Hypermarkets are closing one after another, and the promotion of member stores is slow. Is there any other choice for Carrefour to break through?

With the closure of Carrefour's Zhongguancun Plaza store in Beijing, the number of Carrefour's traditional hypermarkets in China has been reduced to nearly 200. In the past four years, Carrefour has closed more than 80 stores, and with the opening of new stores, the total number of stores has decreased by nearly 60. 202 1 10, Carrefour publicly stated that it would upgrade half of its domestic hypermarkets to member stores. Now half a year has passed, traditional hypermarkets continue to close, and the upgrade plan of member stores is slow. The insiders believe that Carrefour should first solve the problem of its own business model, and then further consider the balanced layout of hypermarkets, member stores and other formats.

Traditional hypermarkets have closed down.

In 20021year, Carrefour closed more than 20 stores, and closed 7 hypermarkets, 8 convenience stores and 3 selected stores in the second half of the year, involving Chengdu, Zhuhai, Jinan, Hangzhou, Nanchang and other cities. Among them, Carrefour Jinan Weijiazhuang Store closed on August 5th, which is the last store of Carrefour in Jinan. Carrefour Chengdu Babao Street Store closed on September 30th. It is Carrefour's first store in Chengdu market, and it has been operating for 22 years.

According to the related reports in Caijing Tianxia, Carrefour closed 20 stores in 20 18, 20 19, 20 stores in 2020, 20 stores in 202 1 2022 and 4 stores in 2022, and the number has been increased.

Wen Zhihong, the consulting partner of Hejun and the head of chain operation, believes that the successive closure of Carrefour supermarkets is not a problem faced by individual supermarkets, but a * * * problem faced by the entire domestic supermarket industry. The fundamental reason is that the retail format of hypermarkets emphasizes core values such as low price and one-stop shopping. With the rise of e-commerce, the above-mentioned core value advantages of hypermarkets are no longer obvious, and the operation is facing difficulties.

The upgrade of member stores is progressing slowly.

After realizing the decline of hypermarkets, Carrefour chose to transform its member stores to get out of the business dilemma. 202110/5 Tian Rui, CEO of Carrefour, said that Carrefour plans to upgrade 100 of the 200 hypermarkets into paid member stores in the next three years. The target users are quality life users in four municipalities directly under the central government and cities above the sub-provincial level 15, which will break the current consumption situation that member stores drive dozens of kilometers and queue up for time. Tian Rui once said that taking Shanghai as an example, in three years, consumers will have a Carrefour member store within 15 minutes' drive.

In addition, a number of products were out of stock on the first day of opening of Carrefour's first member store. Carrefour responded at that time that suppliers were under pressure from competitors, causing some suppliers to buy back related products, which made many member consumers unable to buy them.

Wen Zhihong believes that the reasons for the unsatisfactory progress of Carrefour member stores are not only the impact of the epidemic, but also the problems in Carrefour's own operation. The transformation of member stores involves many aspects of construction and adjustment, and Suning, the parent company of Carrefour, is also facing a difficult situation. At this time, it is difficult to invest more resources and energy to build a member store.

Small and beautiful fresh food stores may have a breakthrough.

The insiders believe that member stores are not the only direction of traditional hypermarkets. Lai Yang, a member of the Expert Committee of China Business Federation and the chief expert of Beijing International Business Center Research Base, said that although the format of membership stores is relatively hot at present, it will be a challenge for new members to enter the stores from the perspective of cost and income. "It is also a challenge for new enterprises to make characteristics in the format of member stores and build a good chilled supply chain system."

Wen Zhihong also believes that after Carrefour was acquired by Suning, Suning also made some successful transformation work for hypermarkets, including the integration of online and offline omni-channels, and implanted some home appliances in hypermarkets. In addition, the cross-format combination with catering has also brought a certain amount of passenger flow. Carrefour should sum up its various attempts and explorations, and then further consider the balanced layout of hypermarkets, member stores and other formats. "For Carrefour, the format of member stores is only an idea at present, and the format of hypermarkets is aging. It is difficult to consider the balance and layout of Carrefour between the two formats when both formats are immature and stable. Carrefour should solve its own business model first. "

Lai Yang pointed out that Carrefour's biggest problem now is its weak fresh-keeping ability. "Packaged food and consumer goods are the strengths of Carrefour's traditional hypermarkets, and their pricing has a competitive advantage. However, at present, consumers are more and more inclined to fresh food stores, and the weakness of their fresh food management is gradually exposed. Carrefour can focus on small-scale fresh food stores. "

Editor Wang Lin proofreads Liu Baoqing.