The stores were a financial success and Saunders began to offer franchises. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, which was established in 1859, was another successful early grocery store chain in Canada and the United States, and became common in North American cities in the 1920s. Early self-service grocery stores did not sell fresh meats or produce. Combination stores that sold perishable items were developed in the 1920s. The general trend 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 has been debate about the origin of the supermarket, with King Kullen and Ralphs of California having strong claims. Other contenders included Weingartens and Henke & Pillot. To end the debate, the Food Marketing Institute in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution and with funding from H.J. Heinz, researched the issue. They defined the attributes of a supermarket as "self-service, separate product departments, discount pricing, marketing and volume selling".They determined that the first true supermarket in the United States was opened by a former Kroger employee, Michael J. Cullen, on 4 August 1930, inside a 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) former garage in Jamaica, Queens in New York City. The store, King Kullen, operated under the slogan "Pile it high. Sell it low."
These aisle ends are used to lure customers into making a snap purchase and to also entice them to shop down the aisle. The most obvious place supermarket layout influences consumers are at the checkout. Small displays of chocolates, magazines, and drinks are located at each checkout to tempt shoppers while they wait to be served. Criticisms
The large scale of supermarkets, while often improving cost and efficiency for customers, can place significant economic pressure on suppliers and smaller shopkeepers. Supermarkets often generate considerable food waste, although modern technologies such as biomethanation units may be able to process the waste into an economical source of energy. Also, purchases tracking may help as supermarkets then become better able to size their stock (of perishable goods), reducing food spoilage. See also
Hypermarket
List of grocers
Short food supply chains
Farmers markets
Types of retail outlets
Effects of the car on societies

References
Further reading
Greer, William R.; Logan, John A.; Willis, Paul S. (1986). America the Bountiful: How the Supermarket Came to Main Street : an Oral History. Washington, D.C.: Food Marketing Institute in cooperation with Beatrice Companies. OCLC 14357784. Longstreth, R. W. (1999). The Drive-In, the Supermarket, and the Transformation of Commercial Space in Los Angeles, 1914-1941. The MIT Press. Lorr, B. (2020). The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket. Avery. Newman, K. (2012). The Secret Financial Life of Food: From Commodities Markets to Supermarkets (Illustrated edition). Columbia University Press. Petroski, Henry (November–December 2005). "Shopping by Design". American Scientist 93 (6): 491. Sowell, Thomas. Basic Economics (Third Edition, 2007 Basic Books).