Supermarket sector shrinks to 40 chains

Back in 1999, there were 100 supermarket chains operating in Greece, but today their number has fallen below 40 in this market of 12 billion euros per annum.

Of the 60 or so chains that were lost, there were some very small ones that closed, others were acquired, others went bankrupt, while there was no shortage of large multinational groups leaving.

Twenty-five years ago, Marinopoulos was at its peak, having brought the fashion for supermarkets to Greece, with Prisunic Marinopoulos, first in collaboration with Continent and then with French chain Carrefour, while AB Vassilopoulos, Veropoulos, Sklavenitis in Attica and Masoutis in northern Greece were developing alongside it.

It would be difficult to imagine that two of the above chains would no longer exist in 2024, while German giant Lidl would have the second highest market share, having just overtaken...