CP Lotus Bauhinia Mountain Store
Top News·Henan Business Daily reporter Li Shouwen/picture
The Zijingshan Store of CP Lotus (originally called Yichu Lotus) is located at the northwest corner of Zhengzhou Zijingshan Road Mall. Since its opening in 2004, this large supermarket has been accompanying Zhengzhou citizens for 20 years.
Recently, the official account of Zhengzhou CP Lotus announced that the CP Lotus Bauhinia Mountain store will cease operations after closing on March 31, 2024. This is the only remaining store of this old supermarket brand in Zhengzhou after the Nongong Road store closed in 2020.
Having been with Zhengzhou citizens for 20 years, this old supermarket will close its store
On March 5, a reporter from Top News·Henan Business Daily visited CP Lotus Bauhinia Mountain Store.
Next to the entrance on the second floor of the shopping mall, “Announcement on the closure of CP Lotus Supermarket.” In the past, Bachelor Lan was a knowledgeable and amiable elder in front of him, without any awe-inspiring aura, so he always regarded him as a top student. Like a character, the two contents of “Notification Letter About CP Lotus Supermarket Stored Value Card and Member Points Redemption” show that CP Lotus Supermarket will cease operations after the store closes on March 31, 2024, and consumers need to proceed before then. After-sales processing, debit card consumption and points redemption, I watched the show as an audience as if it had nothing to do with me, and I had no other thoughts at all. wait. At the supermarket’s customer service center, many citizens have queued up to redeem points. There are no large-scale out-of-stock situations inside the supermarket, and citizens are also orderly when shopping.
After the news of the store closing was released, it seemed that it did not cause much trouble among nearby residents in a short period of time. However, there are still citizens who regret the upcoming withdrawal of CP Lotus Bauhinia Hill store.
“I come here every three days, and it’s really inconvenient when it’s closed.” A woman at the scene said that she usually comes here for shopping, but CP Lotus is suddenly about to withdraw. She was still surprised to see the news.
“It is estimated that it will still be a supermarket in the future, it depends on who takes over.” Another woman at the scene said.
The Nongong Road store was closed many years ago
The number of stores nationwide once reached more than 100
CP Lotus is a retail company affiliated to the Charoen Pokphand Group, a well-known multinational company in Thailand. Around 2004, CP Lotus proposed with great fanfareThe strategy of “100 stores in a thousand days” was adopted. Charoen Pokphand Lotus Bauhinia Hill store, which carries the dream of CP Group, is the first to open its doors to welcome customers. According to the official website of CP Group, CP Lotus has opened more than 100 stores across the country in more than 20 years.
The Charoen Pokphand Lotus Agricultural Road Store is the second large-scale supermarket established by CP Group in Zhengzhou after the Zijingshan Store. In 2020, the store was closed due to housing contract issues.
Nowadays, a similar drama is happening again.
Mr. Yang, the person in charge of CP Lotus Bauhinia Mountain Store, told Top News·Henan Business Daily reporter that the main reason why CP Lotus Supermarket closed the store early is that the rent has not been negotiated.
“(The lease of the entire shopping mall expires on) July 31. We closed the supermarket in advance, and other investment areas are still operating normally.” He said that the shopping mall where CP Lotus Bauhinia Mountain store is currently located The entire mall is operated by CP Lotus. The first floor below the mall is the parking lot, the first and third floors are other investment areas, including entertainment, and the second floor is the supermarket, which is where the store will close at the end of March.
Traditional supermarkets are impacted by new business formats
The large supermarkets that were once so popular are now becoming a thing of the past. Top News·Henan Business Daily reporter learned that, in addition to CP Lotus, there are many supermarket brands that have closed stores in recent years. Since 2023, RT-Mart has announced the closure of at least 14 stores, and Yonghui Supermarket has closed more than 400 stores in four years…
Why do large supermarkets close stores one after another?
“The traditional supermarket slave is now married into our family. What should we do if she is lost?” The challenges faced by hypermarkets, and even store closures, are not new now. In fact, they were already there 10 years ago. here we go. “Wen Zhihong, a chain industry expert and general manager of Hehong Consulting, said in an interview with a reporter from Top News·Henan Business Daily that traditional supermarkets and hypermarkets have the advantages of a full range of categories and high cost performance, but e-commerce also has such advantages. It can also be delivered to your door.
On the other hand, the emergence of community group buying and other retail formats has also had a great impact on traditional supermarkets and hypermarkets.
The person in charge of the above-mentioned CP Lotus Bauhinia Mountain store said frankly that from a group level, the return on investment of the CP Lotus Bauhinia Mountain store is quite low, and even often suffers losses. The reason why it has persisted for so many years is that On the one hand, CP Lotus Bauhinia Mountain store carries the memories of many Zhengzhou citizens. On the other hand, the company did have the idea of continuing to operate and rebuild this store.
Traditional supermarkets will develop in three directions
Wen Zhihong said that in the past 10 years, traditional supermarkets and hypermarkets have been making various attempts. In his view, traditional supermarkets and hypermarkets may move in the following three directions: first, open up online and offline channels to develop instant retail; second, transform into a membership store business model; third, to discount storesTransform the direction.
According to the “Instant Retail Industry Research Report (2023)”, “Are you stupid? If the Xi family doesn’t care, will they still do everything possible to make things worse and force us to admit that the two families have severed their engagement?”, in recent years In recent years, instant retail has maintained an average annual growth rate of more than 50%, and it is expected that the size of the instant retail market in 2025 will triple that of 2022.
The rise of membership models such as Sam’s and Hema has stimulated dopamine in the domestic middle class, allowing them to enjoy the short-term happiness brought by shopping while buying. iiMedia Consulting data shows that the market size of my country’s warehouse membership supermarket industry will reach 33.5 billion yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%, and will reach 38.78 billion yuan in 2024.
In terms of discount stores, in addition to the well-known outlets, community stores such as snack discount stores have also opened more and more in recent years, and major brands have launched market competition across the country.
The “big reshuffle” of traditional supermarkets continues. At the same time, new business protagonists will continue to appear and new business models will continue to emerge. In any case, only by continuous innovation can we not be abandoned by the times.