784 The Marketing Book
tended to withdraw from some product ranges
in the face of specialist, lower-priced competi-
tion. Accordingly, the distinction between the
department and variety formats has become
blurred.
Superstores and hypermarkets
Whereas the supermarket format has reached
maturity in most countries, the superstore and
hypermarket formats have been claiming
increased share. Being situated mostly outside
traditional shopping centres, they tend to enjoy
greater accessibility by car, greater economies
of scale and the benefits of being purpose built.
Superstores form the ‘anchor stores’ of retail
warehouse parks and of many partnership
schemes, such as the Marks & Spencer–Tesco
partnership at Handforth, Cheshire.
In Britain, a superstore is defined as having
at least 25 000 sq. ft of selling space, while a
hypermarket has at least 50 000 sq. ft. Some
sources use the near equivalent metric measures
of 2500 and 5000 m^2 respectively. Comparisons
between countries encounter great difficulties,
as these thresholds vary considerably. In some
cases, the terms imply large stores selling
primarily groceries; in others, the terms are used
with more flexibility to describe any large-scale,
specialist format, offering a strong depth of
assortment, trading on one level and providing
ample car parking. Having noted these caveats,
Table 30.7 offers an indication of importance
within 12 countries. As noted earlier, the UK is
now adopting a more restrictive approach to
out-of-town developments; large store develop-
ments have also become tightly regulated in
France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and
Spain.Discounters
Like so many of the descriptive terms in retail-
ing, ‘discounter’ is regrettably imprecise. As the
wheel of retailing concept suggests, many new
concepts have entered by offering prices at lev-
els below existing competition, i.e. by discount-
ing. Accordingly, the term ‘hard discounter’ has
been adopted in some countries to distinguish
between deep discount formats and other, more
mild manifestations of price competition.
In the context of food retailing, Tordjman
(1993) distinguished between the key financial
and operational characteristics of discounters
and hypermarkets, as shown in Table 30.8. This
demonstrates the ability of the format to pro-
duce reasonable net margins through the strict
control of operating costs. Estimates of dis-
counters’ 2003 shares of food markets show the
highest penetration in Germany, Denmark and
Austria, at 26.5, 17.5 and 12.3 per cent respect-
ively. In the UK, they hold a more modest 6.0
per cent (Euromonitor, 2000).
The concept of the warehouse club repre-
sented an addition to hard discounting in
Europe in the 1990s. These clubs started to
develop from 1982 in the USA; the first such
unit opened in the UK in 1993, after strong
opposition from major supermarket chains. A
wide range of mostly packaged foods and non-
foods is offered, usually in large or multiple
packs, in sparse surroundings of 100 000 sq. ft
or over. However, this format achieved mini-
mal impact in the UK and is considered to be in
decline already in the USA (Management Hor-
izons, 2000).Table 30.7
Superstore/hypermarket
shares of food sales
Country % Country %Australia 40.0 Ireland 25.0
Belgium 11.0 Netherlands 2.4
Denmark 17.4 Portugal 37.2
France 43.0 Spain 24.0
Germany 19.1 UK 38.1
Italy 11.0 USA 18.9Sources: Euromonitor (2000) and others.