Both technical and scale efficiencies of the Brazilian supermarket sector were analyzed, by taking as reference the three hundred largest supermarkets listed on the ranking of the Associação Brasileira de Supermercados (ABRAS) in 2006. For analyzing the efficiency, the approach Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used. This approach constitutes a nonparametric technique, where the efficiency is a relative efficiency frontier based on the Decision Making Units (DMU) input and output matrix. Although the technical efficiency showed to be associated with the size of the supermarkets, in general the low performance levels are emphasized, what requires corrective action policies in order to ensure the growth of the sector and the social welfare. The existence of benchmarks in all constructed strata serves as reference for the construction of the competitive strategy.
