The story
Dutch businessman Dirk Kat opened his first grocery store in Velsen-Noord in 1941, but it had to close in 1944 as a result of the German occupation of the Netherlands. In 1949, under his leadership, the first complete self-service store of the Netherlands opened its doors under the name Kijkgrijp. In 1950, Kat established joint purchasing with other grocers so that together they could guarantee low prices to their customers. In 1952, Kat built a central warehouse, which was the forerunner of the distribution centres. In 1955, the first modern supermarket in the Netherlands was opened in IJmuiden. This supermarket also sold fresh products such as bread, meat and vegetables.
From 1969, the name DekaMarkt was introduced at the stores in Wormerveer and Zaandam, and it would eventually be introduced at all stores by 1986. Deka is derived from the initials of Dirk Kat. In 1974, the first liquor store DekaMarkt Slijterij was opened.
Merger with Dirk
Since 2001, the company had been maintaining a close cooperation with Dutch supermarket chain Dirk.
In 2008, the supermarket entered a merger with Dirk to form Detailresult Groep. Both supermarket formulas continued to exist side by side. At the beginning of 2013, the DekaMarkt stores were converted to a new formula, which would give them the look and feel of a real market.
From Wikipedia’s article on DekaMarkt, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4