Keep the Customer Satisfied Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sam Seelig

By 2009, Safeway was the eleventh largest retail chain store in the US, with some 1,600 stores located throughout the country. Seeling began this business by setting up a small grocery store in Los Angeles under the name Sam Seelig Company. 1922 found him operating seventy more stores along the same lines, but partly as a result of the First World War, and expanding too quickly, he found himself in debt and had to sell off a vast amount of his stock to W.R.H. Weldon to help pay his bills. By 1924 Weldon had taken over control of the business and Seelig left to set up a real estate concern. The name of the old business was changed at this time to Safeway.

Weldon expanded this business even faster than had Seelig, and within another two years, 322 Safeway were operating around the country. From the early 1930s the company began to expand into other countries as well, with its international stores appearing in Canada, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, West Germany, Kuwait, Australia and Mexico. Who knows where a Safeway store will next appear.

Answer: 7-Eleven

7-Eleven has an amazing number of convenience stores located in many different countries throughout the world. These include over 8,000 in the United States, almost 7,000 in Thailand, and an astonishing 15,000 in Japan. There are also stores located in Australia, Honk Kong, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Mexico, Brazil and the United Kingdom.

This company began in 1927 in Dallas, Texas when John Jefferson Green, an employee for an ice making company, began selling milk, eggs and bread from the front part of the business where he worked. Now that's initiative for you. The manager where Green worked, Joe Thompson, realised that this would be an excellent means of supplementing the firm's income if the business actually sold the items that the ice kept fresh. He promptly bought the ice making business, set about setting up several others within the region that provided the same service, and the huge corporation grew from there. Let's hope he kept the far-sighted John Green on as an employee while he was at it. He did pinch his idea after all.

Answer: Kmart

Kmart began in 1962 in the United States and, by the year 2013, had grown to be the third largest discount chain in the world. Sebastian S. Kresge (1867-1966), who founded the company that would eventually become Kmart, began his corporate business career with the purchase of two five and dime stores in 1897. Under the name S.S. Kresge Corp, this business grew like productive rabbits from that time. Kresge stepped down as President of the corporation in 1925, and passed away in 1966, but lived long enough to see the birth of one of his most successful descendants, Kmart, produce eighteen more stores in the first year it arrived on the scene. Kresge, who gave a vast amount of his wealth to charitable organisations, was worth a staggering $375,000,000 in 1925. Translated to 2009 value, to put this into perspective for you, that is $5,000,000,000.

He also owned real estate to the value of $1,000,000,000. Amazing, isn't it?

Answer: Target

Dayton Dry Goods Company began in Minnieapolis, Minnesota in 1902. It was established by George Dayton, a banker who purchased mortgages of desperate farmers who had gone to the wall. George Dayton was also a staunch member of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in his home town, and his first store was run pretty much according to the guidelines of his faith. No alcohol, no business on Sundays, no advertising in papers that also advertised the sale of alcohol, and so on. That's pretty amazing really to have the strength of character to resist the appeal of the quick and guaranteed liquor sale. George also gave most of his money away to charity, but still his empire continued to grow. He died in 1938, and the business was carried on by his son. However, when his grandson took over in 1950, with four of his cousins as co-managers, the Presbyterian guidelines flew out the window as the appeal of all that extra money became too hard to resist. How sad.

Target was established as a new chain under the umbrella of this large firm in 1962 and has grown at the rate of knots since that time. You'll be interested to know that Target, by 2013, is considered to be one of the most philanthropic companies in the United States. It gives an astonishing $3 million dollars a week - yes, a week - to any community in which it has been established, and also pours millions every year into the advancement of schools and education, into the funds of the Salvation Army, and into organisations to help the families of patients who have been hospitalised. The philanthropic heart to American big business never fails to impress me, and this corporation's philanthropic heart is the true heart of a champion.

Answer: Woolworths

Woolworths Limited is the largest retail store chain in Australia, and also in New Zealand, our friendly next door neighbour. Established by five businessmen, it first opened its doors in 1924 in Sydney, under the initial name of Wallworths Bazaar. It was a completely separate entity to the huge American and English chains of Woolworths stores however, with no connection at all, beyond the mild pun on the name of that huge concern. The name switch came about as the result of a dare. One of the founders dared another to see what would happen if the name was switched to Woolworths, which he quite cheerfully did. This was because the name Woolworths was actually available for use in New South Wales, where Sydney is located. Dirty pool really, all things considered, and there was nothing the American founders could do about this - except, of course, enjoy the free publicity.

By the year 2008, Australian Woolworths Limited was not only one of the largest retailing chains in the world, but in our beautiful country known for its love of gambling and the odd drink or twenty, it was also the largest retailer of takeaway alcohol products - and provider of poker machines in hotels. One could really say then, as far as the name goes, that Australia grew wealthy on the back of a sheep, with our initial wool industry, but we've been very busy poking that wool into slot machines, and toasting it with a happy hic or two, ever since.

Answer: Coles

Coles Supermarket chain began in Melbourne, Australia, in 1914. By the next century, it opened another 740 stores throughout the country, manned by an overall staff of 100,000. When it first opened its doors all that time ago, Coles operated with the slogan "Nothing over 2/5". That's 25 cents, and for very many years it was faithful to this standard. Obviously not any longer of course, but this giant organisation still manages to keep its prices at extremely competitive prices, with its main rival in Australia being the Woolworth's supermarket chain. You can pretty much guarantee that wherever a Coles store is found in this country, there'll be a Woolworths store just opening up, or already opened, around the next corner.

Answer: Giant Hypermarket

Giant Hypermarket is a retail chain of stores which opened in Kuala Lumpur in 1944. That's an interesting date, considering the Second World War, particularly in the Asian region, was still in full force at that time. Powering on in 2013, this organisation now has stores in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Japan, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates and Japan.

Answer: Mr Bricolage

The word "bricolage" is French. It means to create or repair anything from whatever motely assortment of goods is immediately available. Mr Bricolage is a French retail chain of many stores offering home improvement, do-it-yourself goods for sale. It was founded at La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin in France in 1964 as a public company, and since then has grown to own over 500 stores in many different countries.

These employ 11,000 people, so its a healthy economic boost to whatever region whereever a new one is established.

Answer: SPAR

SPAR has an amazing 12,500 retail stores scattered in thirty-five different countries throughout the world. What an impressive record. Because the owner of the parent company varies from country to country, each country has its own individual slogan associated with its SPAR store. Most are pretty boring to be honest, but the UK came up with a clever "So near, So SPAR" for theirs.

The rest really are pretty yawnworthy.

Answer: Fortnum's

Fortnum and Mason, usually known as Fortnum's, began in England way back in 1761. The store specialised in ready-made luxury foods, such as fresh meats set into a gelatin substance known as aspic jelly. From that beginning they branched out further into making jams, preserved fruits, and dried spices. Greatly favoured by members of royalty in its early days, particularly in the Victorian era, this organisation frequently supplied meals on royal gala occasions which normally called for huge armies of cooks to prepare the vast menus. They really lashed out in 1886 when they purchased several crates of the newly invented canned baked beans from the American firm Heinz to try out. That was a very windy occasion.

Fortnum and Mason's founders were honoured in 1964 in a rather unique and lovely way when an enormous clock was put above the entrance of one of its main stores. This featured life size models of William Fortnum and William Mason emerging every hour and bowing gravely to one another. Today this store is still noted for its high class, luxury items, and its high class luxury customers. An example of this is the top of the range stocked picnic hampers which appear year after year at such high society events as regattas and horse racing. These can cost as much as - wait for it - a staggering twenty-five thousand English pounds! Oh, but why not I say. No use apologising for wealth if one is lucky enough to have it. Forget the marked down prices on cans of sardines, Jeeves. Let's eat out in style on quail's eggs and smoked salmon instead, my good chap.