Carrefour is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retailer in the world by revenue, it operates a chain of hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores, which as of January 2021, comprises its 12,225 stores in over 30 countries.
A hypermarket is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including full grocery lines and general merchandise. In theory, hypermarkets allow customers to satisfy all their routine shopping needs in one trip. The term hypermarket was coined in 1968 by French trade expert Jacques Pictet.
Champion was a supermarket chain that operated in France and owned by the international retailer Carrefour. There were also Champion supermarkets in Belgium, Spain, Poland, Greece, Turkey, Argentina and Brazil.
SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, and now consists of more than 13,500 stores in 48 countries. The company's name is an acronym of the slogan "Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig", which was used by van Well to describe the brand and translates as "All Benefit from Joint Co-operation Regularly".
Makro is an international brand of warehouse clubs, also called cash and carry stores. Makro was founded by SHV Holdings, a Dutch conglomerate based in Utrecht in partnership with German company Metro AG, with the first warehouse club opened in Amsterdam in 1968. Currently, ownership of the worldwide chain of stores is split between different companies like Metro AG in Europe, SHV Holdings in Latin America and CP All in Asia. In many countries, access to stores is restricted to business customers, and the stores are not open to the general public.
A big-box store is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store.
Géant Casino is a hypermarket chain based in Saint-Étienne, France, part of the French retailing giant Groupe Casino.
Big C, is a grocery and general merchandising retailer headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. Big C is as of 2016 Thailand's second-largest hypermarket operator after Lotus's. It has operations in four countries, namely Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentación, S.A. (DIA) is a Spanish multinational hard-discount supermarket chain founded in 1979. DIA is the largest franchiser company in Spain and the fourth largest food sector franchiser in Europe. The Company operates under DIA brand in Spain, Argentina and Brazil and under Minipreço brand in Portugal. It has also operates 1.051 Clarel beauty stores in Spain.
Intermarché is the brand of a general commercial French supermarket, part of the large retail group Les Mousquetaires founded in 1969 under the name EX Offices, by Jean-Pierre Le Roch. EX Offices was renamed Intermarché in 1972.
Carrefour Express is a convenience store chain owned and operated by French retailer Carrefour with locations in three continents. Carrefour Express was created in 2007 to consolidate all convenience stores owned by Carrefour worldwide under one name. In 2010, all convenience store operations in France, including Marché Plus, Champion and Shopi were rebranded as Express.
Market Place in Hong Kong, Cold Storage Fresh in Singapore, Mercató in Malaysia and The Marketplace in the Philippines is a high-end supermarket chain owned by DFI Retail Group. The chain also has a joint venture in mainland China with Beijing Hualian Group called BHG Market Place and formerly ran stores in Taiwan until they were sold to Carrefour.
Ed was a French brand of discount stores founded in 1978. It franchises its name to small-format hard discounts stores in France. It was part of the Carrefour Group.
Tesco has expanded its operations from the United Kingdom to 11 other countries. Tesco pulled out of the United States in 2013, but continues to see growth elsewhere. Tesco's international expansion strategy has responded to the need to be sensitive to local expectations in other countries by entering into joint ventures with local partners, such as Samsung Group in South Korea, and Charoen Pokphand in Thailand, appointing a very high proportion of local personnel to management positions. It also makes small acquisitions as part of its strategy: for example, in its 2005/2006 financial year it made acquisitions in South Korea, one in Poland and one in Japan.
