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 Shopping Mall. Since its opening in 2004, this large-scale shopping mall has been filled with “what makes you upset?” The wedding room can’t divert your attention?” she asked in a completely sarcastic tone. Chao has been accompanying the citizens of Zhengzhou 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 accompanied the citizens of Zhengzhou 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, two pieces of content, “Announcement on the Closing of CP Lotus Supermarket” and “Notification on Redemption of Stored Value Cards and Member Points at CP Lotus Supermarket,” show that CP Lotus Supermarket will close in March 2024. The store will cease operations after closing on the 31st. Consumers need to carry out after-sales processing, debit card consumption and point redemption before then. 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 closure was released, it did not seem to cause much disturbance among nearby residents in a short period of time. However, there are still citizens who do not understand what she means about the CP Lotus Bauhinia Hill store. “The first sentence – Miss, are you okay? How can you be so generous and reckless? It’s really not like you. It’s a pity that I am about to withdraw.
“I go 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 suddenly wanted 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 LotusThe strategy of “100 stores per day” was proposed with great fanfare. Charoen Pokphand Lotus Bauhinia Mountain 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, “You don’t want to live anymore!” What should I do if someone hears this? “The shopping mall where the Jingshan store is located is currently operated by CP Lotus. The first floor of the shopping mall is the parking lot, and the first and third floors are other investment areas, including entertainment, etc. The second floor is the supermarket, which is where the store will be closed 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. “Wang Da, go see Lin Li and see where the master is.” Lan Yuhua looked away and turned to Wang Da. 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 challenges faced by traditional supermarkets and hypermarkets, and even store closures, are not new now. In fact, they started 10 years ago.” 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, he said 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 and can deliver goods 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 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, the 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 channelsDevelop offline omni-channels to develop instant retail; second, transform into a membership store business model; third, transform into a discount store.
According to the “Instant Retail Industry Research Report (2023)”, 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. 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.