Germany’s biggest economic crisis in decades seemed likely to provide another boost for the hard discount model beloved of the country’s shoppers.

A possible sale or removal from Carrefour's perimeter of the hard discount business is not an issue at the moment,' he said.

This is not the first time – in 2007, Carrefour also appointed a bank to advise it on options for hard discount.

But the most dramatic expansion will come from Dollar General, which operates more than 7,000 small neighbourhood hard discount stores.

Family Dollar, the hard discount store chain, also saw sales rise more than 5 per cent as consumers sought out cheaper goods.

The expansion of hard discount stores accelerates the modification and limitation of products ranges.

Dollar stores, hard discount supermarkets and “off price” clothing stores have long lived in the shadow of America’s top retail names.

Hard Discount: "Grocery products at low, low prices"

He has told clients: “The introduction of Tesco's hard discounts range looks to have knocked 3 per cent off sales growth in the quarter.

In France there is already an important culture of hard discount within low income groups so that is going to continue and play a very important role.

Netto is a French chain of hard discount stores owned by the Les Mousquetaires group.

Carrefour is studying plans to realise value from both its hard discount and property businesses and is on track to make a decision before the summer.

A strong 6.4 per cent increase from Family Dollar, the hard discount store chain, underlined the continued strength of stores focused on low-cost essentials.

However, investors will still vote on the proposed spin-off of Dia, Carrefour’s hard discount unit, which had been proposed alongside the property deal.

Save-A-Lot is one of the nation's leading hard discount grocery chains, operating nearly 1,200 stores in 39 states from Maine to California.

In 2009, as a defender of healthy and natural food, he became famous for appearing on poster campaigns for the hard discount store brand Leader Price.

Primark is a hard discount clothing retailer that combines very low prices with a "fast-fashion" component to generate best-in-class sales densities.

He denied reports of an imminent sale of Carrefour's own hard discount chains, ED and Dia. '

“Carrefour is considering different ways of putting value on hard discount, which does not necessarily mean selling it – there can be several options,” said one person familiar with the situation.

Carrefour, which has 122 hypermarkets and more than 280 hard discount stores in China, issued a statement on Wednesday denying involvement in Chinese political affairs. '

One could have gone into a hard discount format, Tesco could have really made international expansion work by concentrating on the growth economies, rather than places like the States.

On the West Coast, the UK’s Tesco has continued to open up more locations for its fledgling Fresh & Easy stores, also a hard discount format.

However, key challenges for Casino's French operations include passing cost inflation onto customers and improving the operating performance of its hard discount format, Leader Price (LP).

But change his mind he did, announcing at the beginning of March the decision to spin-off 25 per cent of the group’s property arm, as well as its entire hard discount business.

The group signalled its openness to unlocking value from hard discount, when it started splitting out its hard discount division in its accounts in 2009.