Once the largest supermarket in Asia has ended, how can traditional hypermarkets break through?

On March 31, as Carrefour closed its doors in Zhongguancun Square, the hypermarket fell silent, announcing the retirement of the former Asian flagship store. On the same day, the last Wal-Mart supermarket in Shandong also stopped operating. According to incomplete statistics, since 2021, 13 domestic supermarket companies have closed more than 100 stores. Many years ago, supermarket hypermarkets attracted customers with the charm of "one-stop shopping", but with the rise of e-commerce, this advantage disappeared, but because of the huge store space to bear higher operating costs. In the face of the new market environment, supermarket hypermarkets have "broken arms to survive" and looked for a way to break through.

The former largest supermarket in Asia withdrew

When it opened in 2004, Carrefour Zhongguancun Square was known as the largest supermarket in Asia at the time, covering an area of more than 10,000 square meters, which was Carrefour's first flagship store in China built according to its own design concept.

"It was a beautiful sight when it opened that year." Ms. Han, who grew up in Zhongguancun, still remembers the scene at the beginning of the opening, and many people came to the scene, and the scene was full of popularity. After entering the underground business district where Carrefour is located, you will first see a number of small shops in the rented area, and the business of these small shops is also very hot under the drive of Carrefour. But in recent years, the shops in the leased area have changed from wave to wave. When the reporter visited before closing the store, a clothing store clerk revealed that although it was promoted at a low price, the business was not good, "far from the passenger flow in the next shopping mall." ”

The Zhongguancun business district where this store is located, in fact, there is no shortage of customers, and the new Zhongguan and Link Shopping Plaza next to it are the gathering places for many young people. Why are supermarkets getting more and more deserted? Nearby residents say that people's consumption habits have changed, and visiting hypermarkets means a higher time cost, such as fresh food areas and department stores on different floors, and it takes a lot of time to buy only a few things at a time. At the same time, consumers have more choices in their shopping channels.

With the closure of Carrefour, Zhongguancun Square will start to upgrade. According to insiders, after the renovation is completed, whether Carrefour will come back is still unknown, "even if it comes back to reopen the store, it will no longer be such a large scale as it is now." ”

13 supermarket companies close hundreds of stores a year

As the "godfather of hypermarkets", Carrefour has opened the era of "one-stop shopping" hypermarkets since entering China in 1995. However, with the rapid development of China's retail industry and the continuous upgrading of consumer demand, the retail giant that once led the development of the domestic supermarket industry has also encountered a development bottleneck.

According to data released by the China Chain Store Association, the number of Carrefour stores in China was 319 in 2016, but it will shrink to 228 by 2020. According to Suning Tesco's announcement in February this year in response to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's letter of concern, Carrefour China closed seven hypermarkets in the second half of 2021 alone, and Carrefour China's overall operating income fell by more than 10% year-on-year in 2021. The announcement explained that Carrefour China's main business has been affected by many unfavorable factors such as the expansion of low prices for community group buying, the continuous decline in food CPI, the slowdown in consumption, and the recurrence of the epidemic.

Since the beginning of this year, Carrefour has closed four stores in Guangzhou Wanguo, Nanchang Shanghai Road, Chongqing Shapingba and Beijing Zhongguancun. Among them, the Nanchang Shanghai Road store is Carrefour's last store in nanchang market, and the Guangzhou Wanguo store is its first store in Guangzhou.

The decline of hypermarkets is not only affected by Carrefour. The reporter visited and found that auchan supermarket located on Chaoyang North Road also quietly closed this year. "It's right next to the subway, but I've been in it once in the last two years." Ms. Wang, who lives nearby, said that auchan supermarket is relatively large, and it is necessary to go through the small shop on the first floor and go up the escalator to the second floor to enter the supermarket. "The fresh food area is not much different from other supermarkets, and if you can't find the cooked food or semi-finished products that attract me in the store, it is difficult to have the motivation to go shopping again." Ms. Wang said.

Retail giant Walmart is also shrinking its hypermarket business, with double-digit store closures in 2021. On March 31 this year, the last Wal-Mart shopping mall in Shandong was closed for business. Previously, Walmart opened 9 hypermarkets in Shandong.

According to the statistics of Winshang Network, in the first half of 2021, only 2 of the 13 supermarket listed companies had net profit and revenue double growth, and 11 net profits declined, and this decline in the second half of the year also failed to reverse, and the annual performance was not optimistic. These 13 supermarket companies will close more than 100 stores in 2021.

Warehouse member stores are not a "panacea"

In the Internet era, do people really not need physical supermarkets anymore? The reporter found that on the social platform, many netizens will still share the fun of visiting the supermarket, and these punch card destinations are mainly emerging warehouse-type member stores.

In the past two years, warehouse-style member stores have set off a boom, and many enterprises have competed for layout. In May last year, Beijing's first fresh warehouse-based member store fudi debuted in the East Fourth Ring Road, more than half of the store areas are selling fresh food, in January this year the company disclosed data show that the number of members of this store has reached 60,000, this year fudi stores in Beijing are expected to reach 3 to 5. Last year, Wumart transformed the hypermarket in Caoqiao into a METRO club to enter the new track.

While Shrinking the Hypermarket Front, Walmart is also accelerating the opening of its member stores. The reporter noted that the sam's new store in Beijing's Xihongmen is under construction, and a new sam's club will be added to the Haidian Yongfeng business district. In November last year, Sam announced that the number of paid members in China had exceeded 4 million, and the third quarter of that year's financial report showed that Sam China achieved double-digit growth in comparable sales and membership in the current quarter.

In the view of Lai Yang, chief expert of the research base of the Beijing International Business and Trade Center, the fundamental reason for the popularity of this format is not the form of warehouse-type member stores, but their advantages in fresh food. "In the era of cloud consumption, people can buy almost all goods and services online, but due to the low standardization of fresh food and the large difference in quality, people's demand for on-site fresh food is still strong." Lai Yang believes that with the upgrading of consumption, people are more and more looking at the quality of reborn fresh, physical supermarkets in the process of transformation, can not just flock to the warehouse-type member store this track, but need to strengthen the operation of fresh categories, so that the variety is richer, the quality is more secure, closer to the consumer, with goods and services to attract more people back to the physical store.