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Abig-box store, ahyperstore, asupercenter, asuperstore, or amegastore is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of achain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The term "big-box" references the typical appearance of buildings occupied by such stores.[1]
Commercially, big-box stores can be broken down into two categories: generalmerchandise (examples includeWalmart andTarget) and specialty stores (such asHome Depot,Barnes & Noble,IKEA orBest Buy), which specialize in goods within a specific range, such ashardware,books,furniture orconsumer electronics, respectively. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, many traditional retailers and supermarket chains that typically operate in smaller buildings, such asTesco andPraktiker (the latter being defunct since 2014), opened stores in the big-box-store format in an effort to compete with big-box chains, which are expanding internationally as their home markets reach maturity.[2]
The store may sell generaldry goods, in which case it is a general merchandise retailer (however, traditionaldepartment stores, as the predecessor format, are generally not classified as "big box"), or may be limited to a particular specialty (such establishments are often called "category killers"), or may also sell groceries, in which case some countries (mostly inEurope) use the termhypermarket. In the U.S., there is no specific term for general merchandisers who also sell groceries. Both Target and Walmart offer groceries in most branches in the U.S.
Big-box stores are often clustered in shopping centers, which are typically calledretail parks in the United Kingdom. In the United States, when they range in size from 250,000 square feet (23,000 m2) to 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2), they are often referred to aspower centers.[3]
In Australia, the retail category is known as "large format retail", encompasses bulky goods showrooms and more specialised retail categories within service or Highway commercial type land use zones.
In 1969,Kmart Australia opened its first five big-box type stores across Australia. The first opened inBurwood East,Melbourne, in April, followed byBlacktown inGreater Western Sydney, two stores in suburbanAdelaide and a store in suburbanPerth.[4]IKEA began operation in Australia in 1975.Bunnings followed in 1995 andMitre 10 adopted the model with the "Mitre 10 Mega" stores first opening atBeenleigh, Queensland, in 2004.Costco has since expanded across Australia since opening its first store in 2009.
Apart from majorAmerican big-box stores such asWalmart Canada and briefly now-defunctTarget Canada, there are many retail chains operating exclusively in Canada. These include stores such as (followed after each slash by the owner)Loblaws/Real Canadian Superstore,Rona,Winners/HomeSense,Canadian Tire/Mark's/Sport Chek,Shoppers Drug Mart,Chapters/Indigo Books and Music,Sobeys, and many others.Loblaw Companies Limited has expanded and multiplied itsReal Canadian Superstore (andMaxi & Cie in Quebec) branded outlets to try to fill any genuine big-box market and fend off the damaging competition that a large Walmart penetration would inflict on Canadian-based retailers.
In the early 21st century, commercial developers in Canada such asRioCan chose to build big-box stores (often grouped together in so-called "power centres") in lieu of traditionalshopping malls. Examples include Deerfoot Meadows (Calgary), Stonegate Shopping Centre andPreston Crossing (Saskatoon),South Edmonton Common (Edmonton), andHeartland Town Centre (Mississauga).
There are currently more than 300 power centres, which usually contain multiple big-box stores, located throughout Canada.[citation needed]
Most large grocery stores in China are of the big-box variety, selling big screen TVs, computers, mobile phones, bicycles, and clothing. Many foreign names appear, such asCarrefour,Auchan,Tesco,Lotte Mart, andWalmart, as well as dozens of Chinese chains. Most stores are three stories with moving sidewalk-style escalators. Some stores are so large as to have 60 checkout terminals and their own fleet of buses to bring customers to the store at no charge.
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Many configurations exist: thehypermarket that sells many kinds of goods under one roof (like French chainsCarrefour,Auchan, andE.Leclerc),[5] most of which are integrated within ashopping mall; thesupermarket that is a smaller version of a hypermarket; the market located in city centres; thedepartment store (such asLe Bon Marché), which first appeared in Paris, then opened in other parts of the world;[6] the "category killer" superstore that mainly sells goods in a particular domain (automotive, electronics, home furniture, etc.); and thewarehouse store, likeMetro Cash and Carry (for professionals only) andCostco, who opened its first store in June 2017.[7]
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To contend againstCarrefour,ParknShop opened the first superstore in 1996.[8] Most superstores in Hong Kong emphasizes one-stop shopping, such as providing car park services. Today, ParknShop has more than 50 superstores and megastores, making it the largest superstore network inHong Kong. The firstWellcome superstore opened in 2000 and it has 17 superstores.[9] By 2007, ParknShop and Wellcome had over 80% of supermarket trade in Hong Kong.[10] In addition,China Resources Vanguard has four superstores in Hong Kong.
Because Hong Kong is a very densely populated city, the sizes of superstores are considerably smaller than those in other countries. Some superstores are running at deficit, such as Chelsea Heights which therefore has stopped selling freshfish[citation needed]. Furthermore, some ParknShop superstores and megastores, such as Fortress World, belong to the same corporation,Hutchison Whampoa.
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India has been going through a retail revolution since the late 1990s, following the introduction ofBig Bazaar in 2001. However, even before that, large retail stores were not uncommon in India. Spencer's, a popular hypermart, traces its history as far back as 1863.Saravana Stores, operating as a large independent showroom format since 1969, has continued to expand significantly. Saravana Stores operating format is said to be the inspiration for Big Bazaar's Kishore Biyani.
Similarly, conglomerates, such as Raheja's, Future Group, Bharti, Godrej, Reliance, and TATA, have over the last decade ventured into large-format retail chains. However, most of the stores opened in large malls and not as independent big-box format stores, even though small and medium enterprises (SMEs) still account for the majority of the daily consumer transaction needs.DMart, owned by Avenue Supermarkets Limited, expanded widely, including into tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
An attempt was made to allow international large format retailers such as Walmart into the country. However, it was successfully opposed by small retailers citing job elimination due to increased efficiency and lowered prices due to fewer losses and lower costs.
Big-box format stores in India were opened byIKEA in the city of Hyderabad, and subsequently, in the city of Navi Mumbai.[citation needed]
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InIreland, large merchandise stores in the style of U.S. superstores were not a part of the retail sector until the late 20th century.Dunnes Stores has traditionally had a supermarket-plus-household-and-clothes model and now have some large stores.Tesco Ireland now runs upwards of 19 hypermarkets across the country.[citation needed]
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The big-box phenomenon hitNew Zealand in the late 1980s, with the introduction ofKmart Australia and later the "Warehouse" superstore, a local company. Mitre 10 New Zealand opened their first Mega in 2004 atHastings six months before the Australian Mega store; it opened to great success with 20 more stores opening within two years. Australian-owned Bunnings Warehouse opened its first store in New Zealand in 2006.
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In theUnited Kingdom,Makro andCostco membership-only warehouse club stores have been around for four decades. General merchandise shops along the lines of U.S. superstores are not a large part of the retail sector, but this has been changing in recent years, with the creation of extra-large supermarkets such asTesco andAsda selling a broader range of non-food goods, typically in out-of-town shopping centres or retail parks. As in the US, such large shops are sometimes calledanchor tenants. The growth of online retail and budget retail has led to these chains moving away from the large out-of-town supermarkets which have waned in popularity.
The term "big-box store" is not used in the UK. "Superstore" is sometimes used, but with a slightly different meaning: on road signs it means "large supermarket"; in self-service shop names it denotes an outlet larger than that particular chain's usual size.
In theUnited States, some big-box stores may specialize in categories of merchandise ("category killer"), such asBest Buy in electronics and appliances andKohl's,Burlington, andNordstrom Rack in apparel and home furnishings.
Big-box general merchandise retailers such asTarget andWalmart are similar to the global concept of ahypermarket, although they do not always have a grocery section. The term "hypermarket" is not in common use in the United States; "superstore" is sometimes used, in addition to the industry term "general merchandise retailer."[11] The category began in 1931, whenFred G. Meyer opened what he called a "one-stop shopping center" in Northeast Portland, Oregon.[12] Meyer's format was imitated byMeijer in 1962 and later by Walmart,Kmart, Target (the discount brand of Dayton department store), andWoolco (the discount brand of theWoolworth department store) all opened.[13] These were called "discount stores"—still an industry term for this type of store—and which between the 1960s and 1980s started to open larger-format stores called "megastores."[14] These stores served the newly enlarged population of customers with cars, being located in suburbs and surrounded by ample parking lots.[13] They were enabled by the decline of laws which prevented large retailers from getting bulk discounts.[13]
Warehouse club stores are another category of big-box general merchandise stores, such asSam's Club,Costco, andBJ's Wholesale Club. They require membership to purchase and often require purchasing larger quantities of goods at once.
Big-box development has at times been opposed by labor unions because the employees of such stores are usually not unionized. Unions such as the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770 and the Joint Labor Management Committee of the Retail Food Industry have expressed concern about the grocery market because stores such asKmart,Target, andWalmart now sell groceries.[16] Unions and cities sometimes attempt to use land-use ordinances to restrict these businesses.[17]
Because it is generally inaccessible to pedestrians and often can only be reached by motor vehicles, the big-box store has been criticized as unsustainable and a failure ofurban planning.[18][19]