"Chinese version of 7-11" counterattack, all relying on a group of aunts
The New Year has not yet come, but the New Year's atmosphere is full in advance.
Recently, many supermarkets have been crowded with people buying New Year's goods.
The recent situation is all described in one word: queues. Fat Donglai's tea and pharmacy side businesses are opening up impressively, and Sam, who is crowded with Hong Kong people, is even more crowded.
And this supermarket, in addition to offline queuing, is also very popular on the Internet.
Not long ago, the company announced that Sichuan Commercial Investment took over 16.91% of the equity from the founder Cao Shiru's family and the second shareholder Yonghui Supermarket, and soon appeared on the hot search.
Other supermarkets went bankrupt and sold themselves, and most people didn't care, however, this supermarket made a little noise, and many people were in a hurry.
Hongqi Supermarket, also known as the "old godmother" in the supermarket industry. Although it is not the same as Hongqi Automobile, it also reveals a strong "domestic bloodline" in its bones.
If from the perspective of generation, Hongqi supermarket can be called the elder of many retail supermarkets, established in the last century, not only in Sichuan to become a certain degree of landmark, but also into Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, the country opened 3,600.
Looking at the peers of the same period, BBK and Carrefour have closed their doors and sold stores one after another, and Hongqi has not only not been impacted, but has become more and more prosperous.
From 2020 to 2022, the revenue will be 9.053 billion, 9.351 billion and 10.020 billion respectively, and the profit will be about 500 million.
How can an "old and dirty" supermarket still live so well?
The best convenience store:
The first to open a supermarket into Zhongnanhai
Contrary to many supermarket giants who are desperately trying to become younger, many people now walk into Hongqi, and their first impression is:
Old!
The unified red store signs, the uniform yogurt advertisements, and the regular placement of eggs, rice, and milk make it feel like going back to the 90s wherever you go.
The store signboard has no design at all, and the big red signboard, four big characters are placed there, which can be described as soil.
Hongqi's official website is also a familiar color scheme of red and rhubarb.
Someone gave a description: The whole supermarket has a feeling of neighbors.
To have this feeling, in addition to the style of the store, it is inseparable from a woman:
曹世如。 人送外号“曹孃孃”。
This style has been consistent as early as 20 years ago, but unlike the current image of being earthy and profitable, the earliest Hongqi shopping malls almost couldn't survive.
At the most serious time, he was on the line of life and death, with a debt of more than 10 million.
In 2000, Cao Shiru, who was promoted from salesman to general manager, with more than 40 employees, decided to solve this mess.
In general, supermarkets will choose to advertise in order to expand their popularity, but Hongqi has no money, and advertising is hopeless.
Cao Shiru thought of getting a discount, but at that time this trick had already been used by her peers, what should she do? Cao Shiru used to work in a community service station, and she thought of a trick: community service.
Instead of turning the supermarket into a community, it adds a lot of life services, and people come to Hongqi to shop, and by the way, they also solve their own living needs.
At the beginning, start with small things, such as recharging bus cards, so that many people have the Xi of visiting the store.
Later, Cao Shiru and the 40 old employees at that time gradually explored a new business model, and added various jobs to the supermarket:
Digital printing, newspaper and periodical distribution points, and even driving schools can sign up......
At that time, foreign brands such as 711 and Lawson were promoting high-end personalities, such as coffee and oden.
However, Hongqi is quite down-to-earth, saying that you can buy all the Sichuan food ingredients in the store, you know, this is not possible in the whole family and 711, and one move directly captured the hearts of Sichuan people.
At the same time, Hongqi is also accelerating the speed of opening stores in Chengdu, nearly 20 years, it is deeply bound to Chengdu, every block must have a branch, almost every few steps, you can see the word Hongqi.
Because it is close to the user's home, Hongqi also put forward the "three fives": five minutes to the store, five minutes to buy, and five minutes to go home.
In the hearts of many Chengdu people, a red flag almost satisfies all the imagination of supermarkets.
"In some new stores, before the door opened, there was a queue outside. ”
But Cao Shiru's ambitions don't stop there, rooted in Chengdu, and she wants to continue to expand outward.
No one could have imagined that the first step of Hongqi Supermarket was to directly hit Beijing Zhongnanhai, making it famous at that time.
It is said that at that time, a lot of Sichuan specialties were placed in the store, and as soon as it opened, many specialties were out of stock, and the store manager called the headquarters every day to ask for replenishment.
Although this store was later closed, this incident is enough to see the courage of Hongqi Supermarket, and it has become the only Zhongnanhai convenience store in history.
Cao Shiru once said in a humorous way that the homonym of the first two words of her name happens to be "supermarket", which seems to be an indissoluble bond.
It's hard to say whether she has an indissoluble bond with the supermarket, but what is certain is that Hongqi has long been deeply bound to Chengdu people.
"Let the people see the red flag when they go out!"
The old godmother who has fought all her life has shouted many well-known cruel words. "I'll just do what I will!", "Where there are Chinese people in the world, there are old godmothers." ”
Cao Shiru once said a sentence, which is also sonorous and powerful:
"Let the people see the red flag when they go out!"
Many people are not optimistic about the red flag, because it has collected a lot of debuffs in the traditional cognition, but over the years, the red flag has slapped many people in the face with practical actions.
On September 5, 2012, Hongqi Chain was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, becoming the "first share of convenience supermarket" in A-shares, and the speed of store opening is even more vigorous:
In the 10 years since its launch, it has increased by about 2,600 stores, and some people have calculated that almost every working day, a new store will be opened.
In fact, as early as 2016, the decline of Hongqi began to appear, and the growth rate of Hongqi's chain revenue dropped from double-digit growth to single digits.
Other supermarkets are self-helping, all of which are transformations, but Hongqi Supermarket is "stubborn" and insists on two steps unchanged.
The first step is a cost-effective move that people can't refuse.
In recent years, expensive has been the common impression of many offline supermarkets.
Whoever can bring the price down is the darling of consumers.
Hongqi was famous for being a people-friendly supermarket earlier, and after so many years, it still has an unshakable value anchor.
The price of some products is significantly lower than that of its peers, such as Nongfu Spring at 1.8 yuan, Coke at 3 yuan, and pure draft beer at 7 yuan. Coupled with the coupon of the red flag, it is easier to roll past the opponent.
In terms of cost performance, Hongqi itself has a natural advantage: scale.
After 2015, it also successively acquired Hongyan Supermarket, Mutual Supermarket, Leshan Sihai and 9010 Supermarket, and built two large-scale logistics and distribution centers in Xihe and Wenjiang, and most of the goods in more than 3,600 stores are unified procurement, unified price and unified distribution.
The closer to the consumer, the lower the cost comes, and so does the price.
The second move: focus on the scene where the big names disdain to grab.
Low prices are not a competitive advantage for convenience stores.
Hongqi does not focus on a low-price strategy, and there are many people who feel that the things sold by Hongqi are not cheap.
Cao Shiru feels that the reason why convenience stores are called "convenience" stores is precisely because they meet the sudden, immediate shopping needs, so price is not the first consideration.
Scene is the natural traffic weapon.
Under this line of thinking, an offline supermarket took the lead in doing convenience services and takeaways that many supermarkets were unwilling to do, making Chengdu people more "lazy", and even joined the camp of home delivery and launched the red flag home service.
Even many stores also provide breakfast and lunch canteen business.
What's even more ruthless is that, just like the courage of the initial drive into Zhongnanhai, these cross-border scenes, red flags do one and become one.
For example, live streaming is a scene where many offline shopping malls "dislike the body and worry about it", but very few of them do it well.
On June 16 last year, the official Douyin live broadcast room of the Hongqi chain was officially launched, and Cao Shiru personally went into battle.
Initially, she set a sales target of 30 million for the first live broadcast, but at the end of the live broadcast, she directly earned more than 60 million in revenue, and some data show that the live broadcast GMV of Hongqi Chain last year exceeded 100 million!
Although Hongqi's market share has not increased, Hongqi's market has no ceiling.
has not fallen for 20 years, relying on the only way
Many people are curious, how did Hongqi Supermarket survive for 20 years and not fall?
In terms of fame, there are people who may have never heard of this supermarket.
In terms of presence, Hongqi Supermarket is not as good as Sam's and Hema Supermarket.
But just like Fat Donglai and Mei Yijia, Hongqi has become a local snake.
In the case of more and more competitors, many traditional supermarkets are not having a good time, and new e-commerce competitors are becoming more and more fierce, but Hongqi, Fat Donglai, and Meiyijia can also be affected by the impact.
In the final analysis, the more invincible these old brands are in the local area, the more attractive they are for users to go.
Meiyijia has exploded the cost performance, and the experience of Fat Donglai has been pulped, even if it is a side business such as tea shops and pharmacies, the popularity is still unabated.
The only way for Hongqi Supermarket to survive is to do what its peers can't do, and to take the "mother" character to set up a full experience.
Let's take a detail:
In all Hongqi stores, 80% of the staff are women dressed in red.
Yu Donglai, who came from Fat Donglai, once said that he hoped to open a supermarket, and employees only recruited fat, ugly, and inferior people.
And Cao Shiru has already done it in reality, and with his own efforts, he has re-employed many laid-off aunts. Therefore, many people say that they can find a sense of home more in Hongqi.
Under the smiling face of the aunt, you think that no matter how earthy it is, you just can't do without it.
It's not so much that Hongqi is selling goods, it's better to say that Hongqi is selling aunts.
As soon as many companies sell themselves, they either have poor earning power, or they are desperate, only red flags, and suddenly let go when they are living like the sky.
The reason may be as Cao Shiru said, wanting to make the Hongqi chain company more helpful to the society.
After the change of ownership, it is difficult to say whether Hongqi's earning power can be sustained, but Cao Shiru shouted that he would not take a back seat, which reassured many people, saying that he was still a repeat customer of Hongqi.
The older the red flag is, the more prosperous it becomes, and it is also worthy of reflection by many peers:
Keeping up with the user experience, getting old is not a disadvantage, but a charm.
Epilogue:
71-year-old Cao Shiru even felt that his son's mentality was not "young" enough. "You can't do business like a gatekeeper, it's too stable, will you create things?"
"Business Mulan" reported a story that Cao Shiru once yelled at a thief after seeing a theft at a train station, and as a result, he not only scared the thief away, but also scared the person who was stolen away.
Within the company, Cao Shiru's majesty can be felt everywhere, "here is like an army ready for battle, and a female general may suddenly give orders."
Be ruthless when you should be ruthless internally, and be ruthless externally, you must also be down-to-earth.
Just like Cao Shiru knows very well what young people like, in her personal video account, she often shares her daily life, singing clips, etc., a little misbehaps, I don't know, I can't imagine that she is a female entrepreneur.
From the convenience store to the supermarket giant, in addition to daring to dare to do, Hongqi has only one key core:
The core rule that keeps users addicted is to truly treat him as their own.
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