Big Y Foods began as a 900-sq.-ft. grocery at a Y intersection in Chicopee,Massachusetts.It now operates some 60 supermarkets throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut. Most of its stores are Big Y World Class Markets,offering specialty areas such as bakeries and floral shops, as well as banking.The rest consist of Big Y Supermarkets and a single gourmet food and liquor store called Table & Vine in Springfield,Massachusetts.Some Big Y stores provide child care, dry cleaning, photo processing, and even propane sales,and their delis and food courts offer to-go foods.Big Y is owned and run by the D'Amour family and is one of New England's largest independent supermarket chains.

BIM wants to make grocery shopping as easy as bim, bam, boom. With more than 2,700 stores, the company is Turkey's largest supermarket chain.Known as "the Turkish ALDI,"BIM operates a similar warehouse-style discount store model and only offers about 600 products per store, mostly under its private-label brands Dost St,Homemaxx,and Yuva.BIM stores also offer toys, housewares, and home appliances.Stores range in size from 2,000 to 6,000 sq. ft.,and the company also operates its own trucking and logistics service to cut costs.BIM was founded in 1995.Together, Chairman Mustafa Latif Topbas and Saudi Arabian industrialist Abdulrahman El Khereiji own more than 30% of the company

Founded in 1982 by two meat wholesalers, Bristol Farms returned to local management in late 2010 when grocery and wholesale giant SUPERVALU sold it to a team of local managers and West Coast investment firm Endeavour Capital. Bristol Farms operates more than a dozen upscale specialty supermarkets in California's Los Angeles,Orange,and Ventura counties, as well as a single store in San Francisco. Smaller than traditional supermarkets(its stores average about 14,000 sq. ft.),more than two-thirds of the company's sales come from fresh products.The grocery chain, which is known for its gourmet items and seasonable edible gifts,also sells wine and spirits.

Brookshire's stores average about 40,000 sq. ft., while its warehouse-style Super 1 Foods stores average 80,000 sq. ft. More than 110 of Brookshire Grocery's stores have pharmacy departments. Originally part of the Brookshire Brothers grocery chain (dating back to 1921), the company split from it in 1939. By selling staples, specialties, and Southern hospitality, Brookshire Grocery Co. has grown into a chain of about 155 Brookshire's, Super 1 Food, Olé Foods, and ALPS supermarkets in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The company also owns three distribution centers, a dairy, and BGC Manufacturing, its private label manufacturing unit.

Butera acquired three stores in Illinois from bankrupt Eagle Food Centers. Family-owned and -operated from its inception, Butera became an employee-owned company in the early 1990s. Butera Finer Foods, Inc. If you're in the Windy City and you're in the market for foodstuffs, find your way to Butera's. Butera Finer Foods runs about 10 full-service supermarkets under the Butera Market banner in northern Illinois. The stores specialize in produce, deli items, and international foods at low prices. Since its founding in 1968 by Paul Butera Sr. and his brother Joe, some 25 Butera Finer Foods supermarkets have been opened. Butera's twin sons Joseph and Paul Jr. currently run 10 of them.

&K Market was founded in 1957 by Raymond "Ray" Nidiffer and is today run by his son, Doug (president).Family-owned C&K Market operates about 60 supermarkets in southern Oregon and northern California, mostly under the name Ray's Food Place, but also under Shop Smart and C&K banners. The Shop Smart warehouse-style stores focus on value-priced groceries and household goods. The company's C&K Express subsidiary operates about a dozen Pharmacy Express stores that offer prescription and over-the-counter drugs, as well as health and beauty aids. Most of C&K's stores are situated in rural communities, and about two-thirds of the company's revenue is derived from grocery sales

Calhoun Enterprises operates a handful of supermarkets under the Calhoun Foods banner in central Alabama. The Alabama grocer locates its stores in buildings vacated by national chains, such as Winn-Dixie, and in areas the larger national chains avoid. The family-run company is one of the largest African-American-owned and -run businesses in the South. Calhoun Enterprises was founded by president and CEO Gregory Calhoun (who started his food industry career as a package clerk at a local supermarket when he was 14 years old) in 1984.Calhoun Enterprises also runs subsidiaries involved in telecommunications, warehousing, consulting, investments, and food brokering and distribution.

Carrefour Italia sources more than 90% of its agricultural food products locally and sells its own brands of food, including the Terre D'Italia and ScelgoBio labels.Europe's leading retailer Carrefour knows that to live la dolce vita, you've got to buy lots of stuff. Its operations in Italy are carried out by Carrefour Italia, one of the country's biggest sellers of food and general merchandise, along with Conad and Coop Italia. Carrefour owns about 495 stores in Italy, which operate under the names Carrefour (about 65 hypermarkets), GS (about 235 supermarkets), DìperDì (some 175 convenience stores), and DocksMarket and GrossIper (about 15 cash-and-carry stores), and franchises more than a thousand others.

Casey’s General Stores, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates convenience stores under the names of “Casey’s General Store”, “HandiMart”, and “Just Diesel” in the Midwestern states. The company’s stores offer food, beverages, dairy and bakery products, beer, sandwiches, fountain drinks, donuts, cookies, brownies, Danish rolls, pork and chicken fritters, chicken tenders, popcorn chicken, sub sandwiches, breakfast croissants and biscuits, breakfast pizza, hash browns, hamburgers and cheeseburgers, and potato cheese bites. It also provides nonfood items, which include tobacco products, health and beauty aids, school supplies, house wares, pet supplies, photo supplies, and automotive products. In addition, the company offers gasoline or gasohol for sale on a self-service basis. As of September 30, 2010, it operated approximately 1,542 stores in Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Casey's General Stores, Inc. was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa.

Citarella caters to an urban clientele that possesses discerning taste buds. The company operates about half a dozen gourmet supermarkets in New York City and its satellite, the Hamptons. The upscale chain also offers catering and online ordering and home delivery to select ZIP codes. The company's highly-esteemed Manhattan restaurant (renamed Josephs in 2004 -- formerly Citarella -- after the company's owner Joseph "Joe" Gurrera) has shut down. Citarella got its start as a seafood market in 1912 and was bought by Gurrera in 1983.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.