Tomorrow's closing slogan

"Thank you 18 for your company", this striking slogan can be seen everywhere in Carrefour stores in Zhongguancun, Beijing.

As the largest Carrefour hypermarket in Asia, the announcement of Zhongguancun Carrefour on February 28th showed that in order to cooperate with the overall upgrading of Zhongguancun Plaza, the store was closed on March 3rd1,and then the shelves of Carrefour were basically empty.

Source: Caijing Tianxia Weekly

It is understood that Carrefour closed more than 20 stores last year, including 7 hypermarkets, 8 convenience stores and 3 selected stores in the second half of the year.

The reasons are similar to those of many large supermarkets, such as substandard performance, expiration of lease and changes in regional consumption. Obviously, many areas have been unable to support the existence of offline large supermarkets.

The data shows that in 20021year, about 70% of Shang Chao enterprises' sales and net profit ushered in a year-on-year decline.

Especially at the moment when the epidemic and e-commerce are double-attacked, hypermarkets are struggling.

Close more than 80 stores in four years.

Obviously, Beijing Zhongguancun flagship store is not the first store closed by Carrefour, and it will definitely not be the last one.

Imagine that Carrefour officially entered the China market in 1995. As one of the earliest foreign retail enterprises in China, Carrefour ushered in a bright moment in 20 10, with 249 stores in China, and Carrefour can be seen in almost every big city.

In the same year, according to the data released by China Chain Association, Carrefour ranked second in the supermarket chain with a sales scale of 33.8 billion. However, ten years later, this ranking has fallen to the eighth place, and sales have shrunk by more than 20%.

Carrefour reached its peak on 20 10, and it also closed its store for the first time on 20 10. The store that was closed at that time was located in Xi 'an, which lasted only three years from opening to closing. The reason behind it is that the store has been losing money and its income has failed to meet expectations.

Also in 20 10, Carrefour closed four stores in Chinese mainland, which was more for commercial reasons. Although some stores are closed, new stores are being established, and the number of new stores is more than that of closed stores.

This trend continued until 20 17, but the subsequent closure of Carrefour stores was a "helpless move".

With the mutual addition of online shopping and logistics, China's retail online shopping market has become the first in the world, accounting for 40% of the global market share. It was also in 20 17 that the number of Carrefour stores in China changed from expansion to contraction.

Source: heavy snow

According to public information, from 20 18 to 202 1, Carrefour closes 20 stores, 17 stores, 20 stores and more than 20 stores every year. In just four years, Carrefour closed more than 80 stores in Chinese mainland market.

The reason for the shrinking store is obviously related to the fact that the revenue is not up to expectations. It can be said that the profitability of every Carrefour store is declining.

Even after it was acquired by Suning.cn in 20 19, the situation of Carrefour in China has not been further improved. The financial report shows that Carrefour still lost more than 300 million yuan at the end of the acquisition.

As the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the retail industry, Carrefour can never go back.

People don't like shopping in supermarkets.

In fact, not only Carrefour, but also many large supermarkets all over the country have ushered in the "closing tide".

In 20021year, the number of Wal-Mart stores closed in China reached double digits, basically because the lease expired.

In particular, the epidemic situation and the development of online e-commerce have completely changed people's consumption habits. People seem to have become less fond of shopping in supermarkets overnight.

Before the closure of Carrefour flagship store in Zhongguancun, Beijing, some netizens tried to "find out" some discounted goods, but they were disappointed when faced with empty shelves.

Source: Beijing News

Netizens said: "It is better to buy online at home without spending money."

For large supermarkets, it is normal to have 654.38+0000 kinds of goods, and the number of stores like Zhongguancun Carrefour can reach more than 30000 kinds. However, compared with online shopping platforms, this amount is only 9 Niu Yi cents.

Nowadays, almost everyone has learned to take photos of the goods in the supermarket online and then compare the prices online. Therefore, goods with high gross profit margin are more difficult for large supermarkets to sell, and sales will obviously be greatly affected.

In addition, the rent advantage that was once firmly grasped by large stores has also been exhausted.

During the period from 1995 to 2005, foreign retail enterprises concentrated on entering the China market and won many core lots at the price of 0.5- 1 yuan per square meter per day.

However, as the lease period approaches, many old shops will expire, and the closure of Guangzhou Wanguo Store is directly related to the expiration of the lease and the difficulty in renewing the lease.

Nowadays, the "retreat" of large stores has become a reality. As early as 2065438+March 2009, CR Vanguard withdrew from five hypermarkets in Beijing. Last August, Shenzhen local Shang Chao Ren Ren Le also announced that it would close 19 stores within six months.

The "cold winter" of offline supermarkets has arrived, and the giants obviously need to seek transformation. Yonghui Supermarket has started to be a warehouse supermarket, and RT Mart is also making efforts to buy in the community.

Carrefour plans to open 65,438+000 paid membership supermarkets in the next three years to compete with Sam.

Can member stores "save" Carrefour?

Although Wal-Mart's large stores in China are also in the closing stage, its Sam member stores are still expanding steadily, which makes many retail giants ready to move.

Source: Wal-Mart China

According to the plan of CEO of Carrefour China, Carrefour will also enter the member stores.

Different from Sam's member stores, Carrefour's member stores are located in families, but they are not warehouse models, but still maintain their most familiar hypermarket format. The core is to sort out the supply chain based on the target group, establish an independent purchasing team, and reduce the centralized hot-selling categories of SKUs.

At the end of last year 10, Carrefour officially opened its first member store in Shanghai. There are about 3000 SKUs, and the overlap with the goods in large stores is not more than 1%.

Source: Carrefour member store

In fact, since last year, all major traditional chain stores have begun to regard member stores as their "second growth curve".

In June, 20021year, Box Horse X member store officially entered the national replication stage; 165438+ 10, Sam member stores announced that they have opened nearly 40 stores in Chinese mainland market; At the same time, Yonghui Supermarket, whose performance is under pressure, also "bets" on the transformation of its member stores.

Source: Shanghai Chao Life

Nowadays, member stores have become a "highland" for major retail giants. As the "originator" of hypermarkets, Carrefour's layout in member stores has just begun.

On the opening day of the Shanghai member store last year, it also boarded a hot search, because the official apology letter issued by Carrefour said: On the opening day, competitors pressured suppliers to "choose 1", which led to many goods in the store being repurchased by suppliers.

Obviously, there are still many problems to be solved in front of Carrefour member stores. In the transformation process of traditional supermarkets, if you are not careful, you may be completely out.