bigg's Hypermarket

Description: The last of the "80s hypermarkets", bigg's was basically a prototype of the discount store/grocery hybrid before such a thing existed. However, they were much larger than Wal-Mart Supercenters of later days and had a much larger grocery department.
Potential in SimCity 4: I've been fascinated with bigg's for a few years (before it announced that it would go dead). I mean, where else can you find a hypermarket willingly attaching to large shopping malls? Plus, it's a hypermarket that's NOT Wal-Mart Supercenter!
More Info on The Subject: bigg's (the "b" is lowercase) opened in 1984 as America's first true "hypermarket", offering both food and general merchandise (discounting the fact that just a few states north, Meijer had been doing that for years). It was a coalition between SuperValu (owning 10%) and French companies (90%). Unfortunately, bigg's made a few mistakes in its times of operation. In 1989, a third bigg's hypermarket opened in the Denver market and the first outside of Cincinnati. The store was doomed: Wal-Mart had just set foot in the market and boasted that it was all-American unlike the partially French-owned bigg's (which WAS the truth at the time, most of Wal-Mart's products were American-made). King Soopers, owned by Kroger, ran vicious pro-union attack ads on bigg's (and Kroger was also headquartered in Cincinnati...do the math). All during that time, Hyper Shoppes insisted on building new stores not as stand-alone stores but parts of small malls that were supposed to presumably expand. The only stores that were stand-alone were just supermarkets (diluting the hypermarket brand). By the time SuperValu bought the chain in 1994, they did build stand-alone full-line stores, but scaled back square footage and never went out of the Cincinnati area. By the year 2000, bigg's was no longer building any new "hypermarket" stores and by the year 2010, SuperValu pulled the plug and sold the remnants to another grocery store (Remke Markets). This satire piece, written in 1986, has some neat photos, and shows how "bigg" some people thought it was
Location in RL: Mason, Ohio (this photo) and Florence, Kentucky (main model)
Building Exists?: Both exist. The Mason location is now a Remke Markets bigg's, the Florence location is now closed.
BAT Progress?: Realistically, no. Just a box in SketchUp. However, it is very close up on the list (after Auchan and Wal-Mart). I plan to have the bigg's logo superimposed when queried, but with the stock "cashier" sound.
Wikipedia: Remke Markets bigg's
Official Website: Remke Markets
Current Equivalent: None! That makes it all the more unique!
Photo Credit: Wikipedia article of the same name, taken by user "Joekid".
Bing View: Florence, Kentucky location.