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Comment by worklaptopacct | Hacker News Reader

As a Pole, I don't think I've heard the term "hypermarket" in like 10 years. There was a boom for all that exaggerated Western-style consumerism, but this kinda died down as medium-sized discount stores took over the majority of the market. Family trips to a shopping center might be a thing of the past - but also I'm not a kid anymore.

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Depends a bit on where you are. In France it's definitely a thing if you live outside of the major cities. In the Netherlands, active government intervention stopped these car-only hypermarkets ("weidemarkten").

Gotta say though, Poland has both, but indeed has a full range from small Zabkas to Auchans at the edge of town (probably not a coincidence it's French brands operating the hypermarkets).

Polish hypermarkets, at least in my experience, were never car-only. They were always within the city enough that one could easily use public transportation to shop there. What is car-only in Poland are wholesaler shops like Makro, which are often located well outside cities, but those are not meant for ordinary consumers.

> As a Pole, I don't think I've heard the term "hypermarket" in like 10 years.

Carrefour Poland and Auchan Poland commonly use the term in to describe their own huge shops, like the one in Warsaw’s Arkadia shopping mall. Just do a Google search for the phrase “w naszym hipermarkecie”.

Yeah. 15 years ago going to Auchan, Carrefour, Tesco or Real was all the rage. Right now Tesco and Real are dead, and everyone just walks to the nearest Lidl/Aldi/Biedronka

I do miss it. Tesco Value Beer was great.

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