A supermarket is a self-serviceshop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections under one roof. The supermarket retail format first appeared around 1930 in the United States as the culmination of almost two decades of retail innovations to the grocery store, and began to spread to other countries after extensive worldwide publicity in 1956. In everyday American English usage, "grocery store" is often used interchangeably with "supermarket", while in other regions a supermarket is larger and has a wider selection, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket or megastore, which developed decades later.
The supermarket typically has places for fresh meat, fresh produce, dairy, deli items, baked goods, and similar foodstuffs. Shelf space is also reserved for canned and packaged goods and for various non-food items such as kitchenware, household cleaners, pharmacy products and pet supplies. Some supermarkets also sell other household products that are consumed regularly, such as alcohol (where permitted), medicine, and clothing, and some sell a much wider range of non-food products: DVDs, art supplies, sporting equipment, board games, and seasonal items (e.g., Christmaswrapping paper, Easter eggs, school uniforms, Valentine's Day themed gifts, Mother's Day gifts, Father's Day gifts and Halloween).
A larger full-service supermarket combined with a department store is sometimes known as a hypermarket. Other services may include those of banks, cafés, childcare centers/creches, insurance (and other financial services), mobile phone sales, photo processing, video rentals, pharmacies, and filling stations. In the US, if the eatery in a supermarket is substantial enough, the facility may be called a "grocerant", a portmanteau of "grocery" and "restaurant".
The traditional supermarket occupies a large amount of floor space, usually on a single level. It is usually situated near a residential area in order to be convenient to consumers. The basic appeal is the availability of a broad selection of goods under a single roof, at relatively low prices. Other advantages include ease of parking and frequently the convenience of shopping hours that extend into the evening or even 24 hours of the day. Supermarkets usually allocate large budgets to advertising, typically through newspapers and television. They also present elaborate in-shop displays of products. (Full article...)
As of April 2023, Waitrose & Partners operates 329 shops across Great Britain and the Channel Islands, including 65 "little Waitrose" convenience shops. They also export products to 52 countries and have locations in the Middle East. (Full article...)
KFC Corporation, doing business asKFC (an abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken), is an American multinational fast food restaurant chain specializing in Southern fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with over 31,980 locations globally in 150 countries, as of September 2025. The chain is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, a restaurant company that also owns the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains.
KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders (1890–1980), an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Sanders identified the potential of the restaurant-franchising concept, and the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in South Salt Lake, Utah, in 1952. KFC popularized chicken in the fast-food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. By branding himself as "Colonel Sanders", Harland became a prominent figure of American cultural history, and his image remains widely used in KFC advertising to this day. However, the company's rapid expansion overwhelmed the aging Sanders, and he sold it to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey in 1964. (Full article...)
Selgros is a cash and carry chain in Europe, owned by Transgourmet Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of Coop (Switzerland). It started in 1989 as a joint venture between Rewe Group (50%) and Otto Group (50%). In March 2008, Rewe took over 100% of the company, and in October 2008 formed the Transgourmet Holding company with Coop. In 2011, Coop purchased the remaining interests of Transgourmet, which included Selgros. (Full article...)
Image 4
Woolworths Group Limited is an Australian multinationalretail and finance company, primarily known for the operation of its retail chain Woolworths Supermarkets across Australia, Woolworths (previously known as Countdown) in New Zealand and its discount department store Big W. Headquartered in Bella Vista, Sydney, it is the largest company in Australia by revenue and number of employees, and the second-largest in New Zealand. The company is unrelated to the former F. W. Woolworth Company brand of stores which originated in the United States.
Founded in Sydney in 1924 as variety retailer Woolworths Limited, the company entered the New Zealand market in 1929 and has traded in every Australian state and territory since 1960. Woolworths experienced steady growth throughout the 20th century and began to diversify its business, closing the last of its variety stores in the 1980s to focus on its portfolio of other retail brands. Since 2012, Woolworths has undergone significant consolidation, divesting its shopping centre, electronics retailing, home improvement, fuel retailing, liquor retailing and hospitality businesses to concentrate on supermarket retail. (Full article...)
Image 5
Netto is a French discount supermarket chain owned by the Les Mousquetaires group. Previously known as Comptoir des Marchands, the chain changed its name to Netto in 2001. As of 2005 there are over 360 Netto stores in France and Portugal. This chain of stores is neither owned nor affiliated with the Netto owned by the Danish Salling Group or the Netto owned by the German Edeka Group, even if they shared the same logo. (Full article...)
There are 85 Mitre 10 member stores around New Zealand, including 19 in Auckland. Together, the members employ more than 8000 staff. (Full article...)
Image 7
Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue of A$45.7 billion in the 2025 financial year, it is one of Australia's largest companies by revenue. Wesfarmers is also one of the largest private employers in Australia, with approximately 118,000 employees.
Wesfarmers was founded in 1914 as a co-operative to provide services and merchandise to Western Australian farmers. It was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1984 and grew into a major retail conglomerate. (Full article...)
Image 8
The Paper Plus Group is a group of three brands in New Zealand. The group is a three brand co-operative franchise business model.
Two of the stores, Paper Plus and Take Note, sell books, stationery, cards, magazines and giftware, while Office Spot focuses on home office and business supplies. (Full article...)
Action (formerly Action Food Barns and Action Supermarkets) was an Australian supermarket chain. Based in Perth, Action had 80 supermarkets across Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales, and was one of the largest supermarket chains in Australia. (Full article...)
Image 11
Huffer is a New Zealand clothing brand and company started in the late 1990s by New Zealanders Steve Dunstan and Daniel Buckley. The company originally produced and sold outdoors clothing primarily directed towards snowboarders but it has since evolved to become a popular streetwear brand in New Zealand and Australia. (Full article...)
Foodland has established itself as an well-known brand in the South Australian retail sector and directly employs over 7,000 staff and indirectly more than 1,500 South Australian staff. There were 96 stores covering South Australia and Broken Hill in 2023. (Full article...)
Image 13
Penny (German pronunciation:[ˈpɛni]ⓘ) or internationally Penny Market (in Bavaria and AustriaPenny Markt) is a German discountsupermarket chain based in Germany, which operates 3,550 stores. The market was founded by Leibbrand Gruppe in 1973; since 1989, it has been fully owned by the Rewe Group.
In France, the chain was bought in 2005 by the Ed brand of the Carrefour group. In 2010, it operated approximately 3,000 stores across 6 countries in Europe. As of May 2014, Penny was present in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Czech Republic and Romania, with Turkey soon to come. After taking over 7 stores in Liguria from Tuodì in October 2017 for €9.2 million, it is present in Italy with 357 points of sale distributed in 17 regions, served by 7 distribution centers. (Full article...)
Image 14
Tesco plc (/ˈtɛs.koʊ/) is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Sir Jack Cohen in Hackney, London, in 1919. In 2011, it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in the world measured by revenues. It is the market leader of groceries in the UK (where it has a market share of around 28.4%). As well as the United Kingdom, Tesco has stores in Czechia, Ireland, Slovakia, the Isle of Man and Hungary.
Since the 1960s, Tesco has diversified into areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, toys, petrol, software, financial services, telecommunications and internet services. In the 1990s, Tesco re-positioned itself from being a downmarket high-volume low-cost retailer, attempting to attract a range of social groups with its low-cost "Tesco Value" range (launched 1993) and premium "Tesco Finest" range. (Full article...)
The Metro brand is composed of purpose built stores, primarily found in CBD’s and dense population centres, and transition stores which are either former stores of defunct brands such as Thomas Dux Grocer, or smaller Woolworths Supermarkets put under the Metro brand and refurbished. Metro is also the outlet of rapid grocery and food delivery service Metro60, now rebranded as MilkRun, which offers under one hour grocery delivery from 500 locations in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and the Gold Coast. (Full article...)
Image 16
The Alnatura Produktions- und Handels GmbH is a chain of organic food supermarkets and producer of organic food headquartered in Darmstadt, Hesse in Germany. The company was founded in 1984 by Götz Rehn and distributes food and textiles, produced according to ecological aspects, under the trademark Alnatura. The company is based on ideas of the esoteric anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner, which its founder Götz Rehn was strongly influenced by. The company is like Demeter and others, part of the pseudoscientific anthroposopical community in Germany.
These products are sold both by various drugstore and retail chains as well as the captive organic supermarket chain Alnatura Super Natur Markt. Alnatura currently operates 107 supermarkets in Germany, each with 500 to 800 square meters of retail space, mainly in Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. (Full article...)
Image 17
* Clancy's - rebranded as IGA in 2006. (Western Australia only)
Festival IGA Supermarkets - rebranded as IGA in 2000. (Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales)
In 1987, Coles Myer purchased the 34-store Shoeys discount supermarket chain in New South Wales (subsequently renamed as Bi-Lo). (Full article...)
Image 19
Zara (/ˈzɑːrə/; Spanish:[ˈθaɾa]) is a Spanish fast fashion retail subsidiary of the Spanish multinational fashion design, manufacturing, and retailing group Inditex. Zara sells clothing, accessories, beauty products and perfumes. The head office is located at Arteixo in the province of A Coruña, Spain. In 2020 alone, it launched over twenty new product lines. (Full article...)
Image 20
Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue of A$45.7 billion in the 2025 financial year, it is one of Australia's largest companies by revenue. Wesfarmers is also one of the largest private employers in Australia, with approximately 118,000 employees.
Wesfarmers was founded in 1914 as a co-operative to provide services and merchandise to Western Australian farmers. It was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1984 and grew into a major retail conglomerate. (Full article...)
The Coffee Club is an Australian multinational coffeehouse-style café chain. Originally created in 1989 as a place to get "an excellent coffee", the concept includes cafébar/restaurant stores with expanded menus and full table service.
For editor resources and to collaborate with other editors on improving Wikipedia's Supermarket-related articles, see WikiProject Companies and WikiProject Food and drink.
Do you have a question about supermarket-related content on Wikipedia that you can't find the answer to? Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.
![Image 1 KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC (an abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken), is an American multinational fast food restaurant chain specializing in Southern fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with over 31,980 locations globally in 150 countries, as of September 2025[update]. The chain is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, a restaurant company that also owns the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains. KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders (1890–1980), an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Sanders identified the potential of the restaurant-franchising concept, and the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in South Salt Lake, Utah, in 1952. KFC popularized chicken in the fast-food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. By branding himself as "Colonel Sanders", Harland became a prominent figure of American cultural history, and his image remains widely used in KFC advertising to this day. However, the company's rapid expansion overwhelmed the aging Sanders, and he sold it to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey in 1964. (Full article...)](./_assets_/c8f24dc75f9c782269c846c9b17e400f/Blank.png)
_-_Route_Panam%C3%A9ricaine.JPG)
