Editing Supermarket (section)

==History==
[[File:Astor Market meat counter in Manhattan in 1915.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Astor Market]] in [[New York City|New York]], one predecessor of the modern supermarket, operated from 1915 to 1917.]]
[[File:Piggly Wiggly store, 1918.png|thumb|300px|[[Piggly Wiggly]] store in [[Memphis, Tennessee]], the first supermarket, 1918]]
[[File:SB-butik 1941.jpg|thumb|A supermarket in [[Sweden]], 1941]]
[[File:EmpressWalkLoblaws-Vivid.jpg|thumb|[[Consumers]] shopping for produce and fruit, 2012]]
[[File:Klaukkala S-Market 05.jpg|thumb|[[S Group|S-market]] store with [[24/7 service]] in [[Klaukkala]], [[Finland]], 2022]]
===Early history of retail food sales===

Historically, the earliest retailers were [[peddler]]s who marketed their wares in the streets, but by the 1920s, retail food sales in the United States had mostly shifted to small corner grocery stores.<ref name="Murphy_Page_95">{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Wendy Wiedenhoft |title=Consumer Culture and Society |date=2017 |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=Thousand Oaks, California |isbn=9781483358147 |page=95 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aTHFDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA95 |access-date=January 8, 2023}}</ref> In that era, the standard retail grocery business model was for a clerk to fetch products from shelves behind the merchant's counter while customers waited in front of the counter, indicating the items they wanted.<ref name="Murphy_Page_95" /> Customers needed to ask because "most stores were designed to keep customers (and their children) away from the food".<ref name="Levinson_Page_77">{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=Marc |title=The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America |date=2011 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |isbn=9781429969024 |page=77 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZphE-pqXb1wC&pg=PA77 }}</ref>  Most foods and merchandise did not come in individually wrapped consumer-sized packages, so the clerk had to measure out and wrap the precise amount desired.<ref name="Murphy_Page_95" />  Merchants did not post prices, which forced customers to haggle and bargain with clerks to reach fair prices for their purchases.<ref name="Murphy_Page_95" /><ref name="Hamilton_Page_12">{{cite book |last1=Hamilton |first1=Shane |title=Supermarket USA: Food and Power in the Cold War Farms Race |date=2018 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=9780300232691 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lepqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12}}</ref><ref name="Lorr_Page_25">{{cite book |last1=Lorr |first1=Benjamin |title=The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket |date=2020 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=9780553459418 |page=25 |edition=2021 paperback |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v6FHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA25}}</ref>  Haggling was further complicated by other factors such as the clerk's awareness of the customer's social status and ability to pay.<ref name="Hamilton_Page_12" /> This [[business model]] had already been established in Europe for millennia, with examples of primitive retail stores found as far back as [[ancient Rome]].<ref name="Vadini">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7yJTDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 | location=Rome| publisher=Edizioni Nuova Cultura |title=Public Space and an Interdisciplinary Approach to Design | date=28 February 2018| isbn=9788868129958 | last1=Vadini | first1=Ettore |page=77}}</ref>   It offered extensive opportunities for social interaction: many regarded this style of shopping as "a social occasion" and would often "pause for conversations with the staff or other customers".<ref name="Vadini" />  

These practices were by nature slow, had high [[labor intensity]], and were quite expensive. The number of customers who could be attended to at one time was limited by the number of staff employed in the store.  Early grocery stores were "austere" and tiny by modern standards, with as few as 450 items.<ref name="Levinson_Page_78">{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=Marc |title=The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America |date=2011 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |isbn=9781429969024 |page=78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZphE-pqXb1wC&pg=PA78 }}</ref> Shopping for groceries often involved trips to multiple specialty shops,<ref name="Levinson_Page_79">{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=Marc |title=The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America |date=2011 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |isbn=9781429969024 |page=79 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZphE-pqXb1wC&pg=PA79 }}</ref> such as a [[greengrocer]], [[butcher]],<ref name="Lorr_Page_24">{{cite book |last1=Lorr |first1=Benjamin |title=The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket |date=2020 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=9780553459418 |page=24 |edition=2021 paperback |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v6FHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA24}}</ref> [[bakery]], [[fishmonger]] and [[dry goods]] store, in addition to a [[general store]].<ref name="Lorr_Page_25">{{cite book |last1=Lorr |first1=Benjamin |title=The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket |date=2020 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=9780553459418 |page=25 |edition=2021 paperback |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v6FHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA25}}</ref><ref name="Hamilton_Page_13">{{cite book |last1=Hamilton |first1=Shane |title=Supermarket USA: Food and Power in the Cold War Farms Race |date=2018 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=9780300232691 |page=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lepqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA13}}</ref>  Milk and other items of short [[shelf life]] were delivered by a [[milkman]].<ref name="Lorr_Page_25" /> These small retailers were the final links in a "long and tortuous food chain," as most of them were far too small to deal directly with most of the persons who actually harvested, processed, and distributed all that food.<ref name="Levinson_Page_81">{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=Marc |title=The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America |date=2011 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |isbn=9781429969024 |page=81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZphE-pqXb1wC&pg=PA81 }}</ref>  During the 1920s, the highly inefficient nature of the American food distribution system meant that the "average urban family spent fully one-third of its budget on food".<ref name="Levinson_Page_79" /> 

One of the most important defining features of the modern supermarket is cheap food.<ref name="Deener_Page_74">{{cite book |last1=Deener |first1=Andrew |title=The Problem with Feeding Cities: The Social Transformation of Infrastructure, Abundance, and Inequality in America |date=2020 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=9780226703077 |page=74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=98byDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA74 |access-date=January 8, 2023}}</ref> The vast abundance of cheap, wholesome food which modern consumers take for granted today was simply unimaginable before the middle of the 20th century, to the point that the first American supermarket customers in the 1930s were overcome with emotion at the sight of so much cheap food.<ref name="Lorr_Page_32">{{cite book |last1=Lorr |first1=Benjamin |title=The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket |date=2020 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=9780553459418 |page=32 |edition=2021 paperback |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v6FHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA32}}</ref> 

Before the 20th century, food was neither cheap, nor wholesome, nor abundant.  For example, in 1812, almost 90 percent of Americans worked in food production, and they struggled to stay alive on food which was often scarce, of poor quality, and riddled with diseases which could and did often kill them.<ref name="Lorr_Page_6">{{cite book |last1=Lorr |first1=Benjamin |title=The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket |date=2020 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=9780553459418 |page=6 |edition=2021 paperback |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v6FHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA6}}</ref>

===Early experiments in building large stores and chain stores===

The concept of an inexpensive food market relying on economies of scale was developed by [[Vincent Astor]], but he was ahead of his time. He founded the [[Astor Market]] in 1915, investing $750,000 of his fortune into a 165′ by 125′ (50×38-metre) corner of 95th and Broadway, [[Manhattan]], creating, in effect, an open-air mini-mall that sold meat, fruit, produce and flowers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Opening of the Astor market, New York City, 1915|url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c06967/|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|year=1915}}</ref> The expectation was that customers would come from great distances ("miles around"), but in the end, even attracting people from ten blocks away was difficult, and the market folded in 1917.<ref>{{cite magazine| magazine=The Western Fruit Jobber|volume=IV|title=The Retailer| issue=3|date=July 1917|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yRMkAQAAIAAJ&q=%22astor%20market%22&pg=RA2-PA52}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|work=The New York Times|title=The Astor Legacy in Brick and Stone|last=Gray |first=Christopher|date=10 September 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times|title=Streetscapes: Thalia Theater; a closed revival house that may itself be revived|last=Gray|first=Christopher|date=5 July 1987 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/05/realestate/streetscapes-thalia-theater-a-closed-revival-house-that-may-itself-be-revived.html}}</ref>

[[The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company]] (A&P), which was established in 1859, was an early grocery store chain in Canada and the United States. It became common in North American cities in the 1920s. Early chains like A&P did not sell fresh meats or produce. During the 1920s, to reduce the hassle of visiting multiple stores, U.S. grocery store chains like A&P introduced the combination store.<ref name="Levinson_Page_127">{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=Marc |title=The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America |date=2011 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |isbn=9781429969024 |page=127 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZphE-pqXb1wC&pg=PA127 }}</ref><ref name="Deener_Page_72">{{cite book |last1=Deener |first1=Andrew |title=The Problem with Feeding Cities: The Social Transformation of Infrastructure, Abundance, and Inequality in America |date=2020 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=9780226703077 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=98byDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA72 |access-date=January 8, 2023}}</ref>  This was a grocery store which combined several departments under one roof, but generally maintained the traditional system of clerks pulling products from shelves on request.<ref name="Levinson_Page_127" /><ref name="Deener_Page_72" />  By 1929, only one in three U.S. grocery stores was a combination store.<ref name="Deener_Page_72" />

===Self-service grocery stores===

The concept of a self-service grocery store predates the supermarket; it was developed by entrepreneur [[Clarence Saunders (grocer)|Clarence Saunders]] at his [[Piggly Wiggly]] stores, the first of which opened in 1916.<ref name="Deener_Page_73">{{cite book |last1=Deener |first1=Andrew |title=The Problem with Feeding Cities: The Social Transformation of Infrastructure, Abundance, and Inequality in America |date=2020 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=9780226703077 |page=73 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=98byDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA73 |access-date=January 8, 2023}}</ref> Saunders was awarded several patents for the ideas he incorporated into his stores.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US1242872A/en|title=Self-serving store.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US1407680A/en|title=Lighting system for self-serving stores}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US1704061A/en|title=Self-serving store}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US1647889A/en|title=Arrangement and construction of store fixtures}}</ref> The stores were a financial success and Saunders began to offer franchises.

The general trend since then has been to stock shelves at night so that customers, the following day, can obtain their own goods and bring them to the front of the store to pay for them. Although there is a higher risk of [[shoplifting]], the costs of appropriate security measures ideally will be outweighed by reduced labor costs.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://knappily.com/article/5b90bd0f08798e4f0dc84253|title=September 6, 1916: The first supermarket opens for business|date=6 September 2018|publisher=Knappily|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025155834/https://knappily.com/article/5b90bd0f08798e4f0dc84253|archive-date=25 October 2020|access-date=27 April 2022}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=April 2022}}

===Birth of the supermarket===

Historically, there has been much debate about the origin of the supermarket. For example, [[Southern California]] grocery store chains [[Alpha Beta]] and [[Ralphs]] both have strong claims to being the first supermarket.<ref name="Levinson_Page_128">{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=Marc |title=The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America |date=2011 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |isbn=9781429969024 |page=128 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZphE-pqXb1wC&pg=PA128 |access-date=January 8, 2023}}</ref>  By 1930, both chains were already operating multiple {{convert|12000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} self-service grocery stores.<ref name="Levinson_Page_128" />  However, as of 1930, both chains were not yet true supermarkets in the modern sense because their prices remained quite high;<ref name="Levinson_Page_128" /> as noted above, one of the most important defining features of the supermarket is cheap food.<ref name="Deener_Page_74"/>  Their main [[selling point]] was free [[parking]].<ref name="Levinson_Page_128" />  Other strong contenders in Texas included [[Weingarten's]] and [[Henke & Pillot]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/article/Old-timey-Houston-grocery-stores-Did-you-shop-12716238.php | title=Old timey Houston grocery stores – Did you shop at any of these? | first=Dana | last=Burke | work=[[Houston Chronicle]] | date=1 May 2020}}</ref>

To end the debate, the [[Food Marketing Institute]] in conjunction with the [[Smithsonian Institution]] and with funding from [[H.J. Heinz]], researched the issue. They defined the attributes of a supermarket as "self-service, separate product departments, discount pricing, marketing and volume selling".<ref name="Mathews">Ryan Mathews, "1926–1936: Entrepreneurs and Enterprise: A Look at Industry Pioneers like King Kullen and J. Frank Grimes, and the Institution They Created (Special Report: Social Change & the Supermarket)", ''Progressive Grocer'' 75, no. 12 (December 1996): 39–43.</ref>  They determined that the first true supermarket in the United States was opened by a former [[Kroger]] employee, [[Michael J. Cullen]], on 4 August 1930, inside a {{convert|6000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} former garage in [[Jamaica, Queens]] in New York City.<ref name="Mathews" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Lorr |first1=Benjamin |title=The long takeoff of skyrocketing food prices |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-grocery-prices-are-skyrocketing-because-we-ignored-their-long-takeoff/ |website=The Globe and Mail |access-date=7 November 2023 |date=13 January 2023 |quote=His first store, the King Kullen ... opened in August, 1930, in the Queens borough of New York, to immediate and astounding success.}}</ref> The store [[King Kullen]], operated under the logic of "pile it high and sell it cheap".<ref name="Deener_Page_74" /> The store layout was designed by Joseph Unger, who originated the concept of customers using baskets to collect groceries before checking out at a counter.<ref>{{cite news |last = Lynwander |first = Linda |date = July 11, 1993 |title = Recollections of First Supermarket| newspaper = The New York Times| page = 9| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/11/nyregion/recollections-of-first-supermarket.html| access-date =  December 21, 2023}}</ref> Everything displayed for sale in the store "had prices clearly marked", meaning that consumers would no longer need to haggle over prices.<ref name="Deener_Page_74" />  Cullen described his store as "the world's greatest price wrecker".<ref name="Deener_Page_74" /><ref name="Levinson_Page_129">{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=Marc |title=The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America |date=2011 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |isbn=9781429969024 |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZphE-pqXb1wC&pg=PA129 |access-date=January 8, 2023}}</ref> At the time of his death in 1936, there were seventeen King Kullen stores in operation. Although Saunders had brought the world self-service, uniform stores, and nationwide marketing, Cullen built on this idea by adding separate food departments, selling large volumes of food at discount prices and adding a parking lot.<ref name="Mathews" />  Moreover, the supermarket format as pioneered by King Kullen was not only cheap, but convenient, in how it combined so many different departments under one roof which had formerly required trips to separate stores.<ref name="Hamilton_Page_13" />  

Early supermarkets like King Kullen were called "cheapy markets" by industry experts at the time because they were literally so cheap, thanks to their rock-bottom prices; this was soon replaced by the less derogatory and more positive phrase "super market".<ref name="Deener_Page_74" />  The compound phrase was then closed up to become the modern term "supermarket".<ref name="Deener_Page_73" />

===Grocery stores become supermarkets===

[[File:Safeway50s.jpg|thumb|left|A [[Safeway Inc.|Safeway]] advertisement from the 1950s]]
Other established American grocery chains in the 1930s, such as Kroger and [[Safeway Inc.]] at first resisted Cullen's ideas, but were eventually forced to build their own supermarkets as the economy sank into the [[Great Depression]]. American consumers became extraordinarily price-sensitive at a level never experienced before.<ref name="Mathews" /> Kroger took the new retail format one step further and pioneered the first supermarket surrounded on all four sides by a [[parking lot]].<ref name="Mathews" />  

For A&P, the largest grocery store chain of that era, the conversion from traditional grocery stores to supermarkets came as a terrible shock for the thousands of retail employees whose lives and careers were changed forever.<ref name="Levinson_Page_208">{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=Marc |title=The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America |date=2011 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |isbn=9781429969024 |page=208 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZphE-pqXb1wC&pg=PA208 }}</ref>  The armies of [[retail clerk]]s who were the public face of the traditionally slow and social retail experience were replaced with the tedious, specialized jobs necessary to operate a modern supermarket.<ref name="Levinson_Page_208" />  Stock clerks, usually male, moved boxes and kept the shelves full of goods, while checkout clerks (cashiers), usually female, were faced with never-ending lines of impatient shoppers eager to check out and go.<ref name="Levinson_Page_208" />  But A&P had no choice but to plunge ahead into this strange new world.  One of King Kullen's earliest imitators, Big Bear, opened its first supermarket in 1933 in New Jersey and collected more revenue in one year than over a hundred A&P stores.<ref name="Deener_Page_74" />  By 1937, 44 percent of A&P stores were losing money.<ref name="Levinson_Page_207">{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=Marc |title=The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America |date=2011 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |isbn=9781429969024 |page=207 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZphE-pqXb1wC&pg=PA207 }}</ref>  By 1938, A&P had already opened over 1,100 supermarkets.<ref name="Hamilton_Page_14">{{cite book |last1=Hamilton |first1=Shane |title=Supermarket USA: Food and Power in the Cold War Farms Race |date=2018 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=9780300232691 |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lepqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA14}}</ref>  By February 1940, A&P had closed 5,950 grocery stores and cut its percentage of money-losing stores to 18 percent.<ref name="Levinson_Page_207" />  There was no way to escape the cold, hard numbers driving this brutal process: in A&P's traditional grocery stores, "wages and overhead expenses" had consumed 18 percent of sales, while in A&P's newly opened supermarkets in those same neighborhoods, those same numbers were less than 12 percent of sales.<ref name="Levinson_Page_207" />  

Once the large chains joined the supermarket trend, the new retail format exploded across the country like a wildfire. The number of American supermarkets almost tripled from 1,200 in 32 states in 1936 to over 3,000 in 47 states in 1937.<ref name="Deener_Page_74" /> It was well over 15,000 by 1950.<ref name="Coleman_Page_40">{{cite book |last1=Coleman |first1=Peter |title=Shopping Environments: Evolution, Planning and Design |date=2006 |publisher=Elsevier |location=Amsterdam |isbn=9780750660013 |page=40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oyMjtrOIvgC&pg=PA40}}</ref>  One sign of the supermarket format's success in slashing labor costs, overhead, and food prices was that the percentage of [[disposable income]] spent by American consumers on food plunged "from 21 percent in 1930 to 16 percent in 1940".<ref name="Deener_Page_74" />  The modern era of "cheap food" had begun.<ref name="Deener_Page_74" />  

As large chain stores began to dominate the American grocery landscape with their low overhead and low prices (while crushing numerous independent small stores along the way), a backlash to this radical alteration of food distribution infrastructure appeared in the form of numerous anti-chain campaigns. The idea of "[[monopsony]]", proposed by Cambridge economist [[Joan Robinson]] in 1933, that a single buyer could outmaneuver a market of multiple sellers, became a strong anti-chain rhetorical device. With public backlash came political pressure to even the playing field for smaller vendors lacking the luxury of economies of scale. In 1936, the [[Robinson-Patman Act]] was implemented as a way of preventing such large chains from using their buying power to reap advantages over small stores, although the act was not well enforced and did not have much impact on such chains.<ref>Hamilton, Shane. "Supermarkets, Free Markets, and the Problem of Buying Power in the Postwar United States", in ''What's Good For Business: Business and Politics Since World War II'', eds. Julian Zelizer and Kim Phillips-Fein (Oxford University Press, 2012).</ref>

Supermarkets rapidly proliferated across both Canada and the United States with the growth of automobile ownership and [[suburb|suburban development]] after World War II. Most North American supermarkets are located in suburban [[strip mall|strip shopping center]]s as an anchor store along with other smaller retailers. They are generally regional rather than national in their company branding. Kroger is the most nationally oriented supermarket chain in the United States, but it has preserved most of its regional brands, including [[Ralphs]], [[City Market (US grocery store chain)|City Market]], [[King Soopers]], [[Fry's Food and Drug|Fry's]], [[Smith's Food and Drug|Smith's]], and [[QFC]].{{citation needed|date=July 2010}}

===International expansion===

By the 1950s, supermarkets had become part of the everyday lives of American consumers, but were still extremely rare outside of the United States.  Most persons outside the United States had never seen a supermarket or even heard of the term.  That began to change after 1956, when the [[United States Department of Agriculture|U.S. Department of Agriculture]] presented an "American Way exhibit" at the International Food Congress in Rome, Italy.<ref name="Lorr_Page_34">{{cite book |last1=Lorr |first1=Benjamin |title=The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket |date=2020 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=9780553459418 |page=34 |edition=2021 paperback |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v6FHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA34}}</ref> The exhibit included "the first fully stocked supermarket outside of the United States".<ref name="Lorr_Page_34" />  The exhibit was a rather "modest staging" with only about 2,500 items, not a truly comprehensive duplicate of a typical full-size U.S. supermarket, and yet it was much larger than anything the world had ever seen.<ref name="Lorr_Page_34" />  Just like the American consumers who had entered the first supermarkets two decades earlier, conference attendees, local Italian visitors, and the international news media were all astonished, bewildered, and stunned by the "mountains of food".<ref name="Lorr_Page_34" />

In 1957, the [[United States Department of Commerce|U.S. Department of Commerce]] and the National Association of Food Chains orchestrated an even grander presentation, Supermarket USA, at the Zagreb International Trade Fair in what was then part of [[Yugoslavia]].<ref name="Hamilton_Page_97">{{cite book |last1=Hamilton |first1=Shane |title=Supermarket USA: Food and Power in the Cold War Farms Race |date=2018 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=9780300232691 |pages=97–107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lepqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97}}</ref>  Supermarket USA featured 4,000 consumer items in a 10,000 square-foot (929 m²) exhibit, "the first fully operational American-style supermarket in a communist country".<ref name="Hamilton_Page_97" />  The American Way ''supermercato'' the year before and Supermarket USA were among the first of several instances in which American supermarkets were deployed internationally at the height of the [[Cold War]] as [[shock and awe]] instruments of [[Propaganda in the United States|American propaganda]] to demonstrate the supposed superiority of [[Western Bloc]] capitalism over [[Eastern Bloc]] communism.<ref name="Hamilton_Page_97" />  

Before then, a few countries had already begun to implement supermarkets due to their proximity to or affinity for the United States.  Canada, to the north, had implemented the new retail format at the same time during the 1930s.  For example, Québec's first supermarket opened in 1934 in Montréal, under the banner [[Steinberg's (supermarket)|Steinberg's]].<ref>[https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/steinberg-inc "Steinberg Inc"]. ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''</ref>  In Canada, the largest supermarket chain is [[Loblaw]], which operates stores under a variety of banners targeted to different segments and regions, including [[Fortinos]], [[Zehrs]], [[No Frills (grocery store)|No Frills]], the Real Canadian Superstore, and Loblaws, the foundation of the company. [[Sobeys]] is Canada's second largest supermarket with locations across the country, operating under many banners (Sobeys IGA in [[Quebec]]).{{citation needed|date=July 2010}} 

In the United Kingdom, self-service shopping took longer to become established, despite its [[Special Relationship]] with the United States.  In 1947, there were just ten self-service shops in the country.<ref name="historyandpolicy">{{cite web|url=http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-70.html|title=Regulating UK supermarkets: an oral-history perspective|last=Hamlett|first=Jane|date=April 2008|publisher=History & Policy|access-date=9 December 2010|location=United Kingdom|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807102317/http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-70.html|archive-date=7 August 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1951, ex-US Navy sailor Patrick Galvani, son-in-law of [[Express Dairies]] chairman, made a pitch to the board to open a chain of supermarkets across the country. The UK's first supermarket under the new [[Premier Supermarkets]] brand opened in [[Streatham]], [[South London]],<ref name=BNet50>{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5245/is_7528_224/ai_n28873842/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708193934/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5245/is_7528_224/ai_n28873842/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 July 2012 |title=It's a super anniversary: it's 50 years since the first full size self-service supermarket was unveiled in the UK |first=Helen |last=Gregory |work=The Grocer |date=3 November 2001 |access-date=30 June 2010 }}</ref> taking in ten times as much revenue per week as the average British general store of the time. Other chains caught on.  After Galvani lost out to Tesco's [[Jack Cohen (businessman)|Jack Cohen]] in 1960 to buy 212 stores of the Irwin's chain, the sector underwent significant consolidation, resulting in "the big four" dominant UK supermarket chains: [[Tesco]], [[Asda]], [[Sainsbury's]] and [[Morrisons]].

In the 1950s, supermarkets frequently issued [[trading stamp]]s as incentives to customers. Today, most chains issue store-specific "membership cards", "club cards", or "[[loyalty card]]s". These typically enable the cardholder to receive special members-only discounts on certain items when the credit card-like device is scanned at the checkout.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mauri|first=Chiara|year=2003|title=Card loyalty. A new emerging issue in grocery retailing.|journal=Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services|volume=10|issue=1|pages=13–25|doi=10.1016/S0969-6989(02)00036-X}}</ref> Sales of selected data generated by club cards is becoming a significant revenue stream for some supermarkets.

===In the 21st century===

As of 2018, there were approximately 38,000 supermarkets in the supermarket's birthplace, the United States; Americans spent $701 billion at supermarkets that year;<ref name="Lorr_Page_5">{{cite book |last1=Lorr |first1=Benjamin |title=The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket |date=2020 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=9780553459418 |page=5 |edition=2021 paperback |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v6FHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA5}}</ref> and the American supermarket stood at the pinnacle of a food production and distribution system so efficient that less than three percent of the U.S. population produced [[Obesity in the United States|more than enough food]] to feed everyone.<ref name="Lorr_Page_6" />  The average American adult "will spend 2 percent of their life inside" supermarkets.<ref name="Lorr_Page_5" />  

In the 21st century, traditional supermarkets in many countries face intense competition from [[discounter]]s such as Wal-Mart, [[Aldi]] and [[Lidl]], which typically is non-[[trade union|union]] and operates with better buying power. Other competition exists from [[warehouse clubs]] such as [[Costco]] that offer savings to customers buying in bulk quantities. [[Superstores]], such as those operated by Wal-Mart and Asda, often offer a wide range of goods and services in addition to foods. In Australia, Aldi, [[Woolworths Supermarkets|Woolworths]] and [[Coles Group|Coles]] are the major players running the industry with fierce competition among all the three. The rising market share of Aldi has forced the other two to cut prices and increase their private label product ranges.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/market-research-reports/retail-trade/food-retailing/supermarkets-grocery-stores.html|title=Supermarkets and Grocery Stores – Australia Market Research Report |website=IBISWorld |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200310111846/https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/market-research-reports/retail-trade/food-retailing/supermarkets-grocery-stores.html |archive-date= Mar 10, 2020 }}</ref> The proliferation of such warehouse and superstores has contributed to the continuing disappearance of smaller, local grocery stores, the [[automobile dependency|increased dependence on the automobile]], and [[urban sprawl|suburban sprawl]] because of the necessity for large floor space and increased vehicular traffic. For example, in 2009 51% of Wal-Mart's $251&nbsp;billion domestic sales were recorded from grocery goods.<ref>Csipak, James J., Rohit Rampal, and Laurent Josien. "The Effect of a Wal-Mart Supercenter on Supermarket Food Prices: The Case of the City of Plattsburgh in Upstate New York". Academy of Marketing Studies Journal 2 (2014): 251. Academic OneFile. Web. 5 November 2015.</ref> Some critics consider the chains' common practice of selling loss leaders to be anti-competitive. They are also wary of the negotiating power that large, often [[multinational corporation|multinationals]] have with suppliers around the world.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2015/jun/25/tesco-supermarkets-behaving-badly-suppliers|title=Supermarkets behaving badly – how suppliers can get a fairer deal|first=Josephine|last=Moulds|date=25 June 2015|website=The Guardian |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150731060257/http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2015/jun/25/tesco-supermarkets-behaving-badly-suppliers |archive-date= Jul 31, 2015 }}</ref>

===Online-only supermarkets (21st century)===
{{Main|Online grocer}}
{{Further|Online food ordering}}
During the [[dot-com boom]], [[Webvan]], an online-only supermarket, was formed and went bankrupt after three years and was acquired by Amazon. The British online supermarket [[Ocado]], which uses a high degree of automation in its warehouses,<ref>{{Cite episode |title=On Demand |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000497r |series=Supermarket Secrets |series-no=3 |station=[[BBC One]] |date=30 April 2019 |number=2}}</ref> was the first successful online-only supermarket. Ocado expanded into providing services to other supermarket firms such as [[Waitrose]] and [[Morrisons]].

Grocery stores such as Walmart employ food delivery services offered by third parties such as [[DoorDash]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 24, 2018 |title=DoorDash and Walmart Join Forces to Accelerate Retailer's Online Grocery Delivery Offering |url=https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2018/04/24/doordash-and-walmart-join-forces-to-accelerate-retailers-online-grocery-delivery-offering |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230821024636/https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2018/04/24/doordash-and-walmart-join-forces-to-accelerate-retailers-online-grocery-delivery-offering |archive-date=Aug 21, 2023 |website=Walmart Corporate}}</ref> Other online food delivery services, such as [[Deliveroo]] in the United Kingdom, have begun to pay specific attention to supermarket delivery.<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 April 2020 |title=Morrisons and Deliveroo join up to offer grocery home delivery |url=https://www.morrisons-corporate.com/media-centre/corporate-news/morrisons-and-deliveroo-join-up-to-offer-grocery-home-delivery/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601025208/https://www.morrisons-corporate.com/media-centre/corporate-news/morrisons-and-deliveroo-join-up-to-offer-grocery-home-delivery/ |archive-date=Jun 1, 2023 |website=Morrisons Corporate}}</ref>

[[Autonomous robot#Delivery robot|Delivery robots]] are offered by various companies partnering with supermarkets.

Micro-fulfillment centers (MFC) are relatively small warehouses with sophisticated automated rack-and-tote systems which prepare orders for pickup and delivery.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Abel|first=Carol|date=9 August 2019|title=The Small, But Mighty, Micro-fulfillment Center|work=Food Marketing Institute|url=https://www.fmi.org/blog/view/fmi-blog/2019/08/09/the-small-but-mighty-micro-fulfillment-center|access-date=11 May 2020}}</ref> Once the order is complete, the customer will pick it up (i.e. "click-and-collect") or have it fulfilled via home delivery.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Dudlicek|first=Jim|date=17 March 2020|title=Digital-First Grocery: A Look Inside Micro Fulfillment at Albertsons|work=Progressive Grocer|url=https://progressivegrocer.com/digital-first-grocery-look-inside-micro-fulfillment-albertsons|url-status=dead|access-date=11 May 2020|archive-date=14 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414063701/https://progressivegrocer.com/digital-first-grocery-look-inside-micro-fulfillment-albertsons}}</ref> Supermarkets are investing in micro-fulfillment centers with the hope that automation can help reduce the costs of online commerce and e-commerce by shortening the distances from store to home and speeding up deliveries. MFCs are said by many to be the key to profitably fulfilling online orders.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Smith|first=Jennifer|date=27 January 2020|title=Grocery Delivery Goes Small With Micro-Fulfillment Centers|work=The Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/grocery-delivery-goes-small-with-micro-fulfillment-centers-11580121002|access-date=11 May 2020}}</ref>