In this ranking, Leclerc has risen whilst Auchan has fallen: 10 years ago, Leclerc had just one outlet in the top 25; today it has seven. Auchan used to have 16; today it has seven. Leclerc, the French market leader, has continued to focus on hypermarkets, with success
Your book, Giuseppe Maria Giorgio Caprotti, is wonderful; it has really opened my eyes to the history of modern distribution. Thank you
In the future, in Europe too, the agri-food sector and trade will play an increasingly important geopolitical role, with technology playing a central part
It is a pity that no Italian company has had the scale, but above all the vision, to take on the world in the way these giants have done. In Italy, everyone thought: e-commerce must be self-sustaining. This was the case for Esselunga at home until it had no rivals, but Amazon and Walmart disprove this view. E-commerce is underpinned by other, more profitable sources of revenue
Written on 17 April, updated on 24 June 2026 This article focuses mainly on non-food products, but whilst writing about…
The fact that many discount brands feature at the top of the rankings – Eurospin is number one in 11 regions and ranks second or third in a further six – suggests that its range of fruit and vegetables meets its customers’ expectations better than that of supermarkets, which tend to emulate discounters but charge higher prices
David (Bonneval) versus Goliath (Nestlé) in a context where the presence of a bottle no longer guarantees that the water is not contaminated
Russia and North Korea are certainly very similar; they are both ruthless dictatorships, but Chinese leader Xi’s current visit makes it clear that whilst Putin’s economy and power are in decline, Kim has benefited from his involvement in the war in Ukraine and from the prospect of possessing nuclear weapons
Walmart is not only becoming a threat to Amazon and all American supermarkets, but also to fast food and home delivery companies, such as UberEats or DoorDash
“(…) the European Court also addresses itself to the national legislator, requiring him to introduce criminal laws proportionate to the seriousness of facts that cause damage both to the environment and to the lives of people living in a particular area. It is also crucial, according to the Court, that statutes of limitation are guaranteed to be compatible with the complexity of proceedings and that the government refrains from adopting measures, such as criminal shields, that guarantee the impunity of polluters. In the past, the absence of an effective regulatory framework was one of the causes of the failure of some well-known judicial initiatives, such as the one against Eternit owners for asbestos deaths”
The wholesale giant’s sales were driven by fuel sales – particularly cheap at Costco – and the inclusion of GLP-1 drugs in loyalty programmes
