Kunpeng Project
The brick-and-mortar store situation declined, but two "foreign-owned supermarkets" expanded rapidly in China
2022 will be the winter of retail business, and this year alone, nearly 700 chain convenience store chains in China have closed.
On this list of closed stores, there are Carrefour, Wal-Mart, Zhongbai, China Resources Vanguard, and Yonghui.
Many people say that e-commerce is growing fast now, and everyone is shopping online, so many stores are overcrowded.
Some people also say that this "store closure wave" means that there are already a lot of goods, and the goods in the supermarket are all the same, and they are not needed.
However, there are two "foreign-owned supermarkets" that are jumping against the trend and their branches in China are popular: Sam's and Costco.
By 2023, Sam's will also open 5 new stores in China, and its sales are expected to reach 80 billion yuan; Although Costco doesn't release any numbers, there are always "long queues" for each new store opening.
What is going on with these two "foreign monks" under the same conditions?
In August 2019, China's first Costco opened in Shanghai, and the scene at that time can be described as "red flags fluttering and crowds surging". Less than an hour after opening, the best-selling items had to be back on the shelves.
After 5 years, the same craze appeared again in Shenzhen, people had to queue for at least 3 hours in the mall, and the bags of Moutai and Hermes were sold out in just over ten minutes.
What makes people so "crazy"? Because it's too low.
Hermes bags cost 180,000 on the market, and Costco opened 146,000. In Costco, a ** American-style suitcase costs more than 1,300 yuan, and the price is 799.
The best thing about Costco is that Costco can not only surpass some world famous brands at a low price**.
Costco's product units (SKUs) are about 4,000, compared to about 20,000 in the average supermarket.
It is precisely because there are not many types of products that Costco must ensure that all products are "the best". They have the world's top business team, and they can tap the most potential products in a short period of time.
The sales volume of a single product is a bargaining weight with suppliers. In 2023, Costco's sales of a single item will be as high as 5,942 compared to Walmart's 2 million80 thousand.
Ultimately, Costco's popularity may be related to its keen grasp of market trends.
On January 12, the first branch in South China officially opened in Shenzhen, with a total of 130,000 members sold, 10% of whom are Hong Kong residents.
Since the lifting of customs lockdown between Hong Kong and the mainland, shopping in Shenzhen every weekend has become an important leisure for many people. Costco chose Shenzhen to open a branch at this time, probably because of this trend.
Sam's is America's biggest competitor, and it follows the same route, with a strong emphasis on quality and price, but it has the greater advantage of being more convenient.
So far, Sam's has 47 stores in Chinese mainland, and Costco has fewer than a small number of stores.
Sam's adopts the method of "store + cloud warehouse", mainly setting up stores in the suburbs to bring a new experience to customers. Cloud warehouses are located in cities and allow customers to order goods online.
Imagine that when you don't know where to "walk the baby", you can just go shopping for Sam with your family.
After a meal, everyone had another meal, another meal, another meal, and the two filled their suitcases and walked home.
If you like Sam's, you can buy it online and have it delivered directly to your home.
Although both are "membership", Sam's Mart's annual fee is 260 years, not 199 180 a year.
In addition, Sam's pays more attention to repeat purchases and card renewals by customers. If your customer has already applied for a card but hasn't used it in a long time at Sam's Club, the staff can also call to ask if they can issue a refund for you.
It is this idea of continuously increasing customer stickiness that has enabled Sam to have solid sales and new stores one after another.
Under the impact of the two giants of Costco and Sam's, local supermarkets are not vegetarians.
Therefore, Hema's "moving mountain price" and Meituan's "tug-of-war price" are all to meet the needs of customers, so they don't play any tricks, just press down the **.
Hema was originally a "membership" model, which is a fixed income that everyone likes.
However, not long after the "moving mountains", Hema said that it would no longer provide "Hema x membership" services and would no longer provide any fees, so many people are speculating that Hema will abandon the membership system in the future.
If Hema can sell Sam's at such a low price without paying dues, and there are more stores than Sam's and Costco, the competition will still be fierce.
China. Families of one, two, or three people are generally families of four, not to mention many young bachelors. A box of 12 Swiss bread is cheap though, but it would be a shame if you couldn't eat them all.
Both Hema and Yonghui are "not stockpiling", so their products are also very popular.
So, what does Costco and Sam's do in the future?
Conclusion: In fact, in this "new retail war", many people, Sam, Hema and Yonghui did not lose in this new retail war.
The most affected are some large supermarket chains that have not caught fire.