Large format retailers: a French tradition despite reactions

Abstract

French retailers have initiated large format stores: department stores in the middle of the 19th century and their variety stores; hypermarkets more than a century later. These large format retail stores induced reactions from the French government on several occasions. These reactions consisted in controlling new locations through specific committees. The impact of these reactions did not greatly affect the evolution of large format retail stores like hypermarkets. Regulations hurt variety stores more strongly when they were in competition with hypermarkets, because they were already declining. Otherwise, the hypermarket retail life cycle has not been affected despite some delays. Recent problems could mean the end of development and possibly of maturity stages for these large format retail stores.