What is supermarket store

Browse Titles. What is Supermarket 1. A retail format with a broad range of branded food articles, characterised by a self-service set-up with, usually, counters for serving fresh products like meat, cheese and bread. A large self-service grocery store selling groceries and dairy products and household goods. Surface area: , m 2. According to the Webster International dictionary , a Supermarket is a self-service store or independent retail market offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments.

It is larger in size and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store and it is smaller than a hypermarket or superstore. A large form of the traditional grocery store, is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food and household products, organized into aisles. It is larger in size and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket or big-box market. An area of the shopfloor used for strategically placed inventory, whereby the inventory levels are controlled by an authorization mechanism such as Kanban I.

Find more terms and definitions using our Dictionary Search. Supermarket appears in:. In addition to fresh and canned food, supermarkets also keep household products such as cleaning supplies, baby goods, pet needs, medicine, kitchen appliances, crockery, etc. Supermarkets offer low prices and many deals or discounts on their products to attract consumers. Some even operate on negative profit margins sometimes to bring in customers. Supermarkets usually receive goods and merchandise in bulk from either manufacturers or large distributors in order to avail economies of scale.

The profit margin is usually very small and the discounts are forwarded to the customers. Supermarkets may also be part of a huge chain system and may be closer to other supermarkets. Supermarkets closer together can save even more on costs by sharing distributors and slashing their transportation costs.

Supermarkets are usually one-level brick and mortar store but may also include two floors depending on the amount of supplies that are kept. The concept of an inexpensive food market that relies on discounts based on economies of scale was developed by Vincent Astor, who founded the Astor Market in but failed to be able to make a successful venture and shuttered it in The first self-service grocery store concept was developed by entrepreneur Clarence Saunders, who founded the Piggly Wiggly stores in The store become a financial success and become a franchise.

Slowly, the concept started becoming popular all over the world, with many developed countries establishing their own self-service grocery stores. In the developing countries, self-service grocery stores are a recent phenomenon and have received only gained popularity in the last decade or so. Specifically in these countries, many supermarkets also offer loose or open merchandise similar to old grocery stores. People can measure our grains, rice and other staple products and buy it by weight.

Supermarkets have also started offering ready-to-eat foods as a way to provide the customer to shop as well as eat at the same time. Some supermarkets may also have banks, ATMs, coffee bar, juice bar and anything else that may attract customers.

Convenience stores are small stores that are open for long hours and offer a small variety of goods. Customers gave grocers their shopping lists, and grocers retrieved the items for them. In , the first self-service grocery store opened Piggly Wiggly in Memphis, Tenn.

In the s, two grocery chains in southern California opened stores that were about 10 times the size of the average grocery store, introducing the term "super market" to the American vocabulary, says The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. Many grocery stores across the United States had, in fact, expanded into chains by then, contributing to a decline in small, independent grocers.

And by the mids, many chains had even shut down their smaller stores to open larger stores — that is, supermarkets. Today, grocery stores specialize in food and drinks but sell a small selection of household products, as well. While food and drinks remain central to supermarkets, these stores devote more shelf space to other items than grocery stores.

Supermarkets offer more household products, plus personal care products, cookware, and small kitchen appliances. Other markers of supermarkets include departments for clothing, home decor, gardening supplies, and entertainment. Likewise, you are unlikely to find a pharmacy or a bank inside a grocery store.