HEMA (store)

HEMA (store)

HEMA (originally an acronym for Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam, "Dutch Standard Prices Company Amsterdam") is a Dutch discount retail chain that started life as a dimestore. It was part of the Maxeda company until June 2007, when it was bought by Lion Capital LLP. The chain is characterized by relative low pricing of generic housewares, which are mostly made by and for the chain itself, often combined with original design.

The first HEMA opened in Amsterdam on 4 November 1926, set up by the Jewish owners of the luxury department store De Bijenkorf. Originally, as a price-point retailer at prime locations in town centers, goods were sold using standard prices (hence its name), with everything having a Standard price of 10, 25 or 50 cents, and later also 75 and 100 cents. The relative economic boom in the Netherlands in the period 1900-1930 benefited HEMA.

During WWII, a number of Jewish employees (there were a relatively high number because of the Jewish roots of the company) were murdered by the Nazis, which is remembered yearly by laying a wreath on May 4, the Dutch Remembrance of the Dead, at the head office.

After World War II, this model could not be sustained and the standard pricing system was abandoned. But a period of rapid expansion followed: now almost every town of any importance in the Netherlands has a HEMA. Locations carry a wide variety of goods, including clothing, food, bicycle equipment, gardening tools, and office supplies. As of 2010, standard pricing was reintroduced.