It’s a real mouthful
In Ireland, SPAR is an interesting enigma of a supermarket, not known among the big boys, but always there when in your neediest of moments.
It surely isn’t one of the first shops people think of when naming supermarkets on our humble isle, but it comes as shock to realise there’s 400 of these small to medium sized stores in Ireland.
Now if you’re a trivial pursuit kind of person you’ll probably know Sainsbury’s is the surname of its founder, Tesco got its name because of the initials of the names of its founder and supplier while Marks and Spencer really doesn’t need explaining.
However, for the curious out there, have you ever wandered past a SPAR with its big bold capitalised orthography and thought, I wonder why?
Of course you have, and here’s the answer you have been longing for.
SPAR is a Dutch supermarket founded in the Netherlands by Adriaan van Well in 1932 under the name DESPAR written originally as DE SPAR.
In fact the name DESPAR is still used in locally in Italy with some suggesting the DESPAR is too close to despair in English.
This acronym was conjured by Van Well from the store’s original slogan.
This Dutch slogan reads as: ‘Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig’.
Translated into English this means ‘All Benefit from Joint Co-operation Regularly’.
Despite the slogan featuring the word co-operation, it is not to be confused with the supermarket, the Cooperative, which works on a premise of all its members own and control the company.
In fact many SPAR stores are franchised or independent, being into the philosophy of working together, while not being completely owned by some mega consortium.
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The SPAR website explained the slogan: “A simple yet powerful philosophy inspired van Well – independent wholesalers and retailers can achieve more by working together than working alone.
“Over time, the SPAR Brand has extended its presence, serving the needs of local communities across four continents to become the world’s local food store of choice.”
The store decided to drop the ‘DE’ from its name in the 1940s as it decided to go international.
SPAR’s website read: “Mr van Well was the first President of the International SPAR Board, and he set up SPAR International with an office and management team in Amsterdam.”
The supermarket now has 13,900 stores across 48 counties with over 450,000 employees and serves 14.7 million customers daily.
So next time you’re walking past a SPAR store in town and want to impress your friends, just remember these words: ‘Door Eendrachtig Samenwerken Profiteren Allen Regelmatig’
