Spar (retailer) throughout Asia, Africa and Oceania. In fiscal year 2017, SPAR achieved €34.5 billion ($40.1 billion) in global sales, which represented a 5.3 percent increase over 2016. The SPAR motto is "under the tree" The name was originally DE SPAR, an acronym of the Dutch phrase (). The acronym was chosen in order to resonate with the verb "sparen", which (related to English "spare") means "save [money]" in Dutch and some other languages, among them German and Scandinavian languages (with variants such as "spara" or "spare"). The acronym ended up meaning "the fir", after which the logo was chosen. As the
The Fir-Tree Andersen's diary. Andersen's biographer, Jackie Wullschlager, suggests the tale portrays a certain psychological type (like its author) who cannot be happy in the moment because he expects greater glory just around the corner and then is overwhelmed with regret. The fir-tree, like his creator, is "a fantasist, vain, fearful, restless, afflicted with the trembling sensitivity of the neurotic, manically swinging from hope to misery." By placing the tale in a gentle, nonthreatening domestic setting of silk draperies and comfortable sofas, the tale's fatalistic tone was accepted by the bourgeois adult reader who could identify with the tragic fir-tree's anxious longing