It was at the entrance to Cascais that a Pão de Açúcar opened in 1973, which the Cascais City Council describes as the country’s first hypermarket. Over the course of nearly half a century, it has changed its name twice, and today it operates next to the original building, in an Auchan featuring restaurants and a rooftop overlooking the sea.
From Pão de Açúcar to Jumbo
Pão de Açúcar was a Brazilian chain founded in the 1960s by Abílio Diniz and his father, Valentim, a native of the Pinhel area, as reported by DN. In the 1970s, the group opened what is described as Lisbon’s first modern supermarket on Avenida Estados Unidos da América. But the group’s journey in the country was not smooth: SUPA, the group’s Portuguese subsidiary, was occupied in 1974, and in April of the following year, the government intervened in the company, according to Lusa, as cited by RTP.
In 1987, it rose to the number one spot among the country’s supermarket chains and remained there for several years. In 1996, the group’s remaining stores in Portugal were acquired by the French company Auchan. Along the way, the Cascais store was renamed Jumbo, a name that eventually disappeared on September 12, 2019, when the Auchan brand became the identifier for all of the group’s stores in the country, as reported by ECO.
53 years later: the new Auchan in Cascais
The store that stands today at the entrance to the town opened on May 11, 2022, right next to the old one, and cost Auchan nearly 40 million euros, according to Idealista and Echo Boomer. It spans about 7,000 square meters spread over two floors: the hypermarket is downstairs, and the restaurants are upstairs, with a rooftop overlooking the sea. One of the entrances also features a garden.
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