Supermarket

A supermarket is defined in the Webster Dictionary as "a large self-service grocery store selling groceries and dairy products and household goods". It was also defined in a court ruling at the State of New York Court of Appeals in 1971 as "a retail market that sells foods, convenience goods, and household merchandise arranged in open mass display."

History

Neither of these definitions gives information on what size a store would be before it could be termed a "Supermarket". In addition the word "supermarket" means different things to different countries around the world, as global supermarket chains have discovered recently. However, it is certainly a fact that supermarkets began in the U.S.

From the beginnings of the retail trade there has been a trend for general stores to increase in size and for specialist stores to combine (so called "combination stores"). It is believed that store chains have existed from as early as 2,200 years ago; the first self-service store was first introduced in 1916 in the U.S. So, all the elements of the supermarket were in place.

In the absence of a universal definition for the supermarket there can be no authoritative reference point in history that marks the shift from small general stores to supermarkets. There are, however, important milestones, such as the growth of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, which, in 1910 opened the Economy Store format, selling basic dry groceries such as tea, coffee and tinned foods. These items were sold in relatively high volume at low margin, another hallmark of the supermarket. They also only traded in ready cash and generally did not allow credit nor delivery to customers. This "cash and carry" concept grew rapidly over the coming years.

After the introduction of self-service in 1916, and despite the recession that followed in the 1920's, many stores continued to consolidate and increase their sales volumes, thus improving their efficiency and buying power.

The next two milestone were the introduction of faster means of transport, especially the motor vehicle, and the rapid take-up of home refrigerators. These two elements allowed more affluent consumers to require larger quantities of food in one shopping trip. As this one-stop-shop tendency spread throughout the U.S., shopkeeper and store chains became increasingly aware of the critical need to attract these customers to their stores. This resulted in the lower prices, but also drove these companies to try new ideas such as the Drive-In store. As these stores were specifically for car users, they did not need to be situated in the expensive centre of town but instead were typically found in lower rent neighbourhoods on the outskirts.

Although the drive-in concept was short-lived, the idea of accommodating cars may have been the final piece of the jigsaw. By combining car-parking, self-service, low prices with high volumes, the supermarket concept began in earnest in the 1930's in the U.S..

All these elements were brought together in the mind of Michael J. Cullen who suggested to his employers, Mutual Grocery and Kroger Stores, that they open a very large store on the outskirts of town selling national brands at low margin. His idea wasn't taken up by his bosses, so he decided to open his own store in a vacant garage in Jamaica Avenue, Long Island, Queens in New York. Its sheer size prompted customers to call it a "warehouse grocery store". To make this a true one-stop shop, Cullen had concessionaires retailing those goods that the store wouldn't ordinarily sell. This store, and the chain that followed, was enormously successful and was soon followed by many others.

These stores not only attracted affluent car owners. The U.S. was in a recession and the low prices on offer attracted many poorer customers who would travel the extra distance in order to benefit from the savings they made on basic goods and the chance to buy items they otherwise could not afford.

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