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Wen | parity
8,000 square meters of land area, three-story design, not only sell fresh eclipses, but also sell iPhones, luxury goods, METRO pusher Xiaoqin told us as he walked.
In order for us to apply for the METRO membership card that is still being renovated and renovated, Xiaoqin led me to visit this store that is "not allowed to enter without members", and it was already past 12 o'clock in the afternoon.
The protective glass needed for decoration at the door reflected the light, but Xiaoqin was worried and had not pulled a new member for the third day. From Guiyang to Beijing and then to Wuhan, all three cities are just to promote METRO's membership card.
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"Sam is a foreign enterprise, after METRO was acquired by the domestic Wumart, it is a Chinese enterprise, all are membership stores, why don't you support METRO?" After being stopped just after getting off the subway, Xiaoqin began to introduce me to METRO's origins.
Obviously, Sam, who is also a warehouse membership model, is more popular than METRO, which needs to be promoted by pushers.
METRO is undergoing a frenzied transformation, and the Wal-Mart Xudong store outside the two subway stations is still the same.
Like Carrefour, there are still so many goods in Wal-Mart hypermarkets that are stacked up for promotion, and although the words "shocking promotional price" are very old-fashioned, there are still faint people stopping.
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Stay a little longer, the middle-aged aunt next to the pile will quickly seize the opportunity to frantically introduce to you, today's activities are very intense, and outdated.
In the Wal-Mart store on Thursday afternoon, even in such a crowded golden location as the subway entrance, there are still more promoters in uniforms and hanging badges than customers in the store.
In the past two days, the news of Wal-Mart's three stores in a row has come out again, and at the end of last month, Carrefour closed a store that had operated in Beijing's Zhongguancun for 18 years.
In 2012, the rise of the O2O model, online shopping has become the mainstream shopping method, from supermarkets and hypermarkets, to department stores, and even street mom-and-pop stores, all of which are constantly experiencing the baptism of the Internet.
Hypermarkets are declining, which is a special brand left by the times, but in the supermarket industry, there is no distinction between new and old, traditional supermarkets urgently need to be transformed, and the old business model of hypermarkets needs to be restarted and refreshed.
In the midst of change, which model is better, and who has the opportunity to become an entry player?
The hypermarket fell, and Sam saved Walmart
Wal-Mart and Carrefour are deeply involved in the whirlpool of store closures; local supermarkets Renrenle and Lianhua Supermarket have opened a store closure model; Yonghui Supermarket, Sichuan Hongqi and Hubei Zhongbai have declined in performance.
From hypermarkets to small and medium-sized shopping malls, it is difficult to hide the decline of the industry, and it is also clearly implied that traditional supermarkets seem to have gradually completed the mission of history.
The chill does not come from entering the autumn overnight, closing shops, selling themselves, selling business... Traditional supermarkets of different sizes have frequently reported these actions in recent years, and it is now difficult to provoke the nerves of the industry.
Traditional supermarkets with low gross profit margins and relying on scale effects have an imbalanced supply chain under the double impact of e-commerce and the epidemic. Traditional supermarkets with insufficient hematopoietic capacity have entered a mid-life crisis. However, the dead camel is bigger than the horse, and the traditional supermarket still has time to react.
Wal-Mart, which entered China in 1996, has completed the whole process from rapid expansion to cautious contraction to large-scale store closure in more than two decades. Now that the golden age of hypermarkets has passed, but the large traditional hypermarkets have always been in danger, wal-mart also has two hands to prepare.
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For Wal-Mart, which has a variety of formats, on the one hand, the main line hypermarket is under pressure, and on the other hand, it takes the lead in holding the "trump card" of the member store to save itself, which makes Wal-Mart China return from winter to spring.
Although hypermarkets are still Wal-Mart's main business, the Sam's Club model, which has grown steadily, has become the mainstay of the overall decline in performance. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022, with the new model of membership, Sam's members pulled Walmart's overall financial report to turn a profit.
In fact, before the success of the Sam's Club model, the membership model grew in the local area and experienced a long period of dissatisfaction.
Metro, one of the pioneers of China's warehousing paid membership system, entered China in 1995 and experienced many repeated jumps between the "hypermarket-member store" model.
In September 2009, Beijing METRO began to try to relax the "non-member entry" threshold, in December, Beijing METRO quietly cancelled the temporary membership card, in 2010, it directly canceled the membership system into a hypermarket, to 2019, gradually lost its sense of existence of METRO, in China business by the local retail enterprise Wumart income, after selling itself, METRO will open the traditional hypermarket back to the transformation of the warehouse membership store.
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"Beijing has basically completed the transformation, and several in Wuhan are also being renovated one after another." Xiaoqin, a ground pusher, came to Wuhan for two weeks and threw herself into METRO's pushing work, but from her lost words, I felt that the progress was not smooth.
Nearly 60% of the goods are foreign imports, there are many self-operated goods, in Xiaoqin's view, the average consumption level of METRO is not very suitable for Wuhan, so it seems very difficult to apply for a membership card, and in Beijing, as long as you mention two sentences, someone will take the initiative to handle it.
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Regain the membership system, burst the hypermarket, METRO on the road to the warehouse club and turn back, the result of repeated tossing and turning, Xiaoqin does not know, but as we all know, let the warehouse membership system this model really flow in the country, or Sam.
In September this year, METRO, which is located in Wuhan Hongshan Shopping Mall, will officially complete the renovation of the member store and take the lead in ushering in the opening, and several subsequent stores are also accelerating the transformation.
Here, Carrefour, which was acquired by Suning, is not to be outdone. In October last year, the first club was opened in Shanghai, but then there was a "war of words" with Sam because of the "two choices", and it also added a fire to the boiling warehouse club track.
Foreign brands have accelerated their layout, 2021, is the "first year of warehousing clubs" of local head supermarkets, Hema and Yonghui have also entered this field.
In 2021, Hema announced that Hema X Member Store will welcome 4 new stores, the store uses warehouse-type shelves, directly frontal benchmarking Costco and Sam.
Different from the Sam's membership model, Yonghui has opened another logical warehouse store, focusing on the concept of "daily parity", which has also been evaluated by the outside world as "Yonghui wholesale store".
The golden age of hypermarkets may have pulled down in this up-and-down sound of store closures, but there are also voices saying that the future hypermarket model may also coexist with the membership model.
At present, the closure of hypermarkets indicates that the supermarket industry has entered a reshuffle period, and before the emergence of more mature formats, it is the general trend for traditional supermarkets to turn to member warehousing mode.
New retail brings new species, giving birth to a new business model such as community fresh supermarkets, new retail enterprises such as Dingdong Buy Vegetables, Pupu Supermarket, and Daily Excellent Fresh are menacing in the industry, and "front warehouse" is a warehouse allocation model that has to be mentioned.
"Covering the last mile", the front warehouse as the core element of the warehouse store, part of which the concept is being transferred to some smaller forms of mini stores.
A year of trial and error, mini shops from racing to low tide
About 20,000 square meters of warehousing Sam, Costco member stores, only a normal membership card worth 260 yuan, you can bring the whole family together, feel the supermarket experience that integrates warehousing, stores and leisure, but it is not simple to create this seemingly simple consumer experience.
For inexperienced supermarket brands, if there is no preparation to plunge into the member warehousing store, the challenges need to be far more than the simple commodity force, how to position the user, how to establish brand loyalty, the lifeblood of these relationships "renewal" is a test.
The hypermarket model is declining, traditional supermarkets collectively turn to warehouse member stores, and the industry's "chaotic" state of confusion has become another choice.
Yonghui opened 573 mini stores in 2019; Hema stepped down from the altar of new retail, and the new formats under its command collective "small" development (in addition to the shopping mall-style box Mali), Hema mini spread its branches on the street; RT-Mart also increased its "miniaturization" retail, laid out the last kilometer, launched RT-Mart mini, and opened 24 stores in 2020.
"The future of retail is online, miniaturized, facilitated and community-based," said RT-Mart CEO Lin Xiaohai, who supported the "miniaturization" transformation trend.
Communities and suburban counties soon became a must for many retailers.
Hema will open mini stores in the suburbs and counties and towns, streamline the supply chain, mainly bulk non-standard products, abandon the eye-catching and drainage products of large seafood, retain only a part of the low-priced, easy-to-cook live fresh categories, while increasing the proportion of staple foods, cooked food and other instant goods.
Unlike Hema Fresh, the hema mini store area is reduced, making the picking link shorter, so there is no suspension chain, and one staff can complete the whole yard picking in the store.
Yonghui mini is different, positioning community fresh stores, the main community resident consumption, do "Yonghui at the doorstep", the average operating area of about 516 square meters, relying on Yonghui's huge supply chain, fresh products can reach nearly 60%; Xiaorunfa and Yonghui mini positioning coincide, the area is comparable, the same main new retail community fresh supermarket, fresh and daily matching brought by the performance can be as high as 75%.
It is expected that the mini store has high efficiency and low cost, flexible site selection and strong replicability, can reduce inventory and storage costs, and let a large amount of inventory go on the road, so the return cycle should be shortened accordingly. However, not long after opening, how to return the cost of these small stores has become a problem, and it is still a long way to achieve large-scale profitability.
On the road of mini shop, the most expensive trial and error cost is Yonghui. After opening nearly 600 mini stores in one go in one year, followed by the financial report of the first half of the second half, Yonghui lost the battle, losing 130 million yuan and closing 88 stores to stop losses. At the end of 2020, Yonghui mini stores shrank from 573 in 2019 to 156.
The box horse that has been attracting much attention is also thunderous and rainy.
In July 2020, the relevant person in charge of the Hema Mini project publicly stated that after 1 year of exploration, hema Mini has achieved full profitability.
However, due to the excessive number of SKUs and pricing that does not match the location, the passenger flow and cost of Hema mini stores cannot reach an effective balance, and the opening of stores has slowed down significantly, with the goal of opening 100 Hema minis in 2020, and only 14 have been opened by the end of the year.
Supermarkets opened at the doorstep of the family, early on with the positioning of "small stores", and finally only briefly filled the market gap left after the defeat of the store, Yonghui mini rout, hema mini is not a climate, Xiaorunfa is not satisfactory, Mini racing is fierce, retreating fiercely.
A practitioner who has been deeply involved in the retail industry for many years also said, "Small stores, like hypermarkets and convenience stores, belong to separate formats, and if you want to run through, it is even more difficult to make a profit." ”
Warehousing member stores are difficult to copy, mini store operation model has not yet run through into a money-burning weapon, the market gap left by hypermarkets, and the attacking mini stores cannot fill it.
The hypermarket can't run, will the discount store be the future?
Hema said that the best business model of Mini stores is misjudgment, and RT-Mart, which is known for its zero-store closure rate, has become cautious about the development of Xiaorunfa. After 2 years of high-flying progress, the enthusiasm of each supermarket to do small has dissipated, and the mini competition has pressed the pause button.
Has been trying, has been correcting, the wind of transformation has blown to the "discount store".
At the end of November last year, Hema opened the first Hema Fresh Ole shop in Shanghai, with discounts on fresh and frozen products as the main selling point. Yonghui, a "runner and trial and error runner", opened a new warehousing model in 2021, and at the end of September last year, the "civilian warehousing stores" that mainly focus on people's livelihood traffic-based goods have opened to 55.
Large packaging, mass sales, can also be purchased per piece, Yonghui's warehousing store from the traditional retail method to batch zero concurrently operated, trying to leave consumers with the impression of "daily parity" discount.
Suning Tesco's discount supermarket opened around the Spring Festival and plans to open 100 stores in 2022. In addition to Suning, Jiajiayue, Huaguan and Renrenle have rushed to the beach discount stores.
Whether it is hema's Oleai store, Yonghui's civilian warehouse store, or a number of discount stores opened by local supermarkets, "low price" is the core selling point, but is cheap really the essence of discount stores?
From the perspective of aldi, the current successful discount store ALDI, the low comprehensive cost brought about by streamlining SKUs, large-scale procurement, and efficient inventory turnover is the core of the discount store, which has a similar logic to the member store, and is also the reason for the storage of the store that consumers can see with the naked eye.
Like warehouse clubs, is the spring of discount stores coming?
There is nothing new under the sun, the discount store is not a fresh retail format, in addition to ALDI, there are not many foreign discount supermarkets entering China, due to the impact of the domestic supply chain and commodity structure, and finally they are all unsatisfactory.
In contrast, in China, the discount store as a backlog of inventory processor, is easy to fall into the misunderstanding, Carrefour in 2017 according to this idea of shallow a try, the next year in time to stop.
Hema Fresh Ole Shop seems to have the same idea. Hou Yi, CEO of Hema, once explained to the media that the purpose of opening a fresh Ole store is to help Hema reduce the loss of stores and processing centers, so the price is basically less than half of the surrounding fresh supermarkets.
In this way, Yonghui, which has a deep supply chain, can have a greater chance of winning this game. According to the semi-annual report data released by Yonghui Supermarket in 2021, the average daily passenger flow of 6181 person-times and the sales volume of 150 million yuan are all about 130%.
The warehouse seems to be starting to bear fruit. However, a reporter from "Red Weekly" visited and learned that in the same period of time, whether it is passenger flow, sales or unit price, Yonghui warehouse stores are lower than Yonghui supermarket hypermarkets.
At the same time, some insiders said that at present, Yonghui warehousing store is still walking on the old road of low-cost drainage.
The decline of hypermarkets is a common dilemma faced by domestic and foreign supermarkets, the transformation is unstoppable, Wal-Mart found Sam for a while, but with its own strength, the decline of the industry is difficult to recover.
Recently, Carrefour, which was acquired by Suning, has heard the sound of closing stores. The industry has declined silently in the closure of large traditional hypermarkets.
The store model needs to be refreshed, which is a problem for Wal-Mart, and it is a problem for Yonghui and the new generation of Box Horse, which have a mid-life crisis in China, but the problem is also an opportunity.
Write at the end
The supermarket industry has not changed for decades, but it has suddenly changed, and the industry has ushered in a reshuffle period.
Sam and Costco held the trump card of warehouse membership and stayed at the table. Local supermarkets want to follow suit, but the model is easy to copy and difficult to paste.
Is making stores smaller the future of retail?
Everyone shouted out to be online, miniaturized, facilitated, and community-based, and within a year, Yonghui took the lead in opening nearly 600 mini stores, and in less than a year, it was closed to only more than a hundred, and finally left a loss of more than a billion yuan in the account.
Mini stores came fiercely, went fast, and soon the outlet turned to the discount stores where bones were more difficult to chew, Yonghui opened dozens of "non-member warehousing stores", Hema opened fresh Ole shops, and a number of local supermarkets joined in the test.
For this kind of retail format that is not new, whether it is at home or abroad, there are very few successful people, whether it is in line with the predecessor ALDI, or a new understanding, it is unknown.
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"Using the big store model to open a mini store is a head-slapping mistake? Yonghui responded that the relevant content was untrue, "Beijing News"
Attack on Mini Stores: The "Ultimate Mode" of hypermarkets? Retail boss internal reference
"Non-membership Yonghui Warehouse Store, is another logic" future consumption
From Sam to Costco: The Membership Supermarket Business 36 Krypton
Mini Club, METRO China's Last Chance? Commercial Real Estate Headlines
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"Sam Saves Walmart" begins