Recently, news of Hema withdrawal and closure of cabinets in various places has been popping up in a steady stream.
Some netizens found that no one delivered the Hema goods they bought. The date of the delivery is not fresh, the variety has decreased, the favorite apple juice has been removed from the shelves, and the chicken that I often buy is out of stock.
Even many of our colleagues in the office have found that the probability of buying expiring products has become higher.
He also said that this would never happen in the Hema that once pursued high quality.
When someone posts out that the Hema shelves are emptied, there is no one **, and there is no customer** in the store.
The bad reviewer realized that something was wrong.
But just 3 months ago, Hou Yi, CEO of Freshippo, also released a bold statement that the mission of Hema in the future is 10 trillion in 10 years.
The bad reviewer also had a general understanding that in May last year, Hema held its breath to go public, but unfortunately it didn't hold back in the end, and since then, it seems that it has been leaking.
Even, there were rumors that Ali wanted to ** Hema at one time.
Although the official immediately jumped out to refute the rumors, saying that there was no such thing.
But if you pay a little attention, you can really find that Hema is not having a good time.
At the beginning, the closure of Hema reported by netizens did exist, and at the end of February, the Dalian Hema store announced its closure. However, Hema has always opened and closed the door quickly, and if the benefit is not good, it will be cut directly.
According to Wuhan employees interviewed by Zhiwei's editorial office, in March, Wuhan will close three more stores.
Not only to start with stores that lose money, but also to save money in daily life.
At the bottom of some posts, some employees complained about Freshippo's almost outrageous money-saving methods.
For example, seal the toilet, don't turn on the lights if you don't open the door, turn off the lights as soon as the door is closed, and use it for ten people per person. I wish I could have torn a piece of toilet paper in two.
This money-saving calculation also hit the employees' salaries and contracts.
At the beginning of February, stores in Hefei and other cities only recruited hourly or part-time workers. Like Hefei backyard pickers, each piece starts from 026 yuan, down to 017 yuan. Salary cuts are around 20% across the country.
At the same time, Hema is trying to convert regular employees into outsourced third-party employees.
An employee of the Wuhan store interviewed by the editorial department told us that he received a notice of transfer to a temporary worker on February 18.
Cancel five insurances and one housing fund, three times the salary on holidays, annual leave, and thirteen salaries, and change them to a tripartite contract. If you don't agree, slap your ass and fuck off (no n+1).
Some employees agreed to the transfer, and some cried and signed. ”
The interviewee estimated that based on 20 employees in a store, Hema could save 400,000 yuan a year.
Here is frantically squeezing employees, and on the consumer side, Hema is also picking and searching.
The packaging bags that were previously provided free of charge are now mandatory at 1 yuan per order. In Hema in Beijing, Nanjing, and Changsha, the threshold for free delivery has also risen to 99 yuan.
For many people who are used to buying groceries and cooking in Hema, the 99 yuan order threshold can kill them.
Everyone really can't figure it out, how can the big-spending Ali Fuge suddenly have no money in his pocket.
If we look at the data, we will find that although Hema as a whole is still losing money, the losses of the previous year have been decreasing. Hou Yi also revealed in a letter to all employees that Hema Xiansheng's single business had even made a profit the year before last.
It stands to reason that life should be getting better slowly, but as a result, Ali split up last year, and Hema became independent.
After leaving the big family, Hema began to tighten up, and how to make a profit became a top priority.
So, throughout the year, Hema has been making various attempts.
Before September, Hema thought of a way to make money was to aim the gun at Sam and grab the money from the middle class.
First, Sam's launched a diamond membership of 658 yuan per year. It also carried out a vigorous mountain-moving campaign, comparing prices and goods head-on, and playing a half-discount discount.
The most outrageous thing is to run to Sam's door and transport people to Hema one by one...
Although it didn't hurt Sam in the slightest, this move also brought a lot of benefits to Hema. According to the statistics of Ruize Insights, during the period of moving mountains, the average weekly daily activity of the Hema app rose by 133%, Sam also rose slightly by 39% 。
Many people think that this hand-to-hand fight with Sam is fierce enough.
As a result, I didn't expect that only a month after the end of moving mountains, Hema launched a new series of large-scale opening and closing operations.
Hema simply half gave up its own bias, focused on quality positioning, and planned to use the ultimate low price to be rigid to the end.
In October last year, a comprehensive "discount" was launched for more than 5,000 products to be sold at reduced prices, and then even the extremely high-cost fresh food was beaten down.
To give two examples, the strawberry box that used to sell for 79 yuan is now only 59 yuan and 399 of the fat beef slice dropped to 319 。
In the face of the high distribution costs, Hema also chose to strike hard.
A person close to Hema told Zhiwei that if the online order does not reach 99 yuan, it will be a loss for Hema to send an order.
Unfortunately, many stores can reach more than 80% of online orders, and some delivery staff have calculated that the average delivery fee for each order is about six or seven yuan. With an average of 3,000 orders per day, a Hema store spends five or six hundred thousand yuan a month.
It is estimated that in order to stop a wave of delivery fees, Hema in some cities has forcibly raised the freight threshold to 99 yuan.
However, this also makes consumers who are accustomed to low freight thresholds suffer a stick.
Moreover, in addition to raising the threshold for free shipping, Hema has also added additional offline special prices to force users to spend in stores. There have even been cases where offline** is cheaper than online membership prices, which has also led to many members complaining that Hema is not authentic.
As a result, Hema didn't bother to appease people's hearts at all, and directly cut off all the membership systems that generate more than 500 million yuan a year.
It can only be said that no one can stop it and seek low prices for the family members who come offline.
You may find this a little strange when you see this. Didn't Hema say it was going to make money? The packaging fee of 1 yuan has to be searched, and the price of the product is reduced by dozens of yuan, is there still a profit?
Yes. Because Hema cut a knife, not only on himself, but also on the ** businessmen behind him.
The price reduction of products mainly comes from two places: one is its own brand, and the other is the best business.
In terms of its own brand, Hema has decided to increase its share to 70% within three years. Therefore, if we pay a little attention, we can find the contents of the container, and I don't know when the word Hema will be printed.
Because it is very cool to sell its own brand, the profit is very high, and there is no brand owner to make the difference. How much to sell for is completely up to you.
In addition, for those ** businessmen, Hema is also ruthless.
First, the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) was streamlined, and more than 3,000 products were removed from the shelves.
On the other hand, the price of ** business is reduced. According to the breaking news post of the founder of the tea brand chabiubiu, Hema asked them to cut their ** by half.
Hou Yi openly said to the ** businessmen: "I hope you will give me the lowest price at one time. ”
As long as you are willing to give low prices and the products are competitive, then cooperate. If you refuse to give, no matter how big the brand is, you won't wait. Under such high pressure, a large number of brands jumped out at the end of last year to say that they wanted to "break off relations" with Freshippo
It's no wonder that Hou Yi said that someone wants to ** them. If I were a ** businessman, I would already want to squat him downstairs and wait to beat him up.
Hema also knows that this will offend many brands, but there is no way, after the split, every step of Hema is under great pressure.
Speaking at Alibaba's earnings conference in February last year, Tsai said: "We still have some traditional brick-and-mortar retail businesses on our balance sheet, and these are not our core focus. It is also very reasonable if you can complete the exit. ”
In the face of the constantly adjusting Alibaba, Hema must complete its so-called "753" business as soon as possible, that is, KA (major customer) goods are 7% off the market price, its own brand is 5% off the market price, and expiring goods are 3% off the market price.
In the final analysis, use cheap ** to grab users and expand scale.
But the lower the pressure, the more lazy the big brands with stable supply will be to play with Hema . It all depends on self-management, and the current Hema capacity is not qualified.
Fortunately, Hema is now in the circle and still has a bit of appeal.
Wang Xiaolu, who once publicly cut off the supply, turned his head and held hands with Hema again. Hema also talked about Baishi and Mars by the way. . .
It is also undeniable that Hema still has a group of quite loyal users, and for many people, Hema is a more suitable "Sam" for Chinese physique.
The daily vegetables, meat, and high-quality desserts they burn out of the money, as well as the fast delivery network, are indeed very convenient for people who are not good at going to the vegetable market in big cities.
Anyway, the bad reviewer still remembers that when Hema near the company first opened, many colleagues in the editorial department skipped work to go to the field. In the words of a colleague, the first time I went to Hema, there was even a sense of "Chu Yuxing's first visit to Metersbonwe".
Of course, jokes aside, Hema is indeed the enlightenment of many people to the concept of new retail fresh supermarkets.
But the business of losing money will not last long, so we can only see what kind of cards Hema will sacrifice next.