What is carrefour france

Mark US English. Daniel British. Libby British. Mia British. Karen Australian. Hayley Australian. Natasha Australian. Veena Indian. Priya Indian. Neerja Indian. Zira US English. Oliver British. Wendy British. Fred US English. Tessa South African. Carrefour is a hypermarket concern with more than Carrefour is known for its enormous supermarkets, or hypermarkets. The first one launched in , it was the first of its kind in France and offered a vast range of products at low prices.

The first establishment had a 2. Products range from food to beauty and health, to electronics and fashion. It was the first retailer in France to have opened the hypermarket format. It quickly grew internationally, with a store in Brazil in In , the Carrefour Group expanded further internationally and opened its first stores in Italy. Prior to its institution, consumers relied heavily on assistance from sales clerks in selecting and obtaining merchandise. Under the free service system, however, customers used bags, carts, or baskets to collect their needs--placed within easy reach and individually priced--while sales clerks served primarily as cashiers.

The supermarket, which first appeared in France in , used the concept of free service. With larger facilities located outside the center of cities, supermarkets could provide fresher produce, a greater variety of products, and lower prices than the traditional grocery store.

By the end of the decade, however, only 33 free service supermarkets were in operation in France, and none of them was modeled after the large discount supermarkets in the United States. Thus, in May , Fournier and Defforey decided to incorporate these virtually unexploited concepts for their store in Annecy.

An offering of 7, shares of stock was made to ten stockholders, and a facility already under construction in Annecy was purchased. The ground floor of the building was to be used as the supermarket, while the upper floors, containing apartments, were to be sold to help finance the business.

Marcel Fournier was elected president, and Denis Defforey, Louis's son, was chosen as general director. Fournier named the business Carrefour, the French transliteration of the Greek word agora, or marketplace. During this time, a businessman named Edouard Leclerc, who was establishing supermarkets in the Rhine-Alps region, announced plans to open a store in Annecy. Fournier and Defforey knew that, to be able to compete, they had to open their store before Leclerc opened his. This annex was opened on January 7, , six months before the opening of the larger store, and was an immediate success.

In fact, four days after it opened, the annex was already out of goods and had to close for one day to restock. The threat of competition from Leclerc prompted Fournier and Defforey to offer the lowest prices they could, and, as it turned out, Leclerc never built the competitive supermarket in Annecy. To familiarize the public with supermarkets, Carrefour embarked on an advertising campaign before opening its main store.

The publicity was effective. The store opened on June 3, , achieving sales that far surpassed expectations and drawing 15, customers in the first two days. In a little more than three weeks, Carrefour had sales of FFr ,, a figure most independent grocers reported for an entire year. To prevent traffic jams, the store expanded its parking lot, but the company's management soon was convinced that supermarkets in urban areas were impractical.

Between and , business at Carrefour increased 45 percent and salaries increased as well. The following year, another supermarket was opened in Cran-Gevrier, in the Annecy region, this time with a vast parking lot. Moreover, Carrefour installed its own discount service station in the parking lot of its first store, selling gasoline without a name brand for five centimes less per liter than the average price; making neither a profit nor a loss, the company's gas station was intended as a protest against the French government's high gasoline taxes.

Carrefour's discounts angered smaller business owners, a reaction that would prove typical throughout much of Carrefour's history. Before construction began at the new site, Louis Defforey and his brother Jacques went to the United States to observe the American commercial structure. Seminars given by Bernardo Trujillo on such modern sales practices as free service, discount prices, and large facilities convinced the Defforeys to completely modify Carrefour's initial plans for the store outside Paris.

Although Carrefour did not adopt the huge dimensions of American stores with many cashiers and large aisles, they did construct a relatively large facility and integrated the idea of low prices on every product by purchasing merchandise from wholesalers and producers. They also followed Trujillo's advice about investing less in luxury construction. The store opened in June and was referred to by the press as a hypermarket, reflecting its 2, square meters of space, parking places, and abundance of both food and nonfood merchandise.

In France, the retailer was able to gain market share. Hypermarkets may have suffered from the introduction of the Covid Safe Ticket for large shopping centres, but supermarkets, convenience stores and online sales improved. In Spain, comparable sales decreased by 2. In Belgium, Carrefour suffered a significant decline: quarterly sales decreased by 5. That decline is, according to the retailer, due to increased price pressure in the market and the difficult basis for comparison: during summer last year, most people stayed in the country due to travel restrictions, which meant local shops sold more.

Compared to sales in , sales were rather stable. In the second quarter too, Carrefour Belgium already had to swallow a substantial sales decline due to that difficult comparison base. In Latin America and Asia Taiwan , the picture looks brighter.