The photo is of the grocery store closest to where I live. It is within walking distance. I don’t go to Tom Thumb often because it has higher prices than other stores except for its own store brand. But, it is nice having a grocery store so close. A few years ago I traveled to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and stayed there for an entire month. It “big-box” grocery store was very large, clean and well-designed. Many of the residents came to the store by bus or taxi because they didn’t own cars. Of course, all the labels were in Spanish, so I often guessed what was inside based on the picture on the label. But the thing that surprised me the most was that the milk was not refrigerated. I guess they use a different process for milk there because I drank it and never got sick. I do love a bright, well-lit grocery store with beautiful produce. We are fortunate to live in a place where there is an abundance of food available. I used to go to the grocery store whenever I needed something. However, during the pandemic I learned to only go once a week plus I often ordered online for pickup at the store. For awhile my Sam’s Club had a concierge service for seniors during certain hours. You parked in a designated spot and handed your list to a store employee through your car window. The employee would often return a short time later, put your items in your trunk and automatically charge your credit card. Even when the pandemic ends, I think I will continue to shop weekly instead of sporadically during the week. Before the pandemic, there was a different Tom Thumb in Dallas that had an upstairs where wine was served and there was a pianist playing a baby grand. The Whole Foods in Addison does have a bar where you can order drinks plus a few food items. Let’s find out more about grocery stores.
According to Wikipedia, a grocery store (North America), grocer or grocery shop (UK), is a store primarily engaged in retailing a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket and is not used to refer to other types of stores that sell groceries. In the UK, shops that sell food are distinguished as grocers or grocery shops, though in everyday use, people usually use either the term "supermarket" or for a smaller type of store that sells groceries, a "corner shop" or "convenience shop."
Larger types of stores that sell groceries — such as supermarkets and hypermarkets — usually stock significant amounts of non-food products, such as clothing and household items. Small grocery stores that mainly sell fruits and vegetables are known as greengrocers (Britain) or produce markets (U.S.), and small grocery stores that predominantly sell prepared food, such as candy and snacks, are known as convenience shops or delicatessens.
Some groceries specialize in the foods of certain countries or regions, such as Chinese, Italian, Middle Eastern or Polish. These stores are known in the U.S. as ethnic markets and may also serve as gathering places for immigrants.
Definition
The U.S. and Canadian governments do not limit their definition of grocery store to supermarkets. The category of business "Grocery stores" is defined as "primarily engaged in retailing a general line of food products", and the subcategory "Supermarkets and Other Grocery (except Convenience) Stores" is defined as "establishments generally known as supermarkets and grocery stores, primarily engaged in retailing a general line of food, such as canned and frozen foods; fresh fruits and vegetables; and fresh and prepared meats, fish and poultry. Included in this industry are delicatessen-type establishments primarily engaged in retailing a general line of food.
The UK government does not define "grocery (shop)" or "supermarket" nor a distinction between them, but defines the types of store formats whether they sell groceries or otherwise:
· "One-stop shops" as over 1,400 square meters or 15,000 square feet.
· "Mid-range stores" as between 280 and 1,400 square meters or 3,000 and 15,000 square
feet.
· "Convenience stores" as less than 280 square meters or 3,000 square feet.
In stark contrast to the U.S., "grocery store" is far from a synonym for supermarket in India. 90% of the $810 billion food and grocery market sales are at the 12 million small grocery stores, called kirana or mom-and-pop shops.
Early history
Beginning as early as the 14th century, a grocer or "purveyor" was a dealer in comestible dry goods such as spices, peppers, sugar and later cocoa, tea and coffee. Because these items were often bought in bulk, they were named after the French word for wholesaler, or "grossier." This, in turn, is derived from the Medieval Latin term "grossarius," from which the term "gross" — meaning a quantity of 12 dozen or 144 — is also derived.
As increasing numbers of staple foodstuffs became available in cans and other less perishable packaging, the trade expanded its province. Today, grocers deal in a wide range of staple foodstuffs including such perishables as dairy products, meats and produce. Such goods are, hence, called groceries.
Many rural areas still contain general stores that sell goods ranging from tobacco products to imported napkins. Traditionally, general stores have offered credit to their customers, a system of payment that works on trust rather than modern credit cards. This allowed farm families to buy staples until their harvest could be sold.
Modernization
The first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders, an inventor and entrepreneur. Prior to this innovation, grocery stores operated "over the counter," with customers asking a grocer to retrieve items from inventory. Saunders' invention allowed a much smaller number of clerks to service the customers, proving successful — according to a 1929 issue of Time — "partly because of its novelty, partly because neat packages and large advertising appropriations have made retail grocery selling almost an automatic procedure."
The early supermarkets began as chains of grocer's shops. The development of supermarkets and other large grocery stores has meant that smaller grocery stores often must create a niche market by selling unique, premium quality or ethnic foods that are not easily found in supermarkets. A small grocery store may also compete by locating in a mixed commercial-residential area close to and convenient for — its customers. Organic foods are also becoming a more popular niche market for the smaller stores.
Grocery stores operate in many different styles ranging from rural family-owned operations, such as IGAs, to boutique chains, such as Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's, to larger supermarket chain stores such as Walmart and Kroger Marketplace. In some places, food cooperatives or "co-op" markets owned by their own shoppers have been popular. However, there has recently been a trend towards larger stores serving larger geographic areas. Very large "all-in-one" hypermarkets such as Walmart, Target and Meijer have recently forced consolidation of the grocery businesses in some areas, and the entry of variety stores such as Dollar General into rural areas has undercut many traditional grocery stores. The global buying power of such very efficient companies has put an increased financial burden on traditional local grocery stores, as well as the national supermarket chains, and many have been caught up in the retail apocalypse of the 2010s.
Many European cities are so dense in population and buildings that large supermarkets — in the American sense — cannot replace the neighborhood grocer's shop. However, "Metro" shops have been appearing in town and city centers in many countries, leading to the decline of independent smaller shops. Large out-of-town supermarkets and hypermarkets — such as Tesco and Sainsbury's in the United Kingdom — have been steadily weakening trade from smaller shops. Many grocery chains like Spar or Mace are taking over the regular family business model.
Small format stores
Neighborhood/”mom and pop” grocery
In developing countries, often a significant portion of grocery shopping is done at so-called "mom-and-pop" i.e, family-run small grocery stores. 90% of the $810 billion Indian food and grocery market sales are at the 12 million small grocery stores, called kirana or mom-and-pop shops. Similarly, in Mexico, tiendas de la esquina — literally "corner stores" — are still common places for people to buy groceries and sundries, even though they become less and less of the market over time.
Convenience store
A convenience shop is a small store that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, snack foods, candy, toiletries, soft drinks, tobacco products and newspapers. They differ from general stores and village shops in that they are not in a rural location and are used as a convenient supplement to larger shops.
Although larger, newer convenience stores may have quite a broad range of items, the selection is still limited compared to supermarkets, and in many stores, only one or two choices are available. Convenience stores usually charge significantly higher prices than ordinary grocery stores or supermarkets, which they make up for with convenience by serving more locations and having shorter cashier lines. Many convenience stores offer food ready to eat, such as breakfast sandwiches and other breakfast food.
Delicatessen
A delicatessen store is a type of food store where fine foods are sold. In this sense, the name is often abbreviated to deli. The term delicatessen means "delicacies" or "fine foods." In English, "delicatessen" originally meant only this specially prepared food.
Greengrocer
A greengrocer is a retail trader in fruit and vegetables; that is, in groceries that are mostly green in color. Greengrocer is primarily a British and Australian term, and greengrocers' shops were once common in cities, towns and villages.
Health food store
A health food store is a type of grocery store that primarily sells health foods, organic foods, local produce and often nutritional supplements. Health food stores typically offer a wider or more specialized selection of foods than conventional grocery stores for their customers, such as people with special dietary needs.
Health food stores became much more common in the 1960s in connection with the newly emerging ecology movement and counterculture.
Milk bar
In Australia and New Zealand, a milk bar is a suburban local general store or café. Similar terms include tuck shops, delicatessens or "delis" and corner shops. The first businesses using the name "milk bar" was started in India in 1930. By the late 1940s, milk bars had evolved to include not only groceries, but also became places where young people could buy ready-made food and nonalcoholic drinks and could socialize.
Large format stores
Supermarket
A supermarket — 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. The supermarket typically comprises meat, fresh produce, dairy and baked goods aisles, along with shelf space reserved for canned and packaged goods as well as for various nonfood items such as kitchenware, household cleaners, pharmacy products and pet supplies.
Other services offered at some supermarkets may include those of banks, cafés, childcare centers, photo processing, video rentals, pharmacies and/or gas stations.
Hypermarket
A hypermarket is a superstore combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including a full groceries line and general merchandise. Another category of stores sometimes included in the hypermarket category is the membership-based wholesale warehouse clubs that are popular in North America.
Online grocer
An online grocer is a recent phenomenon that has developed as a type of e-commerce. Several online grocery stores exist, one of the oldest available in the U.S. being Peapod. Nowadays, many online grocery stores such as Amazon, Netgrocer, MyBrands, Efooddepot and many more all aim to provide quality ethnic food products with timely delivery and convenience of ordering online. Other large retailers in the U.S. have started similar models, including AmazonFresh and Prime Pantry, both run by Amazon.com, Walmart's To-Go service and smaller companies like Yummy.com and RelayFoods. In the U.S., sales from online grocers in 2013 were $15 billion. Online grocery stores are more popular in Europe, where sales from 2012 in Britain alone were €7.1 billion, and in certain markets are projected to double from 2012 to 2016.
Regional variations
Europe
Larger grocer complexes that include other facilities, such as petrol stations, is especially common in the United Kingdom, where major chains such as Sainsbury's and Tesco have many locations operating under this format. Traditional shops throughout Europe have been preserved because of their history and their classic appearance. They are sometimes still found in rural areas, although they are rapidly disappearing.
South America
Grocery stores in South America have been growing fast since the early 1980s. A large percentage of food sales and other articles take place in grocery stores today. Some examples are the Chilean chains Cencosud (Jumbo and Santa Isabel covering Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Peru), Walmart (Lider and Ekono) as well as Falabella (Tottus in Chile and Peru and Supermercados San Francisco in Chile). These three chains are subsidiaries of large retail companies which also have other kinds of business units, such as department stores and home improvement outlets. All three also operate their own credit cards, which are a key driver for sales, and they also sell insurance and operate travel agencies. These companies also run some malls in countries such as Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia.
Two other chains started in 2008: Unimarc — which bought several small local chains and has over 20% of the grocery segment in Chile — and Southern Cross, a Chilean investment fund that has around 8.6% of the supermarket segment which is mainly oriented to the southern areas of the country. In Puerto Rico, popular grocery stores include Pueblo Supermarkets and Amigo.
North America
In some countries such as the United States, grocery stores descended from trading posts, which sold not only food but clothing, furniture, household items, tools and other miscellaneous merchandise. These trading posts evolved into larger retail businesses known as general stores. These facilities generally dealt only in "dry" goods such as baking soda, canned foods, dry beans and flour. Perishable foods were obtained from specialty markets, such as fresh meat or sausages from a butcher and milk from a local dairy, while eggs and vegetables were either produced by families themselves, bartered for with neighbors or purchased at a farmers' market or a local greengrocer.
In the U.S., there are many larger chain stores, but there are also many small chains and independent grocery stores. About 11% of groceries is sold by a grocery store that is either independent or in a chain of just one, two or three stores, making the independent stores, taken collectively, bigger than the biggest chains.
Most food in the U.S. is bought at traditional brick-and-mortar grocery stores. As of 2019, about 3% of food was bought from an online retailer such as Amazon.com.
The economic trends affecting grocery stores include:
· In every decade since the 1960s,
Americans have spent an increasing
share of their money on eating at
restaurants, which reduces their need to
buy groceries.
· Groceries are sold by many other stores,
such as convenience stores, drug stores
and dollar stores. The result of retail
channel blurring is that even when
people are buying groceries, only about
half of them are buying groceries from a
grocery store.
· Online sales of food are small but
increasing. People who buy groceries
from an internet retailer or a meal kit
company have less need to buy
groceries from a grocery store.
· People want to buy foods that reflect local and regional specialties. Sales of national
brands — such as Nabisco cookies and crackers — have declined, and the companies
have responded by changing their marketing approach. The reduction in advertising has
resulted in fewer sales at the grocery store.
Food waste
As of 2011, 1.3 billion tons of food — about one third of the global food production — are lost or wasted annually. The USDA estimates that 27% of food is lost annually. In developing and developed countries which operate either commercial or industrial agriculture, food waste can occur at most stages of the food industry and in significant amounts.
Packaging protects food from damage during its transportation from farms and factories via warehouses to retailing, as well as preserving its freshness upon arrival. Although it avoids considerable food waste, packaging can compromise efforts to reduce food waste in other ways, such as by contaminating waste that could be used for animal feedstocks.
Retail stores can throw away large quantities of food. Usually, this consists of items that have reached either their best before, sell-by or use-by dates. Food that passed the best before and sell-by date — and even some food that passed the use-by date — is still edible at the time of disposal, but stores have widely varying policies to handle the excess food. Some stores put effort into preventing access to poor or homeless people while others work with charitable organizations to distribute food.
Retailers also contribute to waste as a result of their contractual arrangements with suppliers. Failure to supply agreed quantities renders farmers or processors liable to have their contracts cancelled. As a consequence, they plan to produce more than actually required to meet the contract, to have a margin of error. Surplus production is often simply disposed of. Some grocery stores donate leftover food — for example, deli foods and bread past their expiration date — to homeless shelters or charity kitchens.
The European Union claimed 2014 to be "Year Against Food Waste." The contracts that most retailers had signed required that food would be of a certain quality. With this recent sociopolitical change, food such as non-round tomatoes and apples with blemishes had a new market. Intermarche, France's third-largest supermarket launched its "inglorious fruits and vegetables" campaign to reduce waste. This fruits-and-vegetables-waste-reduction strategy has shown great promise towards this EU proposed campaign. These products are sold at reduced price compared to the perfectionist campaign, showing a 24% increase in sales. Fruta Feia — a Portuguese retailer — ran a similar business strategy with comparable success.
Thursday, June 3, 2021 –
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