The first Carrefour hypermarket, opened in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois in 1963, was named Carrefour.
Carrefour opened the store on June 15, 1963, near Paris. The location combined a large supermarket with extensive non-food merchandise and a sizeable parking area. This format helped establish the modern hypermarket: a destination where shoppers could buy groceries, household goods, clothing, and other products in one trip.
The company had been founded in 1958 by Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey, and Jacques Defforey. Its name means “crossroads” in French, reflecting the location of the first store near an intersection. Carrefour had previously operated supermarkets before developing the larger hypermarket model.
The 1963 store is often called France’s first hypermarket, although definitions of hypermarket and claims about earlier large stores can vary by country. Carrefour later expanded throughout Europe, Latin America, and Asia, becoming one of the world’s largest food retailers.