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For a large scale grocery store, see supermarket. For a fruit and vegetable grocery store, see greengrocer.
Piggly Wiggly was the first self-service grocery store, opening in 1916.
A grocery store is a store established primarily for the retailing of food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells them to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are called supermarkets. Small grocery stores that mainly sell fruits and vegetables are known as produce markets (U.S) or greengrocers (Britain), and small grocery stores that predominantly sell snack foods and sandwiches are known as convenience stores or delicatessens.
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Interior of a dry grocer\'s shop in downtown Vancouver, Washington, circa 1909.
The first grocery stores were set up as trading posts , which sold not only food but clothing, household items, tools, furniture, and other miscellaneous merchandise. These trading posts evolved into larger retail businesses known as general stores. These facilities generally dealt in "dry" goods such as flour, dry beans, baking soda, and canned foods. Fresh meat was obtained from a butcher, milk from a local dairy, eggs and vegetables were either produced by families themselves or bartered for with neighbors.
Modern grocers—like supermarkets, greengrocers, and convenience stores—are descended from general stores. Many rural areas still contain general stores which sell goods from indigenous cigars to imported napkins. In certain places, these may also handle goods deemed illegal by the local authority. These stores normally offer credit facility, a system of payment which works on trust rather than current day credit cards. In the past, this allowed farm families to buy staple products until the harvest arrived.
The first self-service grocery store was opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee by Clarence Saunders, an inventor and entrepreneur. Where It Began".TN History for Kids">"Clarence Suanders". Prior to this innovation, customers gave orders to clerks to fill. Saunder\'s invention allowed a much smaller number of clerks to service the customers, proving successful (according to a 1929 Time magazine) "partly because of its novelty, partly because neat packages and large advertising appropriations have made retail grocery selling almost an automatic procedure.""Piggly Wiggly Man", Time, Monday, Feb. 25, 1929.".
The business of grocery stores varies from nation to nation; however, the stores are all similar in their principle selling of edible goods. The nature of these goods varies with local availability and traditional diet.
Because many European cities (Rome, for example) are already so dense in population and buildings, large supermarkets, in the American sense, may not replace the neighborhood grocery store. However, \'Metro\' stores have been appearing in town and city centres in many countries, leading to the decline of independent smaller stores, and large out-of-town supermarkets and hypermarkets, such as Tesco and Sainsbury\'s in the United Kingdom, have been steadily sapping the trade from smaller stores.
When a small grocery store is in competition with large supermarkets, the grocery store often must create a niche market by selling unique, premium quality, or ethnic foods that are not easily found in supermarkets. A small grocery store may also compete by locating in a mixed commercial-residential area close to, and convenient for, its customers.
Many grocery stores in America donate leftover food (for example, deli foods and bread past their expiration date) to homeless shelters or charity kitchens.Peters, Werner (1996). Society on the Run: A European View of Life in America, Hardcover, M.E. Sharpe, p. 12. ISBN 1563245868. "Outreach: Helping the Homeless".
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Many grocery stores that carry a type of food products from a certain culture such as Italian or Middle-Eastern have served as gathering points for many immigrants. Supermarkets have also eliminated the need for speciality stores. Also, many teenagers find their first job at grocery stores.
Some notable grocery stores include:
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The US Labor Department has calcuated that food purchased at home and in restaurants are 13 percent of household purchases, behind 32 percent for housing and 18 percent for transportation. The average US family spent $280 per month or $3,305 per year at grocery stores in 2004. The newsletter Dollar Stretcher survey found $149 a month for a single person, $257 for a couple and $396 for a family of four.[1]
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