A warehouse store or warehouse supermarket is a food and grocery retailer that operates stores geared toward offering deeper discounted prices than a traditional supermarket. These stores offer a no-frills experience and warehouse shelving stocked well with merchandise intended to move at higher volumes. Unlike

warehouse club A warehouse club (or wholesale club) is a retail store, usually selling a wide variety of merchandise, in which customers may buy large, wholesale quantities of the store's products, which makes these clubs attractive to both bargain hunters ...

s, warehouse stores do not require a

membership Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

or membership

fee A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for rights or services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup. Traditionally, professionals in the United Kingdom (and previously the Republic of Ireland) receive a fee in cont ...

s. Warehouse stores can also offer a selection of merchandise sold in bulk. Typically, warehouse stores are laid out in a logical format; this leads customers in a certain way around the store to the checkout. For example, as one enters the store they are directed down an aisle of discounted products. From there the layout could then lead to the fresh produce department, followed by the deli and bakery departments at the back of the store. Often, certain customer service niceties, like the bagging of groceries, are not done by store employees; this helps reduce overall cost. Many warehouse stores are operated by traditional grocery chains both as a way to attract lower income, value conscious consumers and to maximize their buying power in order to lower costs at their mainstream stores.

Examples in the United States and Canada

Traditional warehouse store chains include: #

Cub Foods Cub is an American supermarket chain. It operates stores in Minnesota and Illinois. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of SuperValu Inc., based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. History Beginnings Cub Foods was founded by Minnesota-based Hool ...

, affiliated with SuperValu #

Food 4 Less Food 4 Less is the name of several grocery store chains, the largest of which is currently owned by Kroger. It is a no-frills grocery store where the customers bag their own groceries at the checkout. Kroger operates Food 4 Less stores in the ...

, affiliated with

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinci ...

(and

Nugget Markets Nugget Markets is a family-owned upscale supermarket chain operating within the greater Sacramento metropolitan area as well as in Marin and Sonoma counties in Northern California. It is headquartered in Davis, California. As of August 2022, t ...

in Northern California/Oregon) # Food Basics (Canada), affiliated with

Metro Inc. Metro Inc. is a Canadian food retailer operating in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. The company is based in Montreal, Quebec with head office at 11011 Boulevard Maurice-Duplessis. Metro is the third largest grocer in Canada, after Loblaw ...

# Food Basics (United States), affiliated with A&P #

Food Maxx The Save Mart Companies is an American grocery store operator founded and headquartered in Modesto, California. It owns and operates stores under the names of Save Mart, Lucky Stores, Lucky, Lucky California, FoodMaxx, and Maxx Value Foods. The st ...

, affiliated with Save Mart # Foods Co., affiliated with

Food Source Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ing ...

, affiliated with

Raley's Supermarkets Raley’s Supermarkets is an independent, family-owned American grocery and retail technology company headquartered in West Sacramento, California. Raley's was founded in 1935 by Thomas P. Raley in Placerville, California. The Raley’s Companies ...

# Superior Grocers, an independently owned southern California chain # Super 1 Foods, based in east Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana; owned by

Brookshire Grocery Company Brookshire Grocery Company is a Tyler, Texas-based supermarket chain. There are more than 200 stores operating in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma under their five banners, Brookshire's, Super 1 Foods, Fresh by Brookshire's, Spring Mark ...

# Super 1 Foods, based in

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

, and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, owned by

Rosauers Supermarkets Rosauers Supermarkets, Inc. is a regional chain of supermarkets in the Western United States, based in Spokane, Washington. Founded in 1934 by J. Merton Rosauer, Rosauers was sold in 1984 to Spokane-based URM Stores, and it eventually grew to 22 ...

Super One Foods Super One Foods is a chain of Supermarkets, with 32 locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The chain is owned and operated by ''Miner's, Inc.'', a privately held company. A small number of the stores in the chain ...

, a small chain based in

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

Super Saver Foods Super Saver Foods was an American price-impact grocery franchise. It was owned by Albertsons LLC. It was a no-frills grocery store where the customers bagged their own groceries at the checkout. History Acme version Super Saver was a brand l ...

, affiliated with

Albertsons Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho. With 2,253 stores as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 and 270,000 employees as of fiscal year 2019, the company is the second-larg ...

Warehouse Economy Outlet Warehouse Economy Outlet, (W.E.O), ''Where Economy Originates'', was a discount, warehouse-style supermarket concept that was developed in the 1970s by The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better ...

(WEO), affiliated with A&P, now defunct #

Smart & Final Smart & Final is a chain of warehouse-style food and supply stores based in Commerce, California, which developed through a series of mergers and expansions. The oldest of the combined companies, Hellman-Haas Grocery, was founded in 1871 in Los ...

(SFS), Owned by Ares Management, recently began trading publicly #

Warehouse Markets A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, town ...

a small Tulsa OK based chain # WinCo Foods (includes one Waremart store in Oregon) Other types of warehouse store chains include: #

Aldi Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when ...

. Aldi Stores are smaller specialty stores that largely feature only their own in house private labels. #

Woodman's Markets Woodman's Markets is an employee-owned American regional supermarket chain based in Janesville, Wisconsin. Founded in 1919 as a produce stand, Woodman's has grown to operate nineteen stores in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Woodman's appeared o ...

. Focuses on carrying a much large variety of brands and product offerings than traditional supermarkets at lower prices.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Warehouse Store Retail formats Warehouses

Examples in the United States and Canada

See also

References