A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket or big-box market. In everyday United States usage, however, "grocery store" is often used to mean "supermarket".
Astor Market in New York, one predecessor of the modern supermarket, operated from 1915 to 1917.
A supermarket in Sweden, 1941
Consumers shopping for produce and fruit, 2012
S-market store with 24/7 service in Klaukkala, Finland, 2022
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells in smaller quantities to consumers for a profit. Retailers are the final link in the supply chain from producers to consumers.
A grocery and cosmetics store in Tangier, Morocco
Marketplace at Trajan's Forum, the earliest known example of permanent retail shopfronts
Grand Bazaar, Istanbul (interior). Established in 1455, it is thought to be the oldest continuously operating covered market.
The retail service counter was an innovation of the eighteenth century.