Perhaps one of your New Year resolutions is to achieve a personal goal, be the biggest or first in a category, or the one to surpass a long-standing record.
As the retail industry winds down from exhausting holiday frenzy and looks ahead to a great new year, we’d like to share these impressive as well as quirky record-setting retail accomplishments, as documented by Guinness World Records.
Though records change on a daily basis and are not published online immediately, these are the latest posted by the authority on record-breaking achievements:
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Largest Stores
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The world’s largest department store is the Shinsegae Centumcity Department Store in Busan, a coastal city in South Korea. Opening in June 2009, the store covers 3.16 million feet and includes a spa, roof garden and 60-tee golf driving range.
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The largest watch store, covering 17,000 square feet, is the Tourneau Time Dome, located in The Forum Shops at Caesars in Las Vegas.
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The largest golf chain store is Golf Partner, with 258 stores, all of them in Japan. In June 2011, Golf Partner also set the record for the most second hand golf clubs sold.
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The world’s largest single pet store is Zoo Zajac. Owned and managed by Norbert Zajac and located in Duisburg, Germany, the store covers more than 86,867 square feet. The record for the most Guinness World Records books sold by a retail chain in 24 hours is 44,647. It was achieved by Walmart, during a Black Friday promotional sale in the U.S.
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The largest pharmacy chain store in the world is Walgreens, with more than 8,000 shops across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.
Other “Largest” Retail Achievements
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The world’s largest shopping cart measures more than 54 feet high, from ground to handle, with wheels measuring close to four feet in diameter. The cart consists of 10 tons of iron and took one month to create. The super-sized shopping cart, produced in Istanbul, Turkey, can hold 250 regular-sized carts.
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The largest shopping bag measures 275 feet high, not including handles, and 125 feet wide. The bag is 100% cotton and was made by Raj Bahadur. It was displayed in Gaziabad, India, in February 2009.
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The world’s largest shopping center is the Dubai Mall, located in Downtown Dubai, UAE. It covers 12.1 million square feet over four levels, has an internal floor area of 5.9 million square feet, and comprises 3.7 million square feet of gross leasable area. The mall features 1,200 retail outlets, more than 160 food and beverage outlets, an aquarium, an Olympic-size ice rink and a 22-screen cineplex.
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The world’s largest parking lot can hold 20,000 vehicles. It is situated at the former holder of the record for the world’s largest shopping centre: West Edmonton Mall, in Alberta, Canada. The parking area includes overflow facilities on an adjoining lot for an additional 10,000 cars.
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The largest menswear retailer of suits in the world is Aoyama Trading Company of Japan. From January to December 2007, the company sold 2,725,359 men’s suits.
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In terms of revenue, Amazon is the world’s largest online store, with net sales in 2012 of more than $61 billion.
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The largest motorized shopping cart measures 27 feet long, 15 feet tall and eight feet wide. It was constructed by Frederick Reifsteck of the U.S. and displayed in New York in April 2012.
Some Random Retail Records
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Harrods of London holds the record for the highest annual department store revenue, generating $1.63 billion for the year ending January 2011. The iconic department store, the largest in Europe, was acquired by Qatar Holdings in 2010 for a reported $2.3 billion.
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The world’s best-selling brand of clothing is Levi Strauss & Co., with sales of $4.1 billion for the Levis, Dockers and Slates brands.
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The record for the most same-brand jeans commercially available in a single store is 1,154, achieved by T.T. Blues Jeans S.A. de C.V. (Mexico), in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, in January 2013.
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In February 2010, Okan Bayindir of Turkey achieved the world record for the fastest time to scan and bag 12 shopping items: two minutes and 13 seconds.
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The most expensive game ever made available on the App Store was Alchemize, from Schiau Studios. The game retailed for $39.99 in October 2009 before being dropped back to a more reasonable $2.99.
As Retail TouchPoints readers pursue their New Year Resolutions, maybe one will break a retail record during 2014! Good luck and best wishes in the New Year.
