"Is Hema going to run away? ”
Recently, more and more consumers have noticed that Hema has changed. In the past, Hema was a middle-class intimate little padded jacket, a Chinese-style old housekeeper with thick eyebrows and big eyes, complete things, guaranteed quality, and a 30-minute mission must be achieved.
But since the beginning of the year, "Hema is not so intimate anymore
First of all, the courier fee was forced to charge 1 yuan, and then the online orders in Beijing, Nanjing and Changsha were raised to 99 yuan without delivery......“The recent change is deadly, and I have a black eye。Xiaomi, a 5-year old user of Hema pointed out.
Source: Xiaohongshu @ A cloud on the edge of the sky, so what happened to Hema in the end?
Last year, when the battle between Hema and Sam was scorching, the founder Hou Yi once said that he wanted to benefit consumers, "please visit a very new kind of Hema". Today's Hema is not only new, but also so new that it makes boxmen believers feel unfamiliar.
On January 1, the Hema online delivery service was in response to the requirements of the plastic restriction orderMandatory 1 yuan plastic bag fee。Seeing that he had to buy an extra bag of rice to buy himself, only to find that the bag was just tied to the rice, the boxmen believers were angry in addition to helplessness, "I thought that only work would encounter formalism, but I didn't expect that now I can't escape buying vegetables." ”
Source: Xiaohongshu @ Hu Xiaoxi bought groceries and bought the feeling of going to work, when Hema believers thought that the ridiculous story would end here, they didn't expect that the real New Year's drama would follow.
Source: Xiaohongshu @kangaroo aida Xiaomi is difficult to use a sentence to form the recent experience of visiting Hema because there will be "new discoveries" every time.
On February 11, Hema announced that the three cities would raise the threshold for online deliveryAt that time, millet who was snorting melon seeds on the bed in his hometown didn't know that the outside world had already been surging. When I returned to Beijing, I found that "the sky has changed".
During the Lantern Festival, I originally wanted to buy dumplings from the Duck Dog (a time-honored brand in Ningbo, which used to be sold by Hema in the past) on Hema, but it turned out that in addition to missing the common ones, Hema was left to operate itself. At this point, Xiaomi still just regards "out of stock" as "too hot, it is estimated that it has been robbed." ”
When I submitted the order, I found that I had to charge 6 yuan delivery fee,As a loyal user of Freshippo,At this time, Xiaomi can also come up with self-PUA words to comfort yourself,"Hema must have its reasons for doing this。 "You can't buy what you want to buy, you can't buy anything you don't need, these are not the last straws that break the camel's back.
Buy at 5:50 p.m., place an order at 6 p.m.", Xiaomi originally wanted to have dinner at Hema, but it ended up being a supper, "It was delivered at half past eight, a full one and a half hours later than expected." ”
Since the beginning of the year, more and more consumers have found thatThe transportation capacity of Hema is insufficient, and it is difficult to "grab" things than Spring Festival tickets and moldy tickets.
Source: Xiaohongshu @ Pistachio Cream Bun10 minutes for ordering, delivery time 1 hour overtime. Seeing that some people complained about the extension of the delivery time, some netizens pointed out, "Please cherish it, because the direct capacity is insufficient later, and it can only be delivered today and tomorrow." "The familiar tension of rushing capacity, how many Shanghai migrant workers dream back to the spring three years ago, and everyone has worked so hard for Hema in this way.
It's just that at that time, Hema was still a life just needed by middle-class and white-collar workers, and the quality selection was against Sam's, but it was far better than Sam in terms of convenience.
We define the target audience as white-collar women aged 20-45 who demand a higher quality of life。Hema once pointed out. The Australian lobster, South American king crab and Norwegian salmon were brought alive to the middle class, and it also opened a precedent for free delivery in supermarkets in 30 minutes, and Hema was the more cost-effective Sam in the eyes of the middle class at that time.
Close to home, fast delivery, the advantage is that the parts are ready to arrive, and they are purchased every two days. In just a few years, Hema has quickly cultivated a group of loyal users like Xiaomi, who voluntarily hand over their annual membership fee of 258 yuan with religious devotion to become a member of an army of 3 million members, and clock in on time every Tuesday's membership day. 
If you don't buy it, you have to go shopping, and become a silent praise for Hema believers. It even gave birth to a word-Box area room, refers to users who live within the delivery radius of Hema (3 kilometers radius), just looking at the behavior of creating this word, the sense of superiority has been vividly reflected.
Hema sticks to Sam's wild growth, most noticeable in the last year. Close hand-to-hand combat launched the "moving mountain price", durian mille-feuille, mochi and other classic products perfectly reproduce Sam's but ** lower, and it has become a popular urban legend for a while. It is said that in the month of last year, the sales of durian mille-feuille in the Shanghai area of Hema increased by 26 times.
But nowadays,It seems that only the threshold of online free delivery is still moving closer to Sam's.
Xiaomi's experience is not unique, and the remarks on social platforms about the reduction of Hema products are everywhere: "Hema can no longer give me a feeling of quiet years, becauseEvery time, the shelves felt like they had been ransacked, either the goods were messed up or empty", netizen @Tianbian A Cloud pointed out.
Hema has evolved [can't buy] into two explanations, one is out of stock, and the other is not for sale。Like the dumplings that Xiaomi can't buy, consumers find that it seems that it is difficult to see other brands in Hemali, all of which are Hema brands. In this regard, Xiaoshidai once asked, "Hema has become a copycat supermarket"?
Sam's main products are Swiss rolls and mochi, which have long been perfectly reproduced and opened up to the face; Nongfu Spring 5L mineral water 85 yuan, Hema self-operated deep natural water is cheaper 6 cents; Recently, Wahaha has been hotly discussed again, and your childhood memories of Babao porridge Hema are only sold self-operated, 4 bottles of 109 yuan, the unit price is cheaper than Wahaha. Hema knows more about it than Zhen Huan, and has almost put the way of "moving mountains" to Sam on all brands.
It's just that many consumers don't pay, "I can't buy the brand I want to buy, and I look at it as a self-operated product." "This sense of compulsion is like a warm man who transforms into a greasy boss and smiles at you with 8 teeth:Women, you can only buy my brand
It is not uncommon for supermarkets to build their own brands, Sam's and ALDI's self-operated are not only fragrant, but even Sam's has also fed thousands of cattle, and now the industrial chain has been opened to Hong Kong Island.
But on the contrary, Hema was labeled as a "copycat". Because at the other end of the spectrum, it is consumers who find that the quality of Hema products "seems to be declining rapidly".
It is already considered lucky to buy milk that is about to expire, and it is becoming more and more common to get it directly, and the complaint requirements are getting higher and higher, "Even the rotten fruit has to be sent back by the little brother." ”
Source: Xiaohongshu @ Little Onion What's even more exaggerated is that a Shandong netizen recently spent 72 on HemaThe crab claws bought for 45 yuan turned out to be starchy meat lumps inside, and the strength of the interpretation of "brown crab".
Source: Xiaohongshu @glutinous rice balls The recent Hema seems to be undergoing a huge change, without hesitation to cut off 3 million members, and once gave you a unique experience to crush step by step, and the middle class in it keeps asking why,".Sure enough, I was shopping for a very new kind of Hema horse
Like a middle-aged couple who are about to divorce, Hema disregards the friendship of the past few years, and turns his face when he says to the middle class, why is this happening?
In simple terms,Hema has no money, and the middle-class who have been beaten by society can't support Hema.
In the past, Hema relied on blood transfusion from his family to engage in the first chain and be your intimate old housekeeper, and at the height of his glory in May last year, Ali once pointed out in his financial report that Hema wanted an IPO.
But also last year, Alibaba launched the latest organizational and governance structure of "1+6+N", and other businesses such as Hema and Sun Art Retail and Yintai Commercial were classified as "N", and the six major groups became independent companies, which was considered by the industry to be "N".Suddenly weaned, but also to achieve self-hematopoiesis”。Subsequently, the listing plan of Hema was stranded, and there were even rumors that it would be sold.
Hema in Dalian closed its store, source: Xiaohongshu @ miro In February this year, Ali's latest financial report, Hema is located in the "other business n" revenue of 4702.3 billion yuan, down 7% year-on-year, with a net loss of 317.2 billion yuan, an increase of 87% year-on-year. "We still have some traditional brick-and-mortar retail businesses on our balance sheet, and these are not our core focus. It would be very reasonable if the exit could be completed."
Over and over again, Hema doesn't make money. Now the anxious Hema can only pick everywhere, and almost write on his face that he wants to make money.
In 2015, Hema launched a new retail model of half-hour delivery of online shopping to your home, which directly pierced the necks of your opponents and forced the entire industry to take 30 minutes as the bottom line. But behind the convenience of bringing every step to the middle class, a lot of money needs to be burned. "It's still 30 minutes to raise your own delivery team, and Hema can't make up for the pie you painted. Netizens pointed out.
Now the online free delivery threshold has been raised to 99 yuan, because".After calculation, if the transaction amount of each online order does not reach 99 yuan, it is a loss", [Zhiwei] learned during an interview with a person close to Hema.
On the other hand, it is also because Hema really does not "really want to do online business". Unlike Sam, who often opens stores in the wilderness and then uses the front-end warehouse model to further reduce costs, most of Hema stores are in the center of the city, which is more like the "warehouse-store integration" model of traditional supermarkets, with lower efficiency and higher costs.
In other words, the ideal state of Hema should be that the store is full of people. But the reality is very skinny, and the lazy middle-class hope that Hema can hang the product directly at the door after they get home from work, so Hema is not only".Online orders account for 70%, offline only 30%, and online is still growing。Xiaoshidai pointed out.
Source: Xiaohongshu @ Little Potato".In the era of mobile Internet, people are forced to go to the store to consume。"Consumers don't buy Hema practices. In the past, in order to give the imagination of the middle class, Hema gritted its teeth and had to do a loss-making businessHowever, in the face of higher and higher operating costs and incomplete accounts on the books, Hema can no longer take care of the mood of the middle class。As soon as Pinduoduo's financial report came out last year, everyone exclaimed that the sinking market turned out to be fragrant. "However, the previous coverage of Hema was relatively limited, mainly in the middle class. Zhuang Shuai, founder of Bailian Consulting and an expert in retail e-commerce, analyzed the danger. I want to make the customer group from the middle class to everyone, so HemaWeaken the superiority of the middle class, and directly cancel the membership systemHema explained that this means that "after the price reduction of all products is completed in the future, there is no need to buy additional members to enjoy low prices." In addition, fresh food is an industry with a high loss rate, and according to an interview with [Zhiwei], in order to let the middle class eat the freshest products, the "daily fresh" product line that Hema was once proud of has a much higher loss rate than ordinary fresh supermarkets. ”
Source: Xiaohongshu @ Uncle McDonald.
Step by step, the extra enjoyment of the middle class was reduced, until the membership was cut, and Hema tried to get closer to the workers. But ordinary workers will not buy products that are far more expensive than RT-Mart, so Hema starts from the price of moving mountainsA mighty price reduction campaign was launched。In the 10 years of last year, the ** of major categories of commodities such as dairy products and instant food was reduced by 20%, and at the new zero supply conference in November, Hou Yi said that in the future, Hema should achieve the "753" ** system, that is, KA goods are 7% off the market price, 5% off the market price for their own brands, and 3% off the market price for expiring goods.
Source: Xiaohongshu @ Wool RainThe price reduction method that Hema came up with is to replace other products with its own products, which is one of the ways to achieve "hard discounts" by industry insiders: Reduce SKU and operating costs, build a vertical chain, and launch its own brand, thereby reducing the retail price of the channel. Therefore, Hema soon cut more than 5,000 SKUs to more than 2,000, and consumers suddenly found that the products they wanted to buy were not available one day, all because Hema wanted to reduce costs.
Even in the pulling of products, the voice of Hema backstabbing ** was once heard, and the remarks of wanting a lower ** and even asking for a formula can be seen everywhere.
But just as consumers don't want to pay high delivery fees, watching Hema turn into a signature blue covered by a large area of red discount slogans, and those extreme services are no longer there, everyone finally understands that Hema is no longer the same Hema anymore.
And the employees also responded on social platforms,"Don't be surprised that the staff service is not in place, and it is almost optimized。Netizen @frost leaf flying dance pointed out.
In the interview, it was learned that Hema is frantically cutting employee treatment: salary cut is the first step, and the front pick is from 04 yuan becomes 03 yuan pieces, back-of-house picking from 025 yuan piece down to 02 yuan, meal allowance has also been cancelled; The second step is to reduce the number of regular employees, turn regular workers into temporary workers, "transfer to a third-party company that does not need to pay five insurances and one housing fund, and reduce wages if you don't agree." ”
The New York Times once found that Wal-Mart and other foreign supermarkets are gradually reducing their regular employees, because part-time workers "have lower costs and do not need to pay five insurances and one housing fund; There is no guarantee of minimum working hours, and it is possible to reduce wages at will. This is a means for businesses to control costs。"When Hema drastically reformed the employee system, Luckin and Haidilao also heard that they would no longer hire regular workers.
Do self-management and depress **, others also do it, but why do Hema have so many problems? Other supermarkets are either like Sam's who relied on self-operated to go the world from the beginning, or Wal-Mart will try its best to ensure the quality of its own brand, and will not cut SKUs like crazy.
And Hema is like a wild horse that has escaped all the way to the north, and there is a one-month cooling-off period for divorce, and Hema and the middle class will not be given any time to leave.
The emotional value given is all heaps of money, and Hema has no money. On the other hand, the middle class does not have any money, and Hema relied on fresh seafood to make the world, but there is a saying in the market: People who buy a 30,000-square-meter house will not often spend 300 to eat seafood.
Today's middle class has begun to spend money carefully, Pinduoduo is more "fragrant" than **, poor ghosts** are more cost-effective than flashy light food, and even ** only go to B1B2.
I like Hema because of the butler service it provides, and now I find myself able to be my own butler too. The uncle who opened the supermarket downstairs began to do door-to-door delivery services and private domain operations, and the workers returned home at 9 o'clock, subconsciously opened the Hema and wanted to buy some fruit, but found that they could only wait for tomorrow morning delivery, and the supermarket community downstairs was still playing fruit solitaire home delivery,The real chill is not to make a big noise, but to uninstall the app calmly.
After all, you can get by, and if you can't, you can leave.