"The headlines are the first to be released, and it is forbidden to carry them, and violators will be investigated." Before reading this article, please click "Follow" in the upper right corner, which is not only convenient for you to discuss and share, but also can bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support!
- Source/Chief Business Intelligence
- Author/Chief Business Intelligence
Sam's Mart has a big deal! There are new complaint orders again.
This membership-based supermarket, which claims to "provide high-quality goods for elite life", has once again broken out of food safety problems!
A netizen in Shenzhen broke the news that a seaweed product he bought at Sam's store in Longhua, Shenzhen, was embedded with 3 cockroach corpses, and it was moldy.
It's disgusting to watch...
This product can be seen in Sam's Xiaocheng is a salty seaweed imported from South Korea, and the price is 69.8 yuan.
Interestingly, this is also a snack product ranked No. 1 in the "World Snack Hot List".
Sam's replied, "Sam's always attaches great importance to food safety, sincerely thanks members for their feedback, and will uphold the service principle of members first, continue to communicate with members, and properly resolve this matter." ”
As a membership-based supermarket with the slogan "A Better Life is in Sam", it has been planted on the issue of food safety more than once.
I can't help but wonder, is Sam floating?
Some netizens quipped:
- "Sam's newest private label: Three Cockroaches."
- "Fortunately, it's a supermarket that only members can get into."
Some netizens also expressed dissatisfaction with this:
"As a paid membership store, can't you even grasp these basic quality controls?"
There are even netizens who provide ideas for claims.
As a favorite member supermarket of the middle class, Sam's has always been popular in the retail circle.
It is not only a check-in place for Internet celebrities from all walks of life, but also a mecca for dominating the circle of friends, and has turned a supermarket into a tourist attraction.
It is this "vanity of being praised" that makes Sam more and more arrogant.
01, in Sam, there is no "God"
After all, the Internet has a memory
Truth be told, this isn't the first time Sam has been complained about food safety issues.
As a supermarket that requires tickets to enter, it is natural to expect high-quality and differentiated products.
After all, in everyone's opinion, this kind of high-quality supermarket will definitely have stricter control over goods.
However, netizens who have patronized Sam's have come out to say that the products they bought at Sam's are either spoiled or rotten and moldy.
Not long ago, the topic of #Sam's Supermarket member's sushi causing people to vomit and diarrhea# was on a hot search.
It started when a consumer bought sushi at Sam's Club and planned to eat it with friends.
As a result, not long after eating, 4 people had vomiting and diarrhea at the same time, and they went to the hospital to be diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis.
Sam initially said that he would only refund the cost of the sushi he bought, but later, the consumer complained to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau, and Sam reluctantly agreed to reimburse them for medical expenses, a total of 1,000 yuan.
4 people paid a total of 1,000 yuan, and each person averaged 250 yuan, how did he faintly feel a little connotation?
The four of them were not satisfied with the result, so they asked Sam to pay three times the compensation according to the food safety law, but Sam refused the request.
As a result, a wave has not settled, and a wave has risen.
Only one day after the "vomiting and diarrhea" incident, Sam continued the hot search again!
A consumer in Guangdong said that he bought a roast chicken at Sam's, and when he was about to eat it, he found that the roast chicken contained maggots and maggot eggs.
Coincidentally, a consumer from Guangdong Province said that he spent dozens of yuan to buy a bird's nest fruit at Sam's Supermarket, and he also ate insect eggs.
Previously, there were also people who claimed to have bought "future goods" at Sam...
The man bought a box of beef in March of this year, but the production date was at the end of the year.
It's really shocking, this wave of operations can be regarded as full of "expired and ruthless work". We don't know how much room there is for this labeling in the supermarket...
Some people said that Sam has so many complaints, many things are not too new, and the cost performance is also very low, why do so many people still love to go?
What this netizen said may be able to give the answer, "The most fundamental reason is that Sam satisfies the imagination of the middle class about quality, and there is no other thing in the market that can compete with it, a pure monopoly." ”
To say that the most controversial is that Sam once removed all Xinjiang products from the shelves on the grounds of "insufficient supply".
At that time, not long after the Xinjiang cotton incident, this move once pushed Sam to the forefront.
Sam was questioned about "smashing the pot when eating, drinking milk and scolding the mother", which aroused the indignation of netizens, and the Chinese people boycotted one after another.
And over and over again.
As a high-end supermarket that prides itself on serving high-quality people, it has repeatedly done things that violate "customers are God", which greatly reduces the experience of members.
It's hard to understand, for Sam, who is the member?
To say that Sam's arrogance is indispensable, middle-class supporters are indispensable.
After all, Sam's Club once said: "Sam's Club customers are a group of people who are willing to pay to enter the store, not the general public." ”
This invisibly gives the supermarket a threshold for entry, makes the label symbol of the middle class clearer, and can be said to have grasped the contemporary new middle class.
02, Sam "grasped" the domestic middle class
If you want to buy something at Sam's, you need to pay a membership fee of 260 yuan first, which is only the annual fee of the regular version.
The annual fee for the Excellence Edition is 571 RMB.
When traditional supermarkets frequently close down and Sam's rises, the membership fee income alone exceeds 1 billion per year.
This membership fee of 260 yuan cannot be used for consumption deduction, nor is it pre-recharged.
It's just a "ticket", and the membership card can only be used by yourself, and the attached family and friend card can only be used by the relatives and friends who are bound to it.
It can be said that the membership fee set by Sam is like creating a "wall" to block non-target groups from "outside the wall".
A membership card is their simplest and clearest way to screen people.
Sam also began to become popular in China with their "stubborn and arrogant" paid membership cards and gained topicality.
To say that before Sam became the top supermarket at the moment, it was also silent in China for a long time.
In 1996, it entered the Chinese market, but because of "unaccustomed to water and soil", it has been tepid.
It is reported that during 2013 and 2014, many of Sam's products were unsalable, especially fresh ones.
Even the current Internet celebrity hit product mochi could not be sold out at that time, and it was their fate to go into the trash.
It wasn't until 2020 that the gears of fate began to turn.
A blogger posted a video of his experience at Sam's Club on the platform.
Since the blogger does not have a membership card, he wants to go to the supermarket to see before deciding whether to apply for a membership card.
As a result, the clerk prevented her from entering, saying that she was not allowed to enter without a membership card.
"I didn't even look at anything, so I asked me to apply for a card, isn't it a bit too much? Do I have to apply for a card in advance when I go to a supermarket now? ”
And Sam's clerk still stubbornly insisted that "non-members are not allowed to enter", and the blogger had to turn around and leave.
While most ordinary supermarkets are using "special prices" to attract customers, Sam's has done the opposite, setting a threshold by "refusing non-members to shop".
Therefore, at that time, this video caused a lot of heated discussions on social platforms, and after that, the slogan "Sam only serves members" became popular.
At the same time, it also makes the vague concept of the middle class clearer and more definite.
It is this Sam's Club card that makes everyone understand what the middle class is, and gives them a "sense of circle" of vanity.
Buy and buy casually, without a thousand dollars, you can't get Sam. For this reason, Sam's is also known as the "thousand-dollar shop".
This further strengthens the status symbol of the "middle class".
And Sam has really taken the identity of the middle class to the extreme, and there are many items here that can't be bought in ordinary supermarkets.
For example, imported skin care products that need to be purchased on behalf of ordinary people, golf clubs that are difficult for ordinary people to access, cheap and practical pet supplies, children's sports equipment that can allow children to exercise...
Moreover, Sam's adheres to the "best of the best" selection method, and only provides members with more than 5,000 kinds of products, which are carefully selected by Sam's, in order to avoid members picking dazzling on the dazzling shelves.
At the same time, Sam is also well versed in the influencer economy.
A large number of Internet celebrities posted pictures or videos of themselves checking in to Sam's Club on different social platforms.
They tried new products in Sam's Store, rating them red and black, which attracted a lot of clicks and likes.
Enter the word "Sam" on Xiaohongshu, and there are as many as 1.36 million+ notes, and a bunch of dazzling posts of "must-buy list", "thunder list" and "purchasing strategy" come out.
There are even fashion bloggers who posted photo tips for Sam's.
At station B, "Sam" is also full of videos of punching in and evaluating on the screen.
Sam has even developed a "daigou" business.
These are all part of Sam's check-in interactive experience, and it can be said that Sam has mastered the most popular way to grow content at the moment.
In Sam's, it not only satisfies the sense of dignity of the middle class, but also has a sense of quality of shopping, and there is face and decency.
That's why Medium has become a big fan of Sam.
03, Sam and Hema, the competition for the middle class
The former was riddled with negative news, and then there was the new force of the membership system, Hema was approaching step by step, and Sam's crisis was gradually coming, and its cost-effective advantage and freshness were also fading.
Since the beginning of this year, Hema and Sam have started a fierce price war.
Starting with a durian mille-feuille, sharks went crazy. Then it hit dairy products, seafood, rice, flour, grain and oil and other categories.
What's more, interestingly, Sam's and Hema users overlap by 43.1%.
It's no wonder that Hema has been knocking Sam all the time, after all, the degree of overlap is so high, it means that if I bought it from you, then I won't go to another supermarket to buy it.
The competition is for middle-class users.
Since it is a membership-based supermarket, it must be committed to providing good services for members, and the most essential food safety issues must not be sloppy, and it is necessary to standardize and pay more and more attention to it at the regulatory level.
As long as you have integrity and a responsible attitude towards members, it is not difficult to avoid falling twice in the same pit.
Although Sam's is still the hottest supermarket, it is still unknown whether it can be retained.
Do you often go to Sam's? Do you think Sam's Market is still worth going to right now? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss and express your opinions or opinions, thank you.
A book for millions of business elites! Hot current affairs hot reviews, business information, financial anecdotes, those things on the Internet, more high-quality content, welcome to pay attention to @Chief Business Wisdom