Supermercado

You swiftly swing your shopping cart around corners bursting with whatever brightly colored product happens to be on sale that day. The silent sounds of single shoppers searching for that perfect melon contrast against the six teams of families that spread over the aisle, seemingly never able to agree on what piece of corn is ready to eat or which brand of cereal is less worse for the teeth. The supermercado, or supermarket in english, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments. It is larger in size and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store, also selling items typically found in a convenience store, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket or big-box store. The concept of a self-service grocery store was developed by American entrepreneur Clarence Saunders and his Piggly Wiggly stores. His first store opened in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1916. Saunders was awarded a number of patents for the ideas he incorporated into his stores. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) was another successful early grocery store chain in Canada and the United States, and became common in North American cities in the 1920s. The general trend in retail since then has been to stock shelves at night so that customers, the following day, can obtain their own goods and bring them to the front of the store to pay for them. Although there is a higher risk of shoplifting, the costs of appropriate security measures ideally will be outweighed by reduced labor costs. Historically, there was debate about the origin of the supermarket, with King Kullen and Ralph's of California having strong claims. This sound uses the following file from Freesound: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=125150