But there will be handsome rewards for those that can survive this battle of hypermarket proportions.

ECONOMIST: Retailing in China

English is alive with such Greco-Latin mongrels as amoral, biodiversity, hypermarket, inorganic, perinatal, television.

ECONOMIST: Johnson: Don't shoot the pian-ist | The

Carrefour, a French hypermarket, has been in Asia longer, but is continuing to expand through the economic turmoil.

ECONOMIST: Asian retailing

With respect to Carrefour, rumors are circulating that the French hypermarket operator is in discussions with China Resources Enterprise about selling its China operations.

FORBES: International Retailers Struggle In China

Assets: Owns 72% of Luxottica, which in turn owns Lenscrafters in the U.S. Other holdings include stake in Italy's GS hypermarket chain and 100% of U.S. women's clothing retailer Casual Corner.

FORBES: Europe

Leclerc, a hypermarket giant, was recently taken to court by pharmacists for running a television advertisement claiming that it could sell household medicines a lot cheaper if it were allowed to.

ECONOMIST: France's cost of living

With guidance from Jean Duboc, a veteran of Carrefour's hypermarket division, CBD has reduced construction and operating costs of its hypermarkets by 30% since 2000 by making simple changes like renting out space at store entrances.

FORBES: Outmuscling Wal-Mart

Among other innovations, it set up Tesco Express, combining convenience stores and petrol retailing, Tesco Metro, the small, urban stores and a small number of much larger stores on the hypermarket model including its flagship Tesco Kensington store.

BBC: Lord Maclaurin

Carrefour did so after French billionaire Bernard Arnault teamed up with Colony Capital, an American real estate fund, to buy 10% of the hypermarket concern earlier in the year. (See: "Carrefour Drops As Arnault Takes Stake") After the purchase, the new shareholders reportedly put pressure on management to carve off the property assets.

FORBES: Power Play At Metro