Hypermarket

Not to be confused with Hypermart USA.

The produce section of a typical Wal-Mart Supercenter (Wal-Mart's hypermarket brand).

In commerce, a hypermarket is a superstore which combines a supermarket, a pharmacy, and a department store. The result is a gigantic retail facility which carries an enormous range of products under one roof, including full lines of fresh groceries and apparel. When they are planned, constructed, and executed correctly, a consumer can ideally satisfy all of their routine weekly shopping needs in one trip to the hypermarket.

The concept was pioneered by the United States Fred Meyer chain, which opened the first hypermarket in 1931 in Portland, Oregon. Fred Meyer is now part of the largest grocery store chain in the United States, Kroger.

After the successes of super- and hyper-markets and amid fears that all 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 are generally situated everywhere, regardless if it urban or not. The Japanese government encourages hypermarket installations as mutual investment by financial stocks are a common way to run hypermarkets. In a japanese hypermarket, you could see restaurants, 'Manga' (Japanese cartoon) stands, an Internet cafe, typical department store merchandise, a full range of groceries, beauty saloons and other services all inside the same store. More recently a new concept of crossing the "dollar shop" concept and hypermarkets resulted in the birth of 'hyakin plaza'. Hyakin or hyaku en means 100 Yen (roughly 1 US Dollar).

In France, hypermarkets are generally situated in "commercial zones" (In 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, automobile items, etc.).

Other major hypermarket chains include:

• In the United States: Wal-Mart (known as Wal-Mart Supercenters), Fred Meyer (part of the Kroger group), Meijer, and SuperTargets. 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). Hypermarkets are very controversial in the U.S., with opposition coming primarily from preservationists who argue that they destroy conventional grocers, supermarkets, and downtowns. Hypermarkets have been most successful in northern states where adverse winter weather conditions make it inconvenient to visit multiple stores.

• In the Japan JUSCO, Eoen, YouMe Town, Fuji and Aoiyama are widely seen. Tokyo Hyper fish market, world's largest fishmarket, is a hypermarket as well.

• In the United Kingdom, the first hypermarket in the UK opened in Irlam in 1976 by Tesco.Thanks to that they now operate some smaller hypermarkets (known as Tesco Extra stores)and also some Tesco Hypermarket's that have survived ever since the one in Irlam. ASDA (owned by Wal-Mart) also operates some hypermarkets (ASDA WAL-MART Supercentres). For a number of years Sainsbury's operated thirteen 'Savacentre' stores as a joint venture with BhS. Sainsbury's bought out the BhS share and in 1999 Savacentre merged with the rest of the Sainsbury's supermarket chain.
• 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 Germany, the biggest hypermarket brand is 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 and also because hypermarkets are seen as a threat to inner-city businesses, the hypermarket concept is not as successful in Germany as in other countries.
• In Italy and Italian speaking parts of Switzerland the term is ipermercati, see Ipercoop
• In Canada, Loblaw operates the Real Canadian Superstore. Wal-Mart has been operating stores in Canada since 1994. Initially, 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 2006, the majority of stores have been modified to reflect this change. Thus far, no stores are as large as those in the U.S. However, starting in 2006, Wal-Mart will be building larger stores similar to the Supercentre type in the States. These will be much larger and include a full grocery selection. The first one will open in Ancaster Ontario, with 20 projected to open across Canada by the end of the year and as many as 60-80 by the end of the next year. A number of existing stores may be expanded to reflect this change, where space allows.
• In Malaysia Giant Hypermarket is the country first own hypermarket.
• In Hong Kong, there were some hypermarkets owned by Carrefour. Currently, there are four hypermarkets, all named PARKnSHOP Megastore.
• In South Africa the Pick 'n Pay chain uses the term for 14 of their largest stores.
• In India Giant and Big Bazaar are the major hypermarket chains though the recent opening up of the retail sector to foreign investors is likely to increase the numbers exponentially.
• In Mexico the Comercial Mexicana is the Mexican version of Wal Mart
• 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 Poland, the most common hypermarkets are Carrefour, Géant, Real and Tesco.

Another category of hypermarket is the membership based wholesale warehouse clubs that are popular in North America. Costco and Sam's Club, of which the latter is a division of Wal-Mart, are the largest companies in this category. However, it is debatable whether the warehouse clubs are true hypermarkets owing to their sparse interior decor and relatively limited range of products. To maximize turnover of inventory, they do not even attempt to carry a full range of products for each product type, but carry only those products likely to sell in bulk and in very high volume.

In California, another major hypermarket chain was the membership-based Fedco Superstores. In the mid-1990s, the hypermarket chain became defunct by the development of Wal-Mart and other discount retailers.