"They want to promote eggs, and I don’t quite agree to print this as a highlight on the DM list." Chen Ping, the head of Xu Dong Zhongshang Supermarket, chatted with reporters that when the supermarket in Xu Dong, which has accumulated for more than 20 years, had a subversive change, it wanted to downplay the label of "parity". Finally, a few months after the store closed, Xu Dong Zhongshang Supermarket presented a brand-new format of "restaurant+fresh food+imported food+omni-channel retail".
More than 20 years ago, the fair-price supermarket in China opened the first round of confrontation with Wal-Mart, a foreign supermarket, with the "fair-price wind" and became the representative of the "fair-price store" in line with the market. With the reform of retail circulation system, the shift of business pattern and the iteration of consumer demand, the era of "parity wind" dominated by price killing has quietly moved away, and it has been replaced by "new species" with various formats.
Meet the market demand
"Parity" business has changed greatly
Appeared in Xu Dong Zhongshang Supermarket for more than ten days, the popularity was bursting. At six or seven o’clock in the evening, there are people sitting in the dining area eating and drinking beer.
From moving lines to regional classification, shelf display, goods, etc., it is almost "completely changed". The most eye-catching is the fresh food area, which accounts for 70% of the store area. A workshop called "Oh Oh Seafood" is shaped like a box horse. Metapenaeus ensis, Boston lobster, bread crab, rare crab and abalone are all available. 68 yuan, a bread crab, and 79 yuan, a Boston lobster, look stronger than when Box Horse opened.
The dining process says: Choose your favorite products, take the paid bar code after weighing, pay at the cashier and wait for your meal.
In the fruit and vegetable area, in addition to the scattered vegetables, a large number of imported fruits are packaged and put into the refrigerator. In addition, the Belt and Road Import Food Zone and the old-fashioned Daoxiang Village in Beijing have been specially opened. Introduce online celebrity small household appliances collection stores and home life museums that young people like to replace staple goods in the past; Cheap underwear, towels, slippers, etc.
"This transformation has invested 78 million yuan." Zhang Wanxin, general manager of China Merchants Supermarket Chain Company, said that "parity" represents an era — — In the 1990s, people were extremely sensitive to prices for 10 years. This drastic move is also aimed at removing the inertia of this "price war" and catering to the rapidly changing market.
Zeng "one-on-one" with foreign supermarkets
Commodity price tag changes in a day.
Yuan Ping, general manager of Xu Dong Supermarket, claimed that she didn’t want to lose the "baton". "The first supermarket to lead the whole Xu Dong business circle and even Wuhan with the cheap wind is still exciting to recall."
In October, 1997, Xu Dong Parity Plaza, located at Wuchang side of the Second Yangtze River Bridge, debuted. Just in time at the end of 1990s — — The format of supermarkets in Wuhan is budding. After Chinese merchants took the lead in setting Xu Dong parity, Wushang opened Baisheng discount store, and Zhongbai opened its first warehouse in Tangjiadun.
On the opening day, Xu Dong Parity, which first played the slogan of "Parity every day", was very lively and crowded, and citizens from three towns in Wuhan came from all over the world one after another. In the hypermarket, there were a wide variety of cheap and good goods.
As the first large-scale fair-price supermarket in Wuhan, it has successively set proud business records: in 1999, it created 32 single products with the highest sales volume in China, and produced the first "100 million yuan" color TV cabinet in China; In 2000, sales of 800 million yuan set a record for chain enterprises in China, and the highest daily sales reached 8.06 million yuan … … Even the Hankou people in the commercial center came to Xu Dong Parity by bus across the Second Bridge. At that time, Xu Dong Parity was really loved by thousands of people, and the scenery was the same at that time.
In 2005, Wal-Mart was stationed in Xu Dong, and confronted with the cheap supermarkets in China, which set off the climax of the confrontation between Tuyang supermarkets for the first time. The competition is fierce enough to send "undercover" to each other, and the price tag of goods changes several times a day.
Skip the low price, "I didn’t expect that the old supermarket can be so trendy."
In fact, two or three years ago, supermarkets in Wuhan were quietly deforming. The concentrated expression was to bid farewell to the unified "price quagmire", where to open stores, and to activate traffic with various "four unlike" mashups.
In 2017, Wushang established Wushang Supermarket Management Company, and the original Wushang merchants’ outlets were upgraded. Frontispiece, a "vendor of martial arts", has quietly become a "supermarket of martial arts". Instead of singing "Daily necessities, low prices every day", it has been replaced by "high quality and excellent products, enjoy life".
The new retail sub-brand of Zhongbai Warehouse — — Zhongbaixian lives in Houhu residential area, with a radiation resident population of about 40,000. In the Zhongbai Fresh Life Store, in addition to the common fresh food and commodities, the best location is specially reserved for community supporting service providers, providing residents with various intimate services such as laundry, shoe repair, lock replacement, mobile phone repair and watch maintenance.
Zhongbai University Theme Store under Zhongbai Warehouse — — Classmate Square Store also quickly got to the point of students and young customers because it was "very online celebrity". Supermarkets are no longer simply selling goods, but also becoming "social" places — — Half of the area is engaged in fashionable catering, among which there are many "Baolong Star" in online celebrity, "Little Blue Cup" Luckin Coffee, delicious and valuable Burger King, Hong Kong-style tea shop and so on. Symbolic languages that young people understand such as "karma", "eating" and "hi classmate" attract a large number of post-90 s and post-00 s to punch in. "I didn’t expect that the old supermarket can be so trendy!"
Carrefour, which has just "married" Suning, has not stopped. The banner of "three-kilometer price comparison" played in high profile a few years ago has been removed. At 7 o’clock on the evening of the 27th, in Carrefour’s Erqi Road store, the fresh food workshop was cooked now, with 18 abalone from 2.8 yuan and 221 fresh scallops from 4.8 yuan … … After ordering, many delicious guys brush their mobile phones and wait for steaming seafood meals in the waiting area.
Jumping out of the "low price" is not only happening in commercial centers — — Wuhan, from a national perspective, the super species of Yonghui, Su Xiansheng of Suning, and the box horse Xiansheng of Ali and their derivatives constantly refresh people’s impression that hypermarkets and supermarkets "may only sell staple goods" and "are boring to visit".
Price is no longer the only thing, and the pursuit of genuine goods is never out of date.
"More than 20 years ago, Wal-Mart was the most direct competitor of Chinese supermarkets. What about now? " The reporter asked. Zhang Wanxin said: "Competitors are everywhere, and it can be said that without competitors, you are the biggest opponent."
"The demand of consumers has changed, and the desire of our consumers is growing with the upgrading of consumption. Twenty years ago, there was a place where things could be sold. As long as things were cheap, a large number of people flocked to them. But now, the price is not a single measure. We need to provide consumers with a new lifestyle. "
“‘ Parity ’ Although it is no longer a label of the times, it is never out of date to pursue genuine products. " Fu Weigang, director of the New Retail Research Center of the Digital Economy Think Tank and researcher and executive dean of the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law, believes that people’s material life is getting richer and richer, and many people no longer spend energy and time for a few cents, but it does not mean that the price is not important. "I buy a bottle of imported shampoo and hope that the quality is guaranteed and the price is affordable."
In addition, because the mobile Internet allows us to be close to information for 24 hours, supermarkets have also broken away from the relatively closed competitive environment more than 20 years ago. Now, price comparison is everywhere and competition is everywhere. Simply relying on "price" is no longer a magic weapon to attract popularity. However, we can still see that the essence of retail has not changed. Whether it’s a traditional retailer, a local supermarket or a foreign supermarket, whether it’s a traditional retail or a new retail, they don’t know their own names, but everyone is taking customers as the core, trying their best to improve efficiency and reduce costs, and finally the retail terminals reflected in various scenarios still have to compete for price advantages.
Zhao Ping, director of the International Trade Research Department of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, believes that the emergence of the new retail format is a sublation of the old format, and the reasonable components of the existing format can be preserved and developed, and on this basis, new components can be accommodated and absorbed, thus forming a brand-new format. However, in the face of competitors, new and old retail formats continue to learn and improve their own weaknesses, and finally make the old format glow with new vitality. The coexistence of multiple formats will be the most likely scenario for the future retail industry. (Reporter: Sun Wei; Intern Chen: Set sail, Wang Di)
