Edeka

The cooperative was founded in 1907 as the E.d.K. (Einkaufsgenossenschaft der Kolonialwarenhändler im Halleschen Torbezirk zu Berlin, Purchasing Cooperative of Colonial Goods Retailers in the Hallesches Tor district of Berlin). In 1911, it was renamed as Edeka, a phonetic expansion of the previous abbreviation. The Edekabank was founded in 1914 and, from 1923, central billing was introduced. Although the name contains "Berlin", the group was officially founded in Leipzig.

After the Second World War and the collapse of the Third Reich, the reconstruction of the store network was led from the new Hamburg central offices. In 1972, the cooperatives changed structure and formed twelve regional companies, the umbrella corporation and the Edekabank converting from a cooperative to a public limited company.

In 2001, the Edeka-owned budget brand Gut & Günstig (meaning "Good and Inexpensive") was founded. From 2003 to 2012 there was a collaboration with Globus SB-Warenhaus Holding.

During Christmas 2015, the company attracted worldwide attention with the highly sentimental TV commercial #heimkommen, about a lonely grandfather desperate to reunite with his family for Christmas. Intended only for the German public, it reached over 43 million views worldwide on YouTube by 18 December 2015, with nearly 62 million views by June 2019.

A cooperation with Telekom Germany and the brand Edeka smart started on 15 February 2018. It replaced the existing cooperation with Vodafone and EDEKA mobil.

A 2019 Mother's Day online commercial showing a series of clips of fathers interacting with their children incompetently, followed by shots of caring mothers with their children, and the punchline "Mum, thank you for not being dad", was criticized widely for its stereotypical portrayal of the roles of mothers and fathers. Gender researcher Stevie Schmiedel commented: "The commercial is pseudo-progressive. It divides and intensifies the fight between the sexes." Edeka was officially reprimanded by the Deutscher Werberat, the German advertising standards regulator, for breaching advertising standards by "reinforcing 1950s gender stereotypes", and while "ironic exaggeration is permissible, gender stereotyping is not". The authority also cited the large number of complaints and the debate about the commercial on social media, saying this showed that viewers either did not understand that it was meant to be ironic, or that they felt the ironic use of stereotypes was not acceptable to them.

Operational names of these stores include:

nah und gut ("close and good") – stores up to 800 m2 (4300 sq ft), mostly found in smaller municipalities

EDEKA aktiv markt ("active mart") – mostly privately run supermarkets between 400 m2 and 800 m2 (4300 and 8600 sq ft), mostly located in outlying neighborhoods and villages

EDEKA neukauf – privately or centrally managed stores between 800 m2 and 2000 m2 (8600 and 21,500 sq ft)