Покупаем в Selgros: Выбор максимальный, цены ОПТималные!

On September 30, 2010, a new store opened in Altufevo: SELGROS CASH&CARRY. SELGROS already had 4 stores in Russia including now 2 in Moscow (the first one opened in Vnukovo in March 2010). FEGRO / SELGROS (from Germany) is an international network of wholesalers offering a wide range of food (more than 20,000 items of food)and nonfood products at competitive wholesale prices. SELGROS stores (to 10,000 square meters) as a format, could be compared to METRO stores.
SELGROS Altufevo is located in the same catchment area as Auchan (2mn), and is crossing METRO area (5mn by car): competition is increasing...And the number of clients there on Friday at 9.00 in the morning shows that SELGROS is already attractive.

We appreciated opening hours (24/24), easy access, the way of registration (simple, quick and easy), the large range of nonfood products, signage, marketing operations (we received a 10% coupon when presenting our receipt at the service desk, valid next January in SELGROS) .

We less appreciated store plan (messy and confusing for such a big surface), congested aisles (somewhere forgivable due to an 24/24 opening), food sectors (less qualitative and closer range of products than in METRO stores), back to town (turn left at the intersection prohibited).

Let's go and make your own opinion...

CHRISTMAS WINDOWS in Moscow (1)



The “Yakimanka” Children Gallery  (Детский Мир group)



Auchan Altufievo: back on stage?

For some time Auchan Altufievo was declining: aging and dirty store, in an not so attractive mall, offering narrower ranges of products (out of stock ?), ... Add to that a really unconvenient access (near the Dmitrovsskoe chosse): better go to Perekrestok ( т.ц. Маркос Молл) which just opened on Altufievo street or in НАШ hypermarket, which is located 5 minutes from Auchan. But I must admit that  Auchan Altufievo made visible efforts to improve its store. Finally! Buildings here are declining fast (due to the nice climate..), competition is not sleeping and customers are not loyal ...

So, what's new?
Extension of non-food department, reorganization by universe (eg textile department, with reinforcing the presence of  Auchan brand  "In Extenso" ), new plans (the ray video games), new sectors and more qualitative merchandising : Auchan Altufievo is coming back on stage.

Do retailers really understand customers expectations?

Back from France I am wondering if retailers really take care about customers or if they set up changes they want and call them " customers benefits". How can we believe that customers are happy to think about taking their shopping bags with them, not to forget and have their coin for the trolley, check out themselves products, put themselves those products in their bags when cashier is trying to win speed records, bring back the trolley to its place,...? When everybody is talking about shopping and pleasure, or about stores 100% dedicated to customers (cf Group Carrefour and their Carrefour planet), it seems that we are away from this purpose.
Dayling shopping is definitly not a pleasure or rarely. Taking care about clients and their wishes will basically consist in simplifying their life. Take for example Carrefour new concept: what is really new and what is really useful to customers? Welcome desk? Kid's garden?Loyalty card? Internet? Nothing brand-new...Amazing services: "freshness", "quality of the products", "satisfaction"..is that really customers benefits or just what should be? Apparently hypermarkets simply forgot what does the word " client" mean...
For sure you can find new services but are they really matching customers expectations?Hairdresser, customers meetings, umbrellas...: as many services that will not work within a couple of years.
Customers need real support in their daily, boring shopping and money should exactly be invested where hypermarkets are now cutting budget. What first makes supermarkets or hypermarkets a pleasant place, where we want to come back? Human beings. We want to meet people in store even if this has a cost. And I am not sure that prices went down thanks to human cuttings.
Hypermarkets should focus on basics and stop thinking about hypermarket of the future. Only simple and true things are lasting.

RETAIL>Mosmart stands out!

Still with a clear positionning (cf article on Mosmart free labels) Mosmart launched a new outdoor communication: clear, simple, effective. On a white background, just one product name or very basic picture of the product and one  very attractive price (visible and low). The message is clear (since there is only one): Mosmart offers very low prices. A real nice stroke of advertising! Others have better be careful...

RETAIL> No parking, no business

Mix marketing is like a recipe: you have ingredients (4P: Product, Price, Place, Promotion) and you should mix the right quantities of each to get a sweet cake! If you do not put the right ingredient or not the right quantity, you will certainly alter the result. This leads me to ask myself a question about all those supermarkets growing in Moscow and its suburbs ( Perkerestok, Sedmoi continent, Viktoria..): not so big formats but not so small (from 800 to 1600 square meters), interesting range of products….but no parking place (or so few, often no more than 20,always busy and difficult to access, that it is difficult to call that a parking). First answer, confirmed after observation: most of their customers are “by feet customers”. Great, although I wonder how such formats can live with only “by feet customers” (low average basket as one customer cannot carry more than 2 or 3 bags)… But then I discovered that all those stores are doing outdoor advertising in the closest big avenue, more crossed by cars than by pedestrians…I should have missed something...but I am not the only one. Retailers developing such formats should rethink their positioning and review clients’ area and cars use ( more and more Russians have got a car, growing number of people living in suburbs). I am sure that this type of supermarkets is not only attracting pedestrians. But parking is then one of the key of the business.

Retail communication does not mean innovation

“One product, one price” : this seems to be the magic formula among retailers. Today in Moscow all retailers decided to communicate on the same way…and often as well in the same place. A great idea for differentiating and make sure that nobody notice your ad! Take for example Altufiesskoe avenue: quite all retailers are at that moment present there with outdoor communication: Victoria with pineapples, IKEA with storage furnitures, O’KEY with tyres, TexnoSila with juice extractor ,Carroussel with caviar, Baxetle with Mozart Chocolates (wrong choice, this year is Chopin centenary!), MVideo and washing mashine, Decathlon and rollers, Mosmart and tulips…: everything for the Spring customer in one road! But just think that messages can be polluted by too many hoardings. At this step isn’t it time to think more about quality than quantity (better place, more visible, more creative advert…)?

RETAIL>"Free labels"in Russia: thank you Mosmart!

In 1976 French retailer Carrefour disrupted retail sector in France by launching its “free labels” (“produits libres”): basic products like bread, oil, flour..at low prices (16-29% lower than national brands.), without brand name but just the name of the product (bread, oil, flour, coffee…)

A real success, supported by a strong advertising campaign: “Tasty too, but cheaper” . Carrefour wanted to get free from national labels and signed the beginning of private labels in France.

30 years later in Russia retailer Mosmart took the same initiative and attack the lower price segment with the label “Лучшая цена” ("best price"). Nothing to do with “private labels” (Mosmart has got as well its private label “Mosmart” for around 1000 products) like НАШ products or imported Auchan products. «Лучшая цена”, this is more than 300 products (Carrefour started in 1976 with 50 products and went to 100 products when they stopped free labels in 1985) with very simple packaging, just name of the product and low prices.

Почему всё сам?

"Почему я должен сам собирать свою мебель? Почему я должен сам доставлять свою мебель? Почему я должен сам убирать свою посуду?"

Ограничение службы не проблема. IKEA очень хорошо работает в этом направлении и оправдывает отсутствие службы по борьбе за низких цен. Пока ничего ненормального. Вопрос позиционирования. Но мы обязательно должны оправдать всегда это отсутствие услуги ?

« Кто извиняется, обвиняет себя»...

Cross merchandising: ridicule does not kill!

Based on consumers usage patterns, cross merchandising is generally implemented by stores in order to generate additionnal revenue. It could work as reminders for customers: you will find batteries next to electronics item, coffee filters near coffee itself or coffee machines... But cross merchanding is often misused or overused (as all new concepts) and could lead to ridiculous situations. Better then not to use it...

Crazy association:

Cross merchandising in press sector: just on the target...

«БАХЕТЛЕ» — ЗНАЧИТ «СЧАСТЛИВЫЙ»

Did you ever go shopping in supermarkets «БАХЕТЛЕ» ? I would like to highlight and promote this chain of supermarkets, coming from Kazan and having now 4 stores in Moscow (http://www.bahetle.com/). Stores are clean, well kept, offer is large (you can find as well a large offer of "homemade"products) and attractive, products are tasty, employees are nice, service is really satisfying...just, as usual, difficult to park there. Just try it...

What does the client want?

Developing and managing your client capital: this is one of your daily stakes. Client is the key and he has to be satisfied; everybody now knows it and understands why. Difficulty lies in what should be done to achieve best client satisfaction. The notion of service seems here to be in the middle of discussions.

Negative impact on shoppers’ behavior

A lot of consumers’ studies about stores' environment do focus today mainly on positive impacts on shoppers' behavior; it might be worthwhile to spend some time on negative ones as well. Unpleasant feeling, discomfort during shopping time, might result from several direct causes like crowd, dirtiness... and those will immediately affect sales. I would like to focus on those hidden messages received or felt by customers in stores, which turn their shopping time into real stress.