Behind the "West Street Observation" "two choice one" Rashomon, the membership cake is not easy to divide

"Double 11" is approaching, but the first fire of "two to choose one" this year is not e-commerce.

On the evening of October 25, in response to the supplier's "two choices", Carrefour once again expressed its firm resistance to unfair competition in any business field.

Having a common enemy, even if they are competitors, can become friends. This is the case with Carrefour and Box Horse right now, and this time, their common enemy is directed at Sam.

In the past few days, a number of media reports have reported that Carrefour and Hema intend to jointly report Sam's suspected unfair competition to the relevant departments. According to carrefour clubs, competitors pressure suppliers to buy empty related goods back, and the target of the report is Sam's Club.

In the statement, Carrefour pointed out that this was an act of "choosing one or the other". As a peer, Hema also stood up at this time, saying that its new store opening last year also encountered a small number of suppliers "buying short" goods, hoping to jointly promote a fair competitive market environment, but did not unite.

Sam has been pushed to the cusp of the storm, and as the leader of the former membership-based supermarket, he has now become the object of "crusade" by many peers. In the face of market rumors and doubts, Sam firmly denied it.

Regardless of whether Sam's "two choice one" exists, there must be a battle for all kinds of players, and the membership business hidden behind the "two choice one" has been "rolled up".

A few years ago, Hema opened the first new retailer super in Shanghai, which opened up unlimited imagination space online and offline for Chinese supermarkets. Later, Costco grabbed the beach, under the tide of Internet new retail, to open a new popular channel for the offline market.

Today, Sam is still "Big Brother", but he is no longer the only one. Membership was made very early, with ups and downs. Until this year, the war was rekindled.

The competition of outsiders is fierce, and local brands are not ordinary. Wumart acquired the veteran B-end power of METRO, and since then with METRO PLUS, Hema X clubs continue to expand, and Carrefour is eager to try.

Whether it is a pioneer or a catch-up, on the surface, the cake of the membership market is at your fingertips. As long as you focus on customers with stable purchasing power, for example, high-income families in first- and second-tier cities, and many consumers with overseas work and life experience. I believe that if you find out their needs, you will be able to replicate success.

However, middle- and high-income families do not mean that they will not be careful, on the contrary, they are more concerned about high quality and good prices. Therefore, how to select products, ensure stable suppliers, in the case of the agglomeration of supermarkets of the same category, "limited" to meet their needs, has become an important competitiveness.

As there are more participants, the market is also undergoing drastic changes. The paid club track is crowded, from digging people to site selection, from pressure on suppliers to grabbing exclusive goods, although the entrants intend to shape themselves, they also reproduce others "unintentionally".

Once the field is hot, homogeneous competition inevitably diverts the market. In the post-epidemic era, under the extreme pressure of online retail, looking for increments, adapting to new consumption habits, and building new consumption scenarios, all of them do not require subversive innovation of basic business logic. Professional team capacity building, supply chain and hard power can not be less.

Buying or selling, going or coming, becoming or losing, whether foreign or local retail, are trying again and again, through retail to dig the world's largest consumer group. And these flames of war are hidden in the Rashomon gate of "choosing one of the two".

Beijing Business Daily commentator Tao Feng