A convenience store, bodega, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail store that stocks a range of everyday items such as tea, coffee, groceries, fruits, vegetables, snacks, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery tickets, over-the-counter drugs, toiletries, newspapers and magazines. In some jurisdictions, convenience stores are licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, although many jurisdictions limit such beverages to those with relatively low alcohol content, like beer and wine. The stores may also offer money order and wire transfer services, along with the use of a fax machine or photocopier for a small per-copy cost. Some also sell tickets or recharge smart cards, e.g. OPUS cards in Montreal or include a small deli. 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 stores.
Metro AG is a German multinational company based in Düsseldorf which operates business membership-only cash and carry stores primarily under the Metro brand. Until 2020, it was also active in the general retail business through the Real division, which was sold to an investor consortium.
Poslovni sistem Mercator, d.o.o. is a Slovenian business conglomerate. One of the largest companies in Slovenia by annual revenue, it is the parent company of the Mercator Group of supermarket chains. It is wholly owned by the Croatian joint-stock company Fortenova Group.
Aldi is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when they took over their mother's store in Essen. The business was split into two separate groups in 1960, that later became Aldi Nord, headquartered in Essen, and Aldi Süd, headquartered in Mülheim.
Tully's Coffee is an American specialty coffee manufacturing brand owned by Keurig Dr Pepper, which acquired Tully's brand and wholesale business in 2009.
A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down costs.
Migros is Switzerland's largest retail company, its largest supermarket chain and largest employer. It is also one of the forty largest retailers in the world. It is structured in the form of a co-operative federation, with more than two million members.
Godiva Chocolatier is a Belgian-based international chocolate maker which is owned by Turkish conglomerate Yıldız Holding.
Kesko Corporation is a Finnish retailing conglomerate with its head office in Kalasatama, Helsinki. It is engaged in the grocery trade, building and technical trade, and car trade. It also has operations in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.
Woolworths Holdings Limited is a South African multinational retail company that owns Woolworths, a South African luxury department store chain, and Australian retailer Country Road Group. Woolworths, however, has no association to Australia's Woolworths supermarket chain.
Kaufland is a German hypermarket chain, part of the Schwarz Gruppe which also owns Lidl. The hypermarket directly translates to English as "buy-land." It opened its first store in 1984 in Neckarsulm and quickly expanded to become a major chain in what was formerly East Germany. It operates over 1,500 stores in Germany, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova.
Mein Real was a chain of hypermarkets in Germany, until 2020 owned by Metro AG. It was formed in 1992, from the merger of chains divi, Basar, Continent, Esbella and real-kauf. Until 2014 it was also active internationally, in Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey; most of these operations were bought by French retail company Auchan Group. In 2018, Metro decided to divest the Real chain and in 2021, many markets were taken over by either Edeka, Kaufland, Globus, Rewe or V-Markt and got rebranded with the brand of the respective new owner. The process of selling was finished by mid of 2022. However, the original plans to liquidate real completely were dropped in early 2022 when it was decided that the remaining 60 stores will continue under the real brand name under new ownership. Real's former website (real.de) was replaced by kaufland.de in 2021. The new website can be found at meinreal.de.
Dieter Schwarz is a German billionaire businessman, and owner of the Schwarz-Gruppe. He is the former chairman and CEO of the supermarket chain Lidl, and the hypermarket chain Kaufland.
Tengelmann Warenhandelsgesellschaft KG, doing business as the Tengelmann Group, is a holding company based in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
Co-op Food is a brand used for the food retail business of The Co-operative Group in the United Kingdom.
Lidl is a German international discount retailer chain that operates over 12,000 stores, present in every member state of the European Union, Serbia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Headquartered in Neckarsulm, Baden-Württemberg, the company belongs to the Schwarz Group, which also includes hypermarket chain Kaufland.
CST Brands, Inc. was an American publicly traded fuel and convenience retailer. It was the second-largest of its kind in North America, with 1,900 outlets in the U.S. and Canada. CST Brands had 2013 revenues of about $12.8 billion and made approximately $360 million in EBITDA. Stores were concentrated in the central and southwestern U.S. states and in eastern Canada. Corner Store was the firm's primary retail brand in the US and in Canada's English speaking provinces. In Canada's French speaking provinces, Dépanneur du Coin was the company's retail brand. In addition to convenience store retail sales, CST Brands also sold fuel under a number of licensed energy brands such as Valero, Exxon, Shell, and Phillips 66.
Klaus Gehrig is a German businessman, the CEO of Schwarz Gruppe, a private family-owned German retail group that owns Lidl and Kaufland, and is the largest retailer in Europe. Gehrig succeeded company owner Dieter Schwarz as CEO of Lidl in 2004.
The Lidl Austria GmbH is a subsidiary of Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG, part of the Schwarz Group. Lidl Austria's core assortment includes groceries, with a focus on over 2000 products, many of which are sourced locally from Austria. The company emphasizes a wide range of fresh and packaged food products.
