With the improvement of people's quality of life, the requirements for consumption are getting higher and higher. Nowadays, the fresh food, food and daily necessities sold in supermarkets cover the fast-moving consumer goods of people's livelihood, which can meet the basic needs of people's daily life.
In China, the concept of supermarkets was officially introduced in 1978 and is also known as self-selected shopping malls. Supermarkets are mainly stores dealing in fresh food, fruits, and daily necessities, and are also a kind of retail industry in which consumers self-help purchase and unified cashier settlement. At present, there are many large-scale chain enterprises, such as Wal-Mart, Yonghui, China Resources Vanguard, Lianhua, Wumart and other large stores. With the development and progress of the economy, the scale of supermarket chains continues to expand, the efficiency has been significantly improved, and the pattern of supermarkets is constantly changing.
Today, competition is fierce in all walks of life, and the same is true for supermarket chains. From the competition of Carrefour, Wal-Mart, and other traditional large-scale stores, to the retail business of Internet companies, in the face of the trend of diversification and fragmentation of multiple channels, as well as the rise of new formats such as discount stores and instant retail, consumers' consumption psychology and consumption behavior have changed.
According to the list of "2023 China's Top 100 Convenience Stores" released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, we can see that the ranking of supermarket chains has been reshuffled again. The list shows that many chain stores such as 7-11, Shizu, Hongqi Chain, and Yizhan have entered the top 10.
1-5: Meiyijia, Sinopec Yijie, PetroChina Kunlun Hospitality, Tianfu and Lawson, with 33,848, 28,633, 19,780, 7,208 and 6,330 stores respectively.
Since the opening of the store in 1997, Meiyijia has 26 years of development history, the scale of stores in the country has exceeded 30,000+, widely distributed throughout the country, covering more than 200 cities across the country, including Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangxi, Hubei, etc., forming Guangdong, Central China, East China, North China, Southwest China five major development regions, and now, has become one of the largest franchise chain convenience store enterprises in China.
Sinopec EasyJet has a great influence in China, and there are as many Sinopec gas stations as there are EasyJet. 18 years ago, PetroChina renovated its gas stations, turning them into diversified comprehensive service places, including refueling, halfway breaks, catering, shopping and car maintenance in one of the brands, after more than 10 years of development, Sinopec Yijie has already become the "big brother" of convenience stores.
Since 2007, convenience stores began to gradually expand their scale, in the direction of specialization, committed to providing consumers with "one-stop" service, and now, PetroChina Kunlun Hospitality has served tens of millions of customers every day, becoming a well-known supermarket chain brand in China.
Lawson originated from the United States, officially entered Shanghai, China in 1996, is also the first Japanese-funded convenience chain brand to enter Chinese mainland, in order to win the favor of consumers, Lawson continues to innovate and reform, and grasps the core of "development-cost-efficiency" retail, becoming one of the well-known foreign brands.
FamilyMart failed to enter the top 10, with 2,707 stores.
The development of the supermarket industry has both opportunities and challenges
From the above latest list, we can also see that the development of the supermarket industry has both opportunities and challenges. Nowadays, the Internet has broken the inherent store opening model of traditional supermarkets, and if you want to gain a foothold in the supermarket chain field, you need bold innovative thinking, create multiple brand values, and at the same time let consumers feel a different shopping experience through all-round digitalization and supply chain remodeling.
Overall, since the introduction of the "supermarket" retail format to China, the Chinese supermarket industry has officially begun. After decades of development, the mainland supermarket industry has also grown from the embryonic stage to the stage of new retail integration, during which there has been a trend of rapid expansion.