King Kullen: why the first US supermarket was at the forefront of global distribution

Italian, French and British retailers have drawn inspiration and lessons from their American counterparts. And the chain that opened its first supermarket 96 years ago is still family-owned: in June, King Kullen appointed its first female president, Tracey Cullen, the founder’s great-granddaughter

Quick Take — Grand Frais reaches 350 shops and consolidates its leadership in the specialist fresh food sector

…With 350 outlets, Grand Frais maintains a clear lead over other French retailers specialising in fresh produce. In second place is Mangeons Frais, a brand belonging to the Blachère group, with 156 shops – less than half the size of Grand Frais’s network. Next comes Fresh, a brand belonging to the Prosol group dedicated to fresh produce, which has 77 outlets across France.

This gap in numbers highlights the dominant position Grand Frais has established in a segment that continues to attract consumers seeking product ranges focused on fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, dairy products and speciality foods…

Below: one of Grand Frais’s rivals – Carrefour’s Match supermarkets, with a photo by Olivier Dauvers showing the fruit and vegetable and meat departments.

Quick Take — In Milan, an entire neighbourhood has been left without a supermarket: to do the shopping, you have to walk a kilometre

The closure of the only supermarket in the Sant’Ambrogio I neighbourhood, in Barona, leaves thousands of residents without a local shop. It is the elderly and families who are suffering the most, whilst the local council searches for a new operator…

The Sigma supermarket is located – or rather, was located – within the municipal covered market on Via San Paolino, alongside a chemist’s, a laundrette, a hairdresser’s and a café. This closure further depopulates an already struggling neighbourhood and makes life particularly difficult for the elderly and mothers with young children, who, even on sweltering days, have to travel long distances for their daily shopping. The nearest supermarket is now almost a kilometre away. For many elderly people, going shopping has become a real challenge…

We had already addressed this issue in this article: In Italy, small towns are being depopulated, including their shops: will Amazon Now provide the service in the future?: it seems this is not just an issue for villages but also for cities, such as Milan, where large-scale retail – with or without e-commerce – should play not only a commercial but also a social role…

Read also: In recent weeks, Carrefour Spain has launched a mobile supermarket to combat the decline of local shops

Written on 15 July, updated on 22 July 2026

Quick Take — Tesco is considering selling its European operations

Drafted on 8 July, updated on 14 July 2026.

According to the Financial Times, the supermarket chain is exploring options with its banks for its operations in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where it employs over 22,000 people. The sale of the business would put an end to Tesco’s ambitions outside the UK and Ireland, including its failed attempt to build a new supermarket chain from scratch in the United States.

I visited a Tesco in Budapest in 2008 and didn’t come away with a very good impression.

Tesco’s latest figures can be found here: turnover from the Central European division is marginal, accounting for 6.2 per cent of the total.

The EBIT figures (operating profit: the blue line shows the trend in Central Europe’s EBIT) below are taken from a subsequent Financial Times article which reminds us all that purchasing in the retail sector takes place at a local, country-specific level.

This has been one of the major obstacles to the internationalisation of Carrefour, Walmart, Auchan and Rewe, for example: the approach is international, but the products are, for the most part, local.