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2024.07.17

Word count: 2393, reading time: about 4 minutes

Introduction: The industry believes that affordable canteens actually have almost no profit, and supermarket operators focus on increasing customer stickiness.

Author |Le Yan and Luan Li from China Business News

You can enjoy an all-you-can-eat buffet for less than 20 yuan. This is the price of the "Wumart Canteen" that Wumart recently opened in its Zhongguancun store in Beijing.

On July 17, a reporter from the First Financial Daily saw the "Wumart Canteen" at the Wumart store in Beijing's Zhongguancun. The canteen is located in the prepared food area of ​​the supermarket and is divided into two areas, priced at 13 yuan and 19 yuan. A deposit of 5 yuan is required to enter, which is refunded upon leaving.

The "Wumart Canteen" has a rich menu, mainly meat and vegetable stir-fry dishes, and is very popular with customers at mealtime. According to staff, there are many office workers who come to eat at noon. In the first month of opening, there were long queues every day at noon, and it was overcrowded, receiving more than a thousand guests every day.

Wumart staff introduced that the canteen mainly features a freshly cooked food model and does not sell overnight dishes. Currently, the "Wumart Canteen" mainly covers lunch and dinner time. It is reported that after the Zhongguancun store tries out the canteen model, Wumart will add two more "Wumart Canteens" and plans to expand the canteen to about 20 by the end of this year.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time that a supermarket has tried the canteen integration model. Recently, Yonghui Supermarket has also begun to explore business formats and services in catering and prepared food.

Yonghui Supermarket revealed that adding processed food and beverage areas such as baking, pastry, and cooked food to stores is one of the important measures for new stores to expand consumption scenarios. Take the newly renovated Yonghui Fuzhou Binjiang Jinrong store as an example. The store has added a special baking area at the entrance that focuses on on-site production. Combining the concepts of health and organic in recent years, it has launched baked products such as black sesame bagels, black tea milk crisps, and Christmas-themed creative cakes. Around the store, Yonghui Supermarket has launched the "Yonghui Community Canteen."

According to consumer feedback, the "Yonghui Community Canteen" is similar to the above-mentioned "Wumart Canteen", both of which are affordable self-service fast food, with an average consumption of only about 15 yuan per person.

When asked about the reason for launching the canteen, Yonghui Supermarket told the First Financial reporter that it mainly hoped to rely on the location advantages and characteristics of community stores to truly solve consumers' "three meals a day" problems.

Hema also adopted the same strategy. Initially, Hema set up on-site food processing and cooking in the store, which made it easier for consumers to handle food and played a role in promotion. Later, Hema began to expand the catering area in the store, and now it has developed into an entire area in the form of catering stalls.

The reporter from the First Financial Daily learned from the interview that Yonghui Supermarket and Wumart adopt completely direct operation and management, while Hema is more of a joint venture.

"Every Hema store has some franchise stalls, such as hand-shredded chicken, beef soup, etc. There are also some fast food made directly by the Hema stores themselves. They are currently quite popular with consumers." A Hema insider told the first financial reporter.

Public information shows that in June this year, Hema launched affordable fast food services in all stores in Guangzhou, including pickled noodles for 9 yuan, roast duck rice for 17.8 yuan, etc. At the same time, Hualian Supermarket has also set up fast food stalls in some stores, providing more than 20 to 30 kinds of freshly fried dishes.

Gao Xin Retail is also investing heavily in the research and development of various types of baked and processed foods, and has set up dining areas in some stores, also focusing on the affordable strategy.

Why are traditional supermarkets starting to expand their canteen business?

"Physical stores are under great operating pressure nowadays, especially traditional supermarkets. On the one hand, they have to compete with e-commerce, and on the other hand, they have to face the situation where some customers are diverted to membership stores. In terms of price, standard supermarkets are not as low-priced as e-commerce; in terms of merchandise, standard supermarkets do not have as many high-quality exclusive products as membership stores, so supermarkets are under great operating pressure. To attract more customers, in addition to discounts and promotions, services that can increase customer stickiness are more needed. Food is the first necessity of the people, and catering is a relatively rigid consumption. Affordable canteens can quickly attract surrounding customers. In fact, affordable canteens have almost no profit, and supermarket operators value increasing customer stickiness." Shen Jun, a senior retail analyst, believes.

It is worth noting that the canteen model may quickly attract customers for a period of time, but whether it can stimulate customers to further consume in the supermarket depends on the products themselves.

Wang Hua, who has worked in management at several supermarkets, told the First Financial Daily that whether it is a canteen or other experiential formats, they are just appearances, and the sales of supermarket goods are the key. In essence, the sales of goods still depend on the cost-effectiveness of the goods themselves. Therefore, to improve the performance of standard supermarkets, it is essentially necessary to strengthen product research and development and supply chain system construction.

(Wang Huawei is a pseudonym in this article)

WeChat Editor| Ziang