On this day, 26 years ago, on August 30, 1999 (July 20, 1999, the lunar calendar), Carrefour merged with Promodus to form the world's second largest retail group. On August 30, 1999, the two major French commodity retail groups, Carrefour Group and Promodus Group, announced a merger, forming the world's second largest retail group after Wall Matt's Department Store in the United States. The merger was an open stock exchange method, with each Promodus share converted into 6 Carrefour shares. The name of the merged group is Carrefour, but in fact Carrefour merged Promodes. Carrefour is France's largest commodity retail group. In addition to Carrefour supermarkets, it also has chain stores such as Erdai, Picard and Stoke; while Promodes Group, which ranks fifth in the French retail industry, controls Continental and Champion Supermarket. The new Carrefour Group will have 8800 outlets in 26 countries and regions around the world, employ 240,000 people, and have annual non-tax sales of 333.5 billion francs (approximately US$53 billion).