Grocery store

"Grocer" and "Purveyor" redirect here. For the magazine, see The Grocer. For the legal concept, see purveyance. For a large-scale grocery store, see Supermarket. For a fruit and vegetable grocery store, see Greengrocer.

A grocery store is a retail store that primarily sells food. A grocer is a bulk seller of food.

Grocery stores often offer non-perishable food that is packaged in bottles, boxes, and cans; some also have bakeries, butchers, delis, and fresh produce. Large grocery stores that stock significant amounts of non-food products, such as clothing and household items, are called supermarkets. Some large supermarkets also include a pharmacy, and customer service, redemption, and electronics sections.

In Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, supermarkets and convenience stores are sometimes described as grocery businesses, or simply grocers.[note 1] Small grocery stores that mainly sell fruits and vegetables are known as greengrocers (Britain) or produce markets (U.S.), and small grocery stores that predominantly sell prepared food, such as candy and snacks, are known as convenience stores or delicatessens.

Some grocery stores (especially large ones) form the centerpiece of a larger complex that includes other facilities, such as gas stations, which will often operate under the store's name. This setup is especially common in the United Kingdom, where major chains such as Sainsbury's and Tesco have many locations operating under this format.

Supermarket

A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food and household products, organized into aisles. It is larger and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket or big-box market.

The supermarket typically comprises meat, fresh produce, dairy, and baked goods aisles, along with shelf space reserved for canned and packaged goods as well as for various non-food items such as kitchenware, household cleaners, pharmacy products and pet supplies. Some supermarkets also sell a variety of other household products that are consumed regularly, such as alcohol (where permitted), medicine, and clothes, and some stores sell a much wider range of non-food products: DVDs, sporting equipment, board games, and seasonal items (e.g., Christmas wrapping paper in December).

The traditional supermarket occupies a large amount of floor space, usually on a single level. It is usually situated near a residential area in order to be convenient to consumers. The basic appeal is the availability of a broad selection of goods under a single roof, at relatively low prices. Other advantages include ease of parking and frequently the convenience of shopping hours that extend into the evening or even 24 hours of the day. Supermarkets usually allocate large budgets to advertising, typically through newspapers. They also present elaborate in-shop displays of products.

Supermarkets typically are chain stores, supplied by the distribution centers of their parent companies thus increasing opportunities for economies of scale. Supermarkets usually offer products at relatively low prices by using their buying power to buy goods from manufacturers at lower prices than smaller stores can. They also minimise financing costs by paying for goods at least 30 days after receipt and some extract credit terms of 90 days or more from vendors. Certain products (typically staple foods such as bread, milk and sugar) are very occasionally sold as loss leaders so as to attract shoppers to their store. Supermarkets make up for their low margins by a higher overall volume of sales, and with the sale of higher-margin items bought by the intended higher volume of shoppers. Self-service with shopping carts (trolleys) or baskets reduces labor cost, and many supermarket chains are attempting further reduction by shifting to self-service check-out.