue after Wal-Mart. Carrefour operates mainly in Europe, Brazil, Argentina, Dominican Republic and Colombia, but also has shops in North Africa and Asia. Carrefour means "junction" in French.

History

The first Carrefour store opened on 3 June 1957, in suburban Annecy near a crossroads (carrefour in French). Today it is the smallest Carrefour location in the world. The group was created by Marcel Fournier and Denis Defforey and grew into a chain from this first sales outlet. In 1999 it merged with Promodès, known as Continent, one of its major competitors on the French market.

Marcel Fournier and Denis Defforey had attended several seminars in the United States led by "The Pope of modern distribution" Bernardo Trujillo, who influenced other famous French executives like Édouard Leclerc (E.Leclerc), Gérard Mulliez (Auchan), Paul Dubrule (Accor), and Gérard Pélisson (Accor). Their slogan was "No parking, no business.".

The Carrefour group pioneered the concept of a hypermarket, a large supermarket and a department store under the same roof. They opened their first hypermarket 15 June 1963 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris in France.

In April 1976, Carrefour launched a private label Produits libres (free products -- libre meaning free in the sense of liberty as opposed to gratis) line of fifty foodstuffs, including oil, biscuits, milk, and pasta, sold in unbranded white packages at substantially lower prices. The popularity of these products led critics on the political right to charge that Carrefour was undermining capitalism by acclimating the population to generic (rather than brand name or specialty) foods. In particular, Jean Mothes, an executive at Perrier, wrote in Investir magazine that Carrefour did more to accelerate the change to a socialist-led government than socialist politicians and syndicalists like Edmond Maire, Georges Marchais, François Mitterrand and Georges Séguy.

Slogans

Hypermarkets: "Choice and quality for everyone"
Hypermarkets: "Ke Carrefour Aja Ahh...!!!" (Indonesia), literally means "Go to Carrefour (is better)...!!!"
Supermarkets: "The prices people want, close to home"
Hard Discount: "Grocery products at low, low prices"
Convenience Stores: "Just what you need, right next door"
Cash & Carry: "Proximity and accessibility for catering professionals"

Carrefour around the world in September 2007

Americas

Carrefour has a presence in 4 countries in the Americas: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic. Carrefour is active in 3 types of retail distribution: hypermarkets, supermarkets and hard discounters, and entered the Cash & Carry market in Brazil, after the purchase of Atacadão.

Country	First store	Hypermarkets	Supermarkets	Hard Discounters	Convenience Stores	Cash & Carry
Argentina	1982	59	103	395	-	-
Brazil	1975	150	38	300	5	34
Colombia	1998	50	-	-	-	-
Dominican Republic	2000	5	10	-	20	85

Asia

In 1989, Carrefour became the first international retailer to establish a presence in Asia when it entered Taiwan through a joint venture with Uni President Enterprises Corporation. It leveraged the experience it gathered in Taiwan to expand into other Asian markets. Carrefour also operates in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan in a joint venture with Majid al Futtaim In March 2007 Carrefour opened a store in Kuwait in the Avenues mall. In Oman, Carrefour opened a store in 2003 on the outskirts of the city of Muscat.

Country	First store	Hypermarkets	Supermarkets	Hard Discounters
China	1995	112	-	-
Indonesia	1998	37	under counstruction	-
Japan	2000	7	-	-
Jordan	2007	1	-	-
Kuwait	2007	1	-	-
Malaysia	1994	12	-	-
Oman	2000	2	-	-
Pakistan	2008	Under Construction	-	-
Qatar	2000	3	-	-
Saudi Arabia	2004	5	-	-
Singapore	1997	2	-	-
Taiwan	1989	48	-	-
Thailand	1996	25	-	-
United Arab Emirates	1995	11	-	-

Africa

Country	First store	Hypermarkets	Supermarkets	Hard Discounters
Algeria	2005	1	-
Egypt	2002	5	-
Tunisia	2001	1	2	-

Europe

Country	First store	Hypermarkets	Supermarkets	Hard Discounters	Convenience Stores	Cash & Carry
Belgium	2000	56	280	-	257	-
Cyprus	2006	5	4	-	-	-
France	1960	218	1,021	897	3,245	134
Greece	1991	28	210	397	216	-
Italy	1993	59	485	-	1,015	20
Poland	1997	72	277	-	5	-
Romania	2001	17	21	-	-	-
Spain	1973	161	87	2,912	3	-
Turkey	1993	19	99	519	-	-

Store brands

Hypermarkets: Carrefour, Atacadão.

Supermarkets: Carrefour Bairro, Carrefour Express, Champion, Champion Mapinomovaoe, Globi, GB Supermarkets, GS, Norte, Gima.

Hard discount stores: Dia, Ed, Minipreço.

Convenience stores: 5 minutes, 8 a HuiT, Marche Plus, Proxi, Sherpa, Dìperdì, Smile Market, Ok!, Contact GB, GB Express, Shopi.

Cash & Carry: Promocash, Docks Market, Gross IPer.

Criticism and controversies

On 26 June 2007 the company was convicted in a French court for false advertising. The suit alleged that Carrefour regularly stocked insufficient quantities of advertised products for sale. In addition, the company was convicted of selling products below cost and accepting kickbacks from wholesalers. Carrefour was ordered to pay a fine of €2 million and to prominently and legibly display a notice in all of its French stores disclosing the false advertising.

In Carrefour Mangga Dua Square, Jakarta, Indonesia, a 5-metre high metal rack fell on top of a 3-year old boy, killing him almost instantly due to internal bleeding. Afterwards, the victim's family claimed that Carrefour has refused to meet with them to settle the case. However, Carrefour Corporate Affairs Officer denied this allegation

Carrefour has also received criticism for engaging in sweatshop practices.

Boycott of supplies in China

In April 2008, after the 2008 Olympic torch relay was disrupted by Tibetan independence advocates in London and especially Paris, where some protesters attempted to wrest control of the torch from torch bearers, Chinese activists have promoted boycotting Carrefour because of its French roots. The boycott of Carrefour in particular was further fueled by unsubstantiated rumours that a major shareholder, Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton, had donated to the Dalai Lama. In its response, Carrefour China stated that it does support the Beijing Olympics; and that they will never do anything to harm the feelings of Chinese people. Protests occurred in and around a number of Carrefour outlets throughout China, and anti-Carrefour advocates campaigned for a one-day boycott of Carrefour on May Day, a public holiday in China.

As a result of the boycott, Chinese search engines Baidu.com.cn and sina.com have blocked access to Carrefour's website in China. Users searching 家乐福, Carrefour in Chinese, will be given an error page indicating "The search result may contain illegal content, so we can not display the result." in Chinese.

Former countries

Chile ― In 2004, Carrefour sold its 8 hypermarkets in Chile to D&S;
Czech Republic and Slovakia — In September 2005, Carrefour sold to Tesco (the biggest UK retailer) 11 stores in the Czech Republic and four in Slovakia. Tesco paid €57.4 million as well as its stores in Taiwan. Carrefour had opened its first store in 1998 in the Czech Republic and in 2000 in Slovakia. The stores still use the Carrefour name and brand;
Hong Kong — In the late 1990s, Carrefour moved out of Hong Kong after complaints from manufacturers about selling products (especially electronics) at prices far below those of its competitors. Carrefour previously had stores in Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun, Yuen Long and Heng Fa Chuen.
Japan — In 2005, Carrefour sold its 8 hypermarkets to AEON Group, but stores still use the Carrefour name and brand;
Mexico — In March 2005, Carrefour sold its 29 hypermarkets in Mexico to Chedraui. Carrefour had opened its first store in 1995 in Mexico;
Portugal — Carrefour entered Portugal by buying its first stores in 1991 - two Euromaché hypermarkets, in Telheiras (a Lisbon neighbourhood) and Vila Nova de Gaia (suburbs of Porto); This chain was known to have very good quality products, mainly from French origin, when in July 2007 Carrefour sold all of its 12 hypermarkets and 9 fuel stations to Sonae for €662 million. Also included were 11 licenses for opening new commercial spaces. Nowadays only the 365 hard-discount supermarkets (Minipreço) are supported by Carrefour in this country, not included in the takeover.

South Korea — In 2006, Carrefour sold its 32 hypermarkets to E-Land. The stores have been re-branded as Homever
Switzerland - In August 2007 Carrefour sold its 12 hypermarkets in Switzerland to Swiss retailer Coop for $390 million;
United Kingdom — Carrefour had several hypermarkets in the UK until the 1980s. The first of these was opened in the early 1970s in Caerphilly, South Wales. Subsequent outlets were opened at Merry Hill, Dudley; Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham; Glasshoughton (near Castleford); Eastleigh, Hampshire; MetroCentre (Gateshead); Telford Shopping Centre, Shropshire, Swindon and Cribbs Causeway in Bristol. All stores were later acquired by the Dee Corporation, but continued to trade as Carrefour for some time before being converted to Gateway Superstores. Today many of the old Carrefour stores in the UK are branches of Asda.
United States — 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 (within the Franklin Mills Mall complex) houses a Wal-Mart and a few other stores.