Looking at the improvement of citizens’ lives from the development of supermarkets`````````

30 years of reform and opening up in 2001: Large supermarkets enter people’s lives

Article source: Huashang.com | Time: August 3, 2008

Go to the supermarket Shopping has become a habit of citizens. Photos of our newspaper reporter Cai Jingrui

Our reporter Hao Jianguo

In an era of scarcity, people need to queue up to buy things with tickets. , at that time, people may not have imagined that traditional department stores have so many inconveniences. When goods are relatively abundant or even oversupplied, how to sell the produced goods becomes a key issue. It was against this background that supermarkets were introduced from abroad. Its self-selection, small profits but quick turnover and one-stop shopping concepts have quietly changed our lives, allowing us to conveniently buy cheap and diverse things——

10 years ago, if someone took A plastic bag with the word "supermarket" printed on it must be a fashionable person. Nowadays, no matter you are in the southeast or northwest of a city, you will find the nearest supermarket, which provides the milk that people drink every day, toilet paper for the bathroom, cheap ballpoint pens, and televisions...

Xi'an The first supermarket was born in 1993, but the real close contact between citizens and supermarkets began in 2001.

Supermarkets enter Xi'an and "price war" brings benefits

Citizens living near Ximen still remember the time shortly after the opening of Renrenle Supermarket - spending 1.6 yuan You can buy 500 grams of eggs, and the price of eggs in the vegetable market at that time was 2.7 yuan per 500 grams.

Of course, this kind of cheap eggs must be in limited supply. Each person can only buy 1 kilogram, and they are only sold to the first 100 customers every day. Some elderly people are willing to spend hours queuing in order to save a few dollars.

Youjia Renle Supermarket opened outside Ximen at the end of 2000. By 2001, the supermarket had become the main channel for Xi'an's retail industry. Homeworld and Haixing Supermarkets no longer have exclusive market access, and the price war has intensified.

Of course, Renrenle Supermarket has its own calculations for selling eggs at a loss, because there is a competitor - Trust-Mart supermarket a few hundred meters away in the west gate. The price of eggs is as low as 1.9 yuan at one store and 1.8 yuan at that store. Smart customers also have their own tricks. After queuing up to buy a kilogram of eggs at Trust-Mart, they hurried to Renrenle and queued up again...

The price war allows citizens to enjoy the benefits brought by competition. Ms. Wang still clearly remembers that when "Wahaha" purified water sold for 2.5 yuan in street vendors, the price in Renrenleli was 1 yuan. But once when she passed by the Home World Supermarket in the north of the city, she found that the price of "Wahaha" purified water here was 0.99 yuan. "Supermarkets are very knowledgeable about pricing. The prices of some sensitive items must be low, so that consumers will think your products are cheap and will frequent them. But in fact, what is the difference between 0.99 yuan and 1 yuan?" said Li Chao, a staff member of the original company, which has now changed its name to "China Resources".

There are sensitive products, corresponding to less sensitive products.

Ms. Wang recently bought a pack of disinfectant wipes at a supermarket near Xiaozhai, Xi'an. The price was 5.2 yuan. At the Wal-Mart supermarket in Luoma City, the price of such wipes was 2.8 yuan. This means that the profit of the former may be close to 50.

"Some products cannot make money or even lose money, which means that other products have to make more money. For products such as disinfectant wipes, those who can buy them belong to those with a certain spending power. Such customers are not too sensitive to price," Li Chao explained.

In the early price war, Renrenle Supermarket was the most successful. It is said that when a supermarket in Renrenle's Shenzhen headquarters started selling low-priced cabbage, competitors bought it in batches and then sold it in their own store. Renrenle suffered this loss and later came up with the idea of ??"limited sales".

Low prices, coupled with artificial shortages caused by limited sales, have allowed some supermarkets to gain popularity, which to some extent determines their subsequent share of the retail market. To this day, most people in the industry believe that Renrenle is currently the industry leader among supermarkets in Xi'an. After China Resources acquires Home World, it has some advantages in terms of the number of supermarkets, but the final arrangement of seats has yet to be tested by the market. "When we started, the retail market in Xi'an was immature, and price was the primary factor that determined whether customers would buy goods. If we want customers to know, accept, and become loyal in a short period of time, price is undoubtedly the most important. Our single product sells the most every day. The loss exceeded 5,000 yuan at that time, but such low-priced products cannot be sold for a long time," said Zou Junping, general manager of Xi'an Renrenle.

There are also many strategies in price wars. If the same product is always sold at a low price, it may not be attractive to customers. In those days, people who frequented Renrenle discovered that there were cheap green onions today, cheap flour tomorrow, cheap cooking oil the day after tomorrow, and cheap pork a few days later...

Everyone is happy to try it The "popularity" was at its peak, but problems soon arose. "The long queue time and the stuffy air made the 75-year-old Uncle Du unable to bear it anymore and he felt dizzy and wanted to vomit. His wife quickly asked him to sit down, opened his clothes and took a deep breath, and the supermarket staff quickly helped Uncle Du to a ventilated area. The situation It just got better." This is a scene reported by the media when an old man was buying cheap eggs at Renrenle Supermarket on Youyi Road in Xi'an.

Compared with the stampede in Chongqing, the experience of "Uncle Du" is nothing.

On November 10, 2007, Carrefour Chongqing Shapingba store launched a special sale on rapeseed oil. A 5-liter bottle of rapeseed oil, originally priced at 51.4 yuan per barrel, sold for only 39.9 yuan. As a result, just after 4 o'clock in the morning, there were people waiting in line. By the time the supermarket opened for business, citizens had already lined up dozens of meters long outside the store. As soon as the supermarket opened that day, hundreds of customers poured in. As a result, panic buying broke out in the oil section. Eventually, three people died and 31 were injured due to a stampede.

On the one hand, the Chongqing Carrefour stampede prompted government authorities to say "no" to "limited time and limited" sales. On the other hand, supermarkets have gradually matured after several years of development, and the price war has temporarily entered a period of relative calm. .

When the global retail giant Wal-Mart entered Xi'an in October 2007, the market in this industry was close to saturation, but Wal-Mart did not use price wars to compete with other people's cheese. Some people in the industry believe that it is not that Wal-Mart does not want to fight a price war, but that its centralized management model gives store managers very limited pricing power.

"Our advantage is our brand and corporate culture. Wal-Mart does not engage in vicious competition." Yang Yongguo, deputy manager of the non-food division of Wal-Mart's Xi'an Luoma City branch, explained.

No matter what the reason is, it is always a fact that commodity price fluctuations in Xi'an supermarkets have stabilized. Take Renrenle as an example. Since entering Xi'an, their marketing strategy has gone through three stages: "everyday low prices", "everyday affordable prices" and today's "everyday affordable prices".

"From our survey, today's Xi'an citizens also pay attention to price, but it is no longer the primary factor affecting shopping. They now pay more attention to product quality and shopping environment." Zou Junping said.

The decline of department stores and the rise of supermarkets

The full name of supermarket is supermarket. This word was created by Westerners. With the introduction of this vocabulary, so-called "super stars" also appeared in Chinese, including later "super girls".

Liu Dan, who is now the head of the training department of Haixing Supermarket, has witnessed the emergence of the supermarket with his own eyes. She said: "After the reform and opening up, society became richer in material resources, and farmers' markets and non-staple food stores began to appear on the streets of Xi'an. However, department stores at that time were still 'a flower'. It was very special to be able to work in department stores such as People's Livelihood and Liberation. "Glory."

Liu Dan still remembers that in September 1986, the overseas Chinese store on Dongda Street where she worked gave her a "Flying Pigeon" bicycle ticket, which made many relatives and friends envious.

The direct factor that led to the decline and transformation of department stores was the rise of supermarkets.

Because it is an imported product, the first place where supermarkets appeared in China was naturally along the coast, with Shenzhen and Shanghai as the pioneers.

From a purely chronological perspective, Xi'an is also one of the places where supermarkets appeared earlier in the country - on November 9, 1993, Xi'an's first supermarket - China Resources Starfish Supermarket opened. It is located in the Great Wall Hotel on Youyi Road. layer. It is said that Rong Hai, the boss of Haixing at that time, was out of the country and when he saw a new thing like a supermarket, he was immediately attracted to it and finally decided to introduce it to Xi'an.

Regarding the birth of Haixing Supermarket, Luo Zhenyu, who is currently the assistant to the president of Haixing Group, said this: "At that time, Rong Hai said that we can't just sell computers, we also need to let more people know about Haixing. Haixing's purpose is to serve the people and serve the country. It is risky for us to do something that no one has done before, but we have the ability to take such risks. We create a business landscape for Xi'an. Such risks are worth it. At most, we will lose 10 million. We can afford it."

At that time, Haixing people had no idea how to operate a supermarket. In order to get started quickly, they cooperated with China Resources Supermarket in Hong Kong through franchising. The store name of "China Resources Starfish Supermarket" can reflect the above information.

Compared with traditional department stores, the biggest difference between supermarkets is product display and sales methods. In the former, the products are placed on the counter, and customers can only see them through glass or windows. If you like it, you have to take it out through the salesperson. After you decide to buy it, pay the salesperson on the spot. This is called closed sales. Correspondingly, supermarkets adopt open-shelf sales. The products for open-shelf sales are placed on the shelves, and customers can walk through the product area and choose as they like. Whatever you like is suitable, put it directly in the basket provided by the supermarket, and check out at the exit. Therefore, supermarkets are also called self-selected shopping malls.

"Open shelves and closed shelves have different psychological effects on customers. In the open shelf state, the customer gets a kind of psychological satisfaction. Because he does not pay when he picks things from the basket, so If it can arouse his desire to buy, he may choose more things, including impulse consumption," Li Chao said.

Another feature of the supermarket is that it has a complete range of products and is easy to select. People can buy most of the commodities they need for daily life in a shopping mall, ranging from a green onion and a bag of salt to a refrigerator, milk, eggs, clothes, shoes and hats. This feature is called "one-stop shopping" in the industry.

Compared with today’s hypermarkets of thousands of square meters, the scale of Haixing Supermarket back then was really not that big. However, the name "supermarket" alone is already very eye-catching.

"At that time, we could often see celebrities in Haixing Supermarket. Feng Jianxue, for example, often came to our supermarket to shop. One winter evening, when I was closing the door, I heard a little girl next to me say, "Na Ying. Here I am, I looked up and it turned out to be Na Ying. She came to the supermarket specifically for shopping. "

Liu Dan said: "The Haixing Supermarket at that time mainly sold higher-end goods, like those made in Germany. Guinness' dark beer, French-made 'Remy Martin' XO, and Taiwan-made 'Black' toothpaste. "

"Haixing Supermarket was one of the industry leaders in the country when it had three stores. He is an industry leader. The general manager of Haixing Supermarket is often invited by different government departments to teach students, mainly state-owned commercial enterprises, and local business bosses such as Minsheng Department Store and Qiulin Trading often come to learn from their experience," Luo Zhenyu said. .

Today’s Haixing Supermarket’s ranking advantage in Xi’an’s retail industry is no longer very prominent. However, Haixing people believe that compared with large supermarkets with hundreds of square meters such as Renrenle, China Resources, Carrefour, Wal-Mart, Metro, Trust-Mart, E-Chu Lotus, and Jingzhong, Haixing belongs to another type of supermarket, called community standard super. In this field, Starfish still has its own advantages. At the same time, Haixing maintains its leading position in performance in some secondary cities around Xi'an. For ordinary citizens, these are not important. What is important is that Haixing has introduced a new thing called supermarkets to Xi'an.

The loss rate decreases and the quality of citizens improves

The word "loss prevention" is a bit literary, but in fact it mainly refers to the prevention of theft. Before Starfish, a non-staple food shopping mall once opened on Tanshi Street in Xi'an, but it closed down in less than half a year.

It is said that one of the reasons is that when people are used to buying goods at the counter, and suddenly they can take things at will, the weakness of human nature expands, thieves multiply, and the store cannot bear the losses.

A supermarket has fewer salespeople than a traditional department store, so wage costs are relatively lower. Loss is a cost that supermarket operators must consider, but within what range is this ratio considered normal? The reporter did not find a unanimous answer in the industry. Most believe it should be within 0.3.

It is said that Japan’s supermarket loss rate (specifically refers to theft) is almost negligible. Wal-Mart regards the loss rate as the company's trade secret and keeps it secret. However, "Wal-Mart" entered Xi'an in 2007. At this time, "loss prevention" is no longer a big problem in supermarket management.

When Renrenle Supermarket first opened, it once caught a thief pretending to be a pregnant woman and stole six cans of baby milk powder worth nearly 2,000 yuan. There was also a habitual thief who stole 12 bottles of shampoo at one time. From these two extreme examples, we can see how crazy supermarket thieves are.

There are two types of thieves in supermarkets. One is out of curiosity and taking advantage when choosing products. They secretly put some smaller products in their pockets. Supermarkets regard this vicious A minor behavior is called impulsive possession. The other type is habitual thieves. They make stealing their profession. They enter supermarkets just to steal things, and they specialize in picking out the most expensive things to steal. This type of thief has strong anti-reconnaissance capabilities, is fast in escaping, and sometimes cooperates inside and outside. If the stolen goods are transferred, they will refuse to admit it after being caught. "There are more impulsive (thieves). For such people, we usually give them face, mainly criticize and educate them, and let them pay. If they are habitual thieves, they are usually sent to the police station." Wal-Mart Xi'an Mule Yang Yongguo, deputy manager of the non-food division of the Mashi branch, said.

Supermarkets have many ways to deal with thieves. For example, high-priced and easy-to-carry goods, such as cigarettes, alcohol, and small household appliances, generally undergo traditional over-the-counter transactions, and the goods can only be taken out after the payment is made on site.

Another method is to insert magnetic strips into the packaging of some more valuable commodities. When thieves carry stolen items through the magnetic door, the police will be alerted. Of course, a commonly used and effective anti-theft measure in supermarkets is the monitor. After the monitor's probe captures the situation in every corner of the supermarket, it is transmitted to the electronic screen through the computer. The rear staff monitors the behavior of each customer through the display screen. Of course, the function of the monitor is not limited to anti-theft. It is also a major means of security management and employee management. "All supermarkets are equipped with monitors, but the loss situation of each supermarket is not the same. This is mainly determined by the management level. Take the monitor as an example, the monitor itself cannot identify who is actually shopping. Who is the thief? The one who can identify the thief is the staff in front of the surveillance screen," Li Chao said.

Around 2001, the years when supermarkets first emerged, even if all these anti-theft methods were used, the loss rate remained high. There is no other way, so some supermarkets have no choice but to start using hidden whistles for reconnaissance. They send a group of "scouts" into the supermarkets. "Scouts" look no different from ordinary customers. They wear ordinary clothes and hold baskets in their hands. From time to time, they put one or two products in the basket, or stop in front of a certain product to appreciate it. When they find a suspect, they will immediately focus on it...

Some supermarkets have suffered the loss of being stolen. Once the suspect is caught, they will use methods such as body searches, fines, public demonstrations and even illegal detention. ways to make up for the losses. "A private supermarket near Xinjiamiao just caught a thief. The people in the store made a sign for the thief to wear in public..." This is a case reported by this newspaper about a supermarket punishing a thief.

After the thief was caught stealing 8 packs of hot pot base from the supermarket, the store had to fine him 10 times the amount of what was stolen. The young man couldn't come up with the money, so the store wrote a sign saying "Thief × × County × × Township × × Village Yang × stole 8 packs of hot pot base ingredients from the supermarket" and prepared to hang it around his neck.

The supermarket owner explained that due to financial constraints, the supermarket has not installed monitoring devices and is often visited by thieves. In order to prevent theft, supermarkets have hung warning signs of "Steal 1 Penalty 10" in prominent places, but thefts still occur from time to time.

When they caught the thief, they were very angry and wanted to teach him a lesson, so they prepared a sign for him.

Some supermarkets were condemned by the media and public opinion for body searches, and some even became defendants and lost the lawsuit. Today, those larger supermarkets that pay attention to their brands rarely use the "black and white" method to deal with thieves. After they find a suspicious object, they will usually show evidence and ask the other party to hand it over voluntarily. If the circumstances are serious, they will usually give it to them. The public security organs handled it. "In more than seven years, the loss rate of Renrenle Supermarket has dropped from a peak of 2.3 per thousand to less than one per thousand. This is directly related to the improvement of the quality of citizens." Zou Junping said.

Li Chao analyzed that there are two main reasons for the decline in the supermarket wastage rate: ordinary citizens who love to take advantage of small things have a lucky psychological breakdown after being caught once, and usually dare not steal again; and those who are habitual thieves , most of whom have been sent to prison and subject to judicial attack.

The changes in supermarket loss prevention methods can, to some extent, be seen as a mirror of the progress of human rights and the legal system since the reform and opening up.