Supermarket Use and Exclusive Clauses, Part Six

Abstract

Supermarkets and supermarket leases are intertwined and mutually ependent. Most American supermarkets are located in leased stores situated in shopping centers. Their rights to occupy the stores and they way they function in them depend on leases. Conversely, many provisions of supermarket leases including use and exclusive clauses depend on a keen understanding of the supermarket business.

Use and exclusive clauses are among the most difficult to negotiate of all lease provisions. Use clauses govern what a Tenant is allowed to do in its store, and exclusive clauses restrict what other tenants of the shopping center are allowed to do in their stores.

Supermarket Use and Exclusive Clauses, Part 6 traces the monumental changes in supermarket merchandising during World War II. Wartime labor shortages forced supermarket operators to streamline they way they sold meat, produce, baked goods, and dairy products. The process was facilitated by technological advances, in part, spurred by the War and the mobilization that preceded the War. The methods they adopted to overcome the shortages enhanced sales, consumer satisfaction, and profits and, in time, became the very essence of this institution.

Lawyers negotiating supermarket use and exclusive clauses need to know what supermarkets are, how they function, and how they originated. What they need to know can't be found in case law or statutes but in the industry's business model and its history. This article and its five predecessors are dedicted to providing sources of this knowledge for lawyers who negotiate supermarket and other shopping center leases and for students who aspire to do so.

Keywords: shopping centers, leases, food distribution

JEL Classification: D39, L29, L66, L85