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. When they are planned, constructed, and executed correctly, a consumer can ideally satisfy all of their routine weekly shopping needs in one trip.

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 14,000 m² (150,000 square feet), a typical Carrefour 19,500 m² (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.

History

The format was pioneered by Carrefour upon opening its first such store in 1963 at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, France, In the Americas, the Oshawa group introduced the first hypermarket in North America near Montreal in 1973.

The first hypermarket was introduced in the United States in 1987. In the 1980s and 1990s, the three major discount store chains in the United States—Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target—started developing discount stores in the hypermarket format. Wal-Mart developed Hypermart USA 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. In response, Dayton-Hudson entered the hypermarket format in 1995 by opening its first SuperTarget store in Omaha, Nebraska.

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 (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, automotive items, etc.).

List of hypermarkets

France

Carrefour was the earliest 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 revenues. Other important brands include Géant Casino (with 127 hypermarkets in France), Auchan, Leclerc, and Cora.

• Carrefour
• Auchan
• E.Leclerc
• Géant
• Hyper U
• Cora
• Casino

Italy

• Auchan
• Carrefour
• Panorama
• Ipercoop
• Interspar (or Iperspar in some towns)
• E.Leclerc-Conad
• Iperfamila (or Emisfero / Galassia in some towns)
• Pam Superstore (or Superal Superstore in some towns)
• Ipersimply SMA (or Cityper SMA in some towns)
• Esselunga Superstore
• Bennet
• Iperstore GS
• Il Gigante
• Iperpellicano
• Iper
• Iperstanda
• Ipersisa

United Kingdom

• Asda
• Tesco
• Sainsbury's
• Morrison's

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.

• Meijer
• Fred Meyer
• Super Kmart
• SuperTarget
• bigg's
• Wal-Mart Supercenter

Defunct U.S. hypermarkets

Source

• Twin Valu - division of Supervalu
• Hypermart USA - division of Wal-Mart
• American Fare - division of Kmart/Bruno's
• Auchan - 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 24,000m²) 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, opened one 306,000 squart foot store near Washington DC
• Treasure Island
• The Real Superstore- a division of the defunct National Tea Company, the former US Subsidiary of the Canadian Loblaw's chain, which runs The Real Canadian SuperStore (See listings for Canada in the Canadian section below.)

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 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.

Other countries

• In Argentina, the most common hypermarkets are Carrefour, COTO and Norte.
• In Australia, Coles Myer tried the hypermarket concept in the mid- to late 1980s with more than 35 Super K-Mart stores. However, these were converted to K-Mart and Coles Supermarkets in the early 1990s. Coles Myer still have two hypermarkets in Brisbane named Pick 'n Pay. Coles Myer had planned to open a group of hypermarkets called Coles SuperCentres in late 2007, but due to lower than expected financial performance of the company as well as the fact that it has put itself up for sale to private equity firms, the rollout of the hypermarkets has been delayed.
• In Belarus, there is a hypermarket called Gippo (Гиппо) in Minsk.
• 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 Chile, the principal hypermarkets are Líder, Jumbo and Tottus.
• In China, the largest hypermarket retailer is Shanghai-based Bailian (百联), followed by Beijing-based Hualian (华联). Foreign retailers such as Carrefour, Wal-Mart, Metro, Tesco, Auchan and Ito Yokado also have a large presence in China.
• In Colombia major hypermarkets are Carrefour and Almacenes Exito
• In Croatia, Mercator and Konzum have hypermakets in major towns.
• In Serbia, Tempo Centar, METRO Cash & Carry and Mercator have hypermakets in major towns.
• In the Czech Republic, major hypermarkets are Hypernova of Ahold, Globus and Tesco. Cash and carry Makro has its store here too. The film Czech Dream explores the relationship between the general public and hypermarkets.
• In Denmark, Bilka is the biggest chain of hypermarkets (operated by Dansk Supermarked); the 2nd biggest chain is Kvickly xtra (formerly known as OBS, and operated by Coop). Opening of new hypermarkets have decreased recently because of restriction on store sizes to protect the stores in city centers.
• In El Salvador there are three hypermarket chains, Price Mart, Hiper Europa, and Hiper Paíz.
• In Egypt there are three hypermarket chains; Carrefour, Hyper One and Spinneys in the shopping mall City Stars.
• Estonia Latvia and Lithuania have the chain Rimi, which stocks food and other goods in the larger cities of the two countries.
• In Finland the largest hypermarkets are Prisma (S-Group), Citymarket (Kesko) and Euromarket (Tradeka).
• 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 Hong Kong, there were some hypermarkets owned by Carrefour. Currently, there are four hypermarkets, all named PARKnSHOP Megastore.
• In Hungary the biggest hypermarket brand is Tesco. Auchan, Cora, Metro and Spar operates also several hypermarket in the country.
• In India, Reliance Retail and Spencers Hyper are the major hypermarket chains, though the recent opening up of the retail sector to foreign investors is likely to increase the numbers exponentially.African retailer Shoprite runs a hypermarket in Mumbai
• in Indonesia, Carrefour is the market leader, competing with local owned Hypermart (a subsidiary of Matahari group) and Malaysia's Giant Hypermarket.
• In Italy and Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland, the term is ipermercati. The biggest hypermarkets are Auchan, Carrefour, Iper, Panorama, Ipercoop, Emisfero, Iperstanda, Il Gigante, Interspar/Iperspar, Iperfamila, Aliper, E. Leclerc, Galassia, Iperstore GS.
• In Japan, JUSCO (Aeon), Ito Yokado, YouMe Town, Fuji and Uny are widely seen.
• In Kuwait, hypermarkets include the Sultan Center, CityCentre, Lulu Hypermarket and a newly opened Carrefour. The Sultan Center has 11 Hypermarkets in Kuwait that target European markets CityCentre has Two Hypermarkets in Kuwait, one in Shuwaikh and one in Salmiya Carrefour has one Hypermarket at The Avenues, one of the most prestigious malls in the whole world located in Shuwaikh few minutes out of downtown Kuwait City
• In Kenya there are hypermarkets like Uchumi and Nakumat hypermarkets in the capital city Nairobi, and some of them operate 24/7.
• In Lithuania, there is the homegrown chain of Maxima supermarkets which range in sizes from neighborhood convenience stores to giant supercenters that stock over 65,000 different brands. The chain has 399 stores open throughout Lithuania and its neighboring countries.
• In Malaysia, Giant Hypermarket is the country's first own hypermarket. Other major hypermarkets are Jusco, Tesco and Carrefour.
• In Mauritius, retailer Shoprite runs a hypermarket in Quatre Bornes.
• In Mexico, Comercial Mexicana is the competitor to Walmex, the Mexican operations of Wal-Mart.
• In Norway the Coop chain operates hypermarkets under the Obs! name.
• 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 Poland, the most common hypermarkets are Carrefour, Géant, Real (which is a brand of METRO AG) and Tesco.
• In Portugal, there are a considerable number of hypermarket chains in operation, including Continente (the biggest and the first Portuguese chain to go international), Jumbo, Feira Nova and Carrefour. Most of these chains also operate supermarkets and smaller stores.
• In Russia, Auchan (Ашан) has 10 stores in the Moscow area, two in Leningrad Oblast, and one each in Yekaterinburg and Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast Saint Petersburg's Lenta (Лента) has also some stores in big cities, so does Novosibirsk's Gigant (Гигант).
• In Saudi Arabia, Géant and Carrefour are the major hypermarkets.
• In the 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.
• In Singapore, Carrefour was the first to operate hypermarkets. Malaysian Giant and local NTUC and Sheng Siong followed.
• In Slovenia the biggest is Mercator, the 2nd biggest is Spar and the third is Tuš.
• In South Africa, the Pick 'n Pay chain uses the term for 14 of their largest stores. Checkers runs 24 hypermarkets under the "Checkers Hyper" name.
• In South Korea, foreign hypermarkets Carrefour and Walmart failed to gain popularity. Korean hypermarkets include E-Mart, Lotte Shopping, Home Plus and Homever.
• 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 Sri Lanka, Arpico Supercentres have few around the capital city, Colombo.
• In Sweden, the largest hypermarket chains are Coop Forum and MAXI ICA Stormarknad.
• In the United Kingdom, the first hypermarket in the UK was opened in Irlam in 1976 by Tesco. Tesco now operate some smaller hypermarkets known as "Tesco Extra" and also some Tesco Hypermarkets. ASDA (owned by Wal-Mart) also operates some hypermarkets branded as "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 became a wholly-owned subsidiary. In 1999 Savacentre stores were merged into the rest of the Sainsbury's supermarket chain.
• In Vietnam, some supermarkets have been developed into hypermarkets. These include Me Linh Plaza furniture Hypermarket, Big C Thang Long and Metro Thang Long, all of which are in Hanoi.

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; and BJ's Wholesale Club on the East Coast. In Europe, Makro 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