Larger types of stores that sell groceries, such as supermarkets and hypermarkets, usually stock significant amounts of non-food products, such as clothing and household items.

[7] Beginning as early as the 14th century, a grocer (or "purveyor") was a dealer in comestible dry goods such as spices, peppers, sugar, and (later) cocoa, tea, and coffee.

Today, grocers deal in a wide range of staple food-stuffs including such perishables as dairy products, meats, and produce.

[citation needed] The first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders, an inventor and entrepreneur.

[11][12] Prior to this innovation, grocery stores operated "over the counter," with customers asking a grocer to retrieve items from inventory.

The global buying power of such very efficient companies has put an increased financial burden on traditional local grocery stores as well as the national supermarket chains, and many have been caught up in the retail apocalypse of the 2010s.

Many European cities are so dense in population and buildings that large supermarkets, in the American sense, cannot replace the neighbourhood grocer's shop.

Large out-of-town supermarkets and hypermarkets, such as Tesco and Sainsbury's in the United Kingdom, have been steadily weakening trade from smaller shops.

The future of grocery stores is likely to be shaped by continued technological innovation, with trends like automated checkouts, AI-driven inventory management, and even drone deliveries.

[16] Similarly, in Mexico, tiendas de la esquina (literally "corner stores") are still common places for people to buy groceries and sundries, even though they become less and less of the market over time.

[17] A convenience shop is a small store that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, snack foods, candy, toiletries, soft drinks, tobacco products, and newspapers.

Some grocers specialize in the foods of certain countries or regions, such as Hispanic/Latin American,[21] Chinese, Italian, Middle Eastern, Indian, Russian, or Polish.

A kosher supermarket or other establishment guided by religious food traditions would also typically have an association with certain ethnic cuisines, though not exclusively.

By the late 1940s, milk bars had evolved to include not only groceries, but also became places where young people could buy ready-made food and non-alcoholic drinks and could socialise.

A supermarket, a large form of the traditional grocery store, is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food and household products organized into aisles.

Other services offered at some supermarkets may include those of banks, cafés, childcare centres/creches, photo processing, video rentals, pharmacies and/or petrol stations.

The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including a full groceries line and general merchandise.

[28] Other large retailers in the U.S. have started similar models, including AmazonFresh and Prime Pantry, both run by Amazon.com, Walmart's To-Go service, and smaller companies like Yummy.com and RelayFoods.

[31] Larger grocer complexes that include other facilities, such as petrol stations, are especially common in the United Kingdom, where major chains such as Sainsbury's and Tesco have many locations operating under this format.

These three chains are subsidiaries of large retail companies which also have other kinds of business units, such as department stores and home improvement outlets.

In some countries such as the United States, grocery stores descended from trading posts, which sold not only food but clothing, furniture, household items, tools, and other miscellaneous merchandise.

[34] These businesses include not only chicken and vegetable processors, but also the companies that transport the ingredients and those who print labels and manufacture cans.

In the pre-modern era, the sale of surplus food took place once a week when farmers took their wares on market day into the local village marketplace.

In the latter part of the 20th century, this has been further revolutionized by the development of vast warehouse-sized, out-of-town supermarkets, selling a wide range of food from around the world.

[44] Packaging protects food from damage during its transportation from farms and factories via warehouses to retailing, as well as preserving its freshness upon arrival.

Some stores put effort into preventing access to poor or homeless people while others work with charitable organizations to distribute food.

Intermarche, France's third-largest supermarket launched its "inglorious fruits and vegetables" campaign in order to reduce waste.

[51] Food waste contributes significantly to agriculture's impact on climate change, responsible for 3.3 billion tons of CO2e emissions annually,[52][53] along with other environmental concerns like land use, water consumption, and biodiversity loss.

Strategies then include animal feed, nutrient recycling, and energy recovery, with landfill being the least preferred due to methane emissions.

[54] The UN's Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3 aims to cut global per capita food waste by 50% at retail, consumer levels, and throughout production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses, by 2030.