Discount Retail Chain PENNY (owned by REWE Group) opened store in Otopeni has a very special roof: approximately 40% is covered with photovoltaic panels, and the rest is grassy, ​​with acclimatized plants, which do not need irrigation or maintenance. In addition, it has 55 solar tubes, which capture natural light and carry it inside, transforming it into a diffused light, which does not create strong contrast, thus avoiding the risk of damaging the products. PENNY Otopeni is the first project for Penny to achieve the "Outstanding" level on the latest version of the BREEAM standard for new constructions. And the score obtained, 95.24%, is currently the highest score given for this version of the standard, BREEAM New Construction 2016. After 6 months of activity, the operation of the store was verified and using the newly launched version for existing buildings, BREEAM In-Use V6. A few more adjustments were made, obtaining a new record score in the world, 99.4%. On the market for sustainable buildings, the best known certification systems are BREEAM (UK) and LEED (USA). The two standards are similar, both implementing sustainable development practices. Of the 194 BREEAM certified projects in Romania, only 7 buildings received the "Outstanding" level, the highest level of certification. Adrian Pop, ADP green building architect, who coordinated the entire consulting and certification project, says that PENNY Otopeni is one of the most environmentally friendly stores in the world, where all the recommendations of the British standard have been experienced. PENNY Otopeni is a research project. All measures that prove to be beneficial and economically feasible will be taken over in future PENNY stores. There are also natural light sensors on the roof that adjust the intensity of artificial light in the store, so as to maintain a constant level of lighting. That is, when the supply of natural light becomes cloudy and decreases, the intensity of artificial light increases, and vice versa, thus ensuring visual comfort for the store's customers and reducing electricity consumption. Closed refrigerated cabinets were used, for the thermal comfort of the store's customers. The car park is equipped with chargers for electric cars and, next to the entrance, bicycle racks. Under the parking lot is a large rainwater retention basin, which is reused in toilets and for irrigation. An innovation is represented by the markings for visually impaired people, who lead visitors from the entrance to the site to the store. Along with the PENNY Store in Otopeni, another 80 green projects in Romania are signed by ADP green building. But beyond creating a healthy living environment and a low impact on the environment, the key advantage of an "Outstanding" certified building is that it can achieve reductions of up to 40% in energy and resource consumption. Through such investments, buildings become healthier, with less energy consumption, more environmentally friendly and more resilient to climate change or other unforeseen situations such as a health crisis. See here for more: https://www.businessmagazin.ro/actualitate/unul-dintre-cele-mai-verzi-magazine-din-lume-la-noi-in-tara-19952950

Among the brick-and-mortar retail categories, supermarkets and grocery discount retailers are hit hardest amid the upheavals of the pandemic. After four years of near-stable customer satisfaction, the industry’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) score dives 2.6% to 76. As with other retail categories, the decline is widespread, with 17 of 20 major grocers posting lower scores year over year. Prior to the pandemic, many traditional grocers were already moving into the online grocery space, facing stiff competition from Amazon and Walmart. Post-COVID-19, online shopping, pickup, and delivery all gained popularity. U.S. sales of grocery delivery and pickup grew from US$1.2 billion in August 2019 to US$5.9 billion in November 2020. Moving into 2021, Kroger continues to build automated customer fulfillment centers for filling online grocery orders in partnership with Ocado. Meanwhile, Ahold Delhaize recently completed its acquisition of the majority share in New York City-based online grocer FreshDirect. Still, many shoppers continue to patronize physical stores, even during the pandemic. With the onset of COVID-19, consumer shopping patterns morphed almost overnight. In some cases, grocers encountered declines in store visits, but average transaction sizes grew. Panic buying caused shortages of household items like hand sanitizer and toilet paper. In grocery carts, nonperishable staples took over as consumers stocked pantries. As shelves emptied, shoppers took notice. ACSI data show that customer opinions about merchandise availability take the biggest hit in 2020. Overall, shoppers find less to be happy about across the entire range of grocery retail customer experience elements. Nevertheless, the grocery retail industry remains home to some of the highest-scoring companies in the Retail sector. Most of the grocers that led in customer satisfaction in 2019 are weathering the challenges of 2020 better than many lower-scoring chains. The top of the supermarket industry and indeed the top of the entire Retail sector belongs to Trader Joe’s (owned by German discount chain Aldi Nord) with a high and stable ACSI score of 84. The areas where Trader Joe’s does particularly well show no signs of strain. The company continues to knock it out of the park for staff courtesy and helpfulness, and its checkout speed stays best in class. Four companies tie for second place with scores of 82 that also place them ahead of all other retailers in the sector. Costco, H-E-B, Publix, and Wegmans display stronger levels of customer satisfaction and less satisfaction erosion than most chains in 2020. Among these stores, Publix ticks off the most wins across the customer experience, including store cleanliness and layout. The remaining top-tier performer from 2019, Aldi, runs into some headwinds, dropping 4% to tie with a stable Sam’s Club (Walmart) at 80. Like Trader Joe’s, hard-discounter Aldi offers a limited assortment of mostly private-label brand products, and the two chains remain the industry’s value leaders. Their lack of name brands isn’t an issue for these chains’ customers who are among the most loyal, along with Publix and H-E-B shoppers. Like Aldi, seven other companies endure significant declines in customer satisfaction. The grocery business of BJ’s Wholesale Club tumbles 5% to 78, losing its 4% gain (and more) from 2019. BJ’s also declines in the department and discount store category. The company reported a strong fiscal 2020 second quarter, with elevated rates in membership growth. For BJ’s, one challenge will be improving customer satisfaction to retain those new members. Kroger and ShopRite retreat by 4% and 5%, respectively, to match the industry average of 76. For both grocers, customer satisfaction has not been this low since 2015. At the low end of the industry, a trio of big decliners now languish further behind the industry average than they did in 2019. Southeastern Grocers slides 4% to 73, while Giant Eagle plummets 5% to 72. Southeastern Grocers is in the process of divesting its Bi-Lo brand to focus on its remaining banners, including Winn-Dixie. Albertsons Companies also shows a steep ACSI drop, losing 5% to hit rock bottom at 71. Together, the Safeway and Albertsons banners account for roughly 60% of the company’s interviews in the 2020 ACSI survey. The bad news for Albertsons Companies is that some of its other measured brands score even lower than 71 for shopper satisfaction. Overall, the company exhibits the steepest year-over-year decline in customer perceptions of value. Among the traditional retail categories, the supermarket customer experience is hurting the most. Every aspect is less pleasing than a year ago, and 8 out of 13 customer experience elements worsen by 4% or more. The industry’s top ratings are convenience of hours and locations (both 81). Most other elements slide below the excellent level of 80 and above seen in 2019. Store layout and cleanliness suffers, as does the freshness of meat and produce (both -4% to 79). Brand names are scarcer (-2% to 79) and merchandise selection is less robust (-3% to 78). Merchandise availability, or lack thereof, is even more irksome to customers (-5% to 76). Sales and promotions fail to hit the mark as well (-4% to 76). As more supermarket customers turn to mobile apps during the pandemic, they are more disappointed than customers in other brick-and-mortar retail categories. Mobile app quality falls 2%, while mobile app reliability descends 4% to meet at 79—the lowest scores in the sector. Personalized customer service erodes as staff courtesy drops 4% to 78, and call center satisfaction backpedals 4% to 75. Checkout speed remains unsatisfactory (75) but the worst part of the customer experience diminishes further. Customer assessments of the quality of pharmacy services plunge to a score of 71 (-4%). This is well off the mark compared to the health and personal care store industry’s score for pharmacy quality (79). Department and Variety Discount Retail Stores After two years of customer satisfaction stability, the department and discount store industry ebbs 1.3% to an ACSI score of 75. While customer satisfaction improvement is hard to come by among department and discount stores, this is the only retail category where two companies eke out small gains. Nevertheless, 13 out of 19 major store chains experience downturns in customer satisfaction year over year. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in earnest in March 2020, the world of brick and mortar had been long giving way to e-commerce. Predating stay-at-home orders and social distancing that kept customers away from physical stores, consumer preference for online shopping had already put a dent in foot traffic, especially at malls that house many traditional department stores. As in prior years, department and discount stores fall behind both internet retailers (78) and brick-and-mortar specialty retail stores (77), categories that also compete for the value shopper as well as vie for consumer dollars in spaces like fashion, home furnishings, electronics, and appliances. In the ACSI, scores of 80 or above are deemed excellent. The top of the industry shows that some brick-and-mortar competitors know how to please their customers, even amid the challenges of the pandemic. Costco holds first place for customer satisfaction for a fifth straight year, despite a 2% drop to 81. Costco remains the value leader in the category, and customers appreciate the cleanliness and layout of its stores, a factor that has gained new importance since COVID-19. Costco continues to outpace both Walmart’s Sam’s Club (-2% to 79) and BJ’s Wholesale Club (-3% to 77), although all three warehouse clubs score well above the industry average for shopper satisfaction. In second place, Nordstrom (which includes Nordstrom Rack) manages to gain a point in 2020, up 1% to an ACSI score of 80. Nordstrom is one of the few retailers to show improvement across several aspects of the customer experience, including staff courtesy and helpfulness where it now rates best in class. Nordstrom continues to push an omnichannel approach, including the expansion of its online pickup services to hundreds of Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack outlets. According to ACSI data, however, the off-price Nordstrom Rack brand, which the company considers its biggest source of new customers shows ample room for improvement. Indeed, customer satisfaction for the company overall would be much higher if not for Nordstrom Rack’s far lower ACSI score. In third place, Dillard’s inches up 1% to 79. Besides Nordstrom, Dillard’s is the only retailer in the entire sector to post an ACSI gain, albeit a slight one. Customers consider Dillard’s an industry leader when it comes to both variety and availability of merchandise. Next in line, Kohl’s and TJX (Marshalls and TJ Maxx) both slip 1% to scores of 78, while Macy’s follows closely behind at 77 (-1%). Kohl’s strength remains its ability to provide discounted merchandise. The company stands head and shoulders above all other stores for its frequency of sales and promotions, according to customers. A logjam of retailers post scores of 76, including the group of smaller stores (-4%). Along with Target, two of the industry’s oldest department store banners, Belk and JCPenney, fade 3% to scores of 76. JCPenney filed for bankruptcy in May 2020 and then emerged under new ownership in December with plans to close up to 200 stores. Customers are already much less happy with JCPenney’s locations and store hours, factors that will only continue to worsen. Belk’s plans to reinvent its store model to appeal to younger buyers while retaining its loyal customers were shelved when the pandemic hit. With customer satisfaction now reaching a low point, the company is restructuring under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Among the low-end performers, variety discounter Dollar Tree suffers the biggest decline—down 4% to its all-time low of 74. While the company has been investing in store renovations to improve the variety discounter Family Dollar side of its business, ACSI data show that Family Dollar still lags the namesake Dollar Tree brand for customer satisfaction. Rival variety discounter Dollar General also loses ground with customers in 2020, falling 3% to share the bottom of the category at 71. Walmart, with two decades of below-average performance, stays in last place with an unchanged score of 71. For Walmart, service quality remains a serious issue. The company rates worst in class for both staff courtesy and checkout speed by wide margins. For the department and discount store industry, the customer experience is a mixed bag in 2020, with some elements worsening while others improve. As more customers shift to online shopping during the pandemic, the industry’s mobile apps continue to perform well. With scores of 81 for both quality and reliability, mobile apps are the best part of the customer experience. Website satisfaction worsens, however, falling 3% to 77. Customers still find the industry’s store hours to be convenient, although less so with the pandemic restrictions of 2020 (-2% to 80). As in 2019, shoppers find store locations (78) less satisfying than store hours—a situation that is unlikely to improve as store closings are expected to continue in 2021. Store layout and cleanliness continues to lag specialty stores (81), but customers see slight improvement as department and discount stores enforce new standards under COVID-19 (77). While inventory stocks are more disappointing (74), brand names are somewhat more available (76). After a large drop one year ago, the courtesy and helpfulness of staff is dismal at 74—by far the lowest score among the retail categories. Sales and promotions remain a sore point, dipping further to 73. Call centers struggle, falling 3% to the low score of 72. And while emptier stores may have helped speed up the checkout process, this remains the worst aspect of in-store shopping (72). See here for more: https://www.theacsi.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=147&catid=&Itemid=212&i=Supermarkets

Discount Retail Chain ALDI SÜD Gruppe wants to 'Make sustainability affordable to our customers': this ambitious vision is at the heart of its new global Corporate Responsibility Strategy. Following its discount principle and collaborating closely with its supply chain partners, the #ALDI SÜD Gruppe aims at contributing to the democratization of sustainable products, while tackling global challenges in terms of respecting human rights, improving resource efficiency, realising zero carbon emissions and being an employer of choice. The new ALDI SÜD Gruppe Corporate Responsibility (CR) Strategy applies a targeted approach to the global sustainability core issues which are most pressing and where the discounter can have the most positive impact on people and the planet. It consists of four international focus areas, respecting human rights, improving resource efficiency, realising zero carbon, and being the employer of choice. In detail, it contains eleven long-term objectives including increasing supply chain transparency, expanding measures to respect human rights, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions within our own operations as well as those of our business partners in the supply chain. The new strategy will also see ALDI increasing the number of products with sustainability certification, placing an emphasis on sustainable product design, promoting responsible water management and deforestation-free supply chains, reducing packaging and food waste and recycling waste material, and providing a great place to work. Most of the objectives were identified through detailed environmental and human rights assessments in our supply chains. The global CR strategy is complemented by additional national focus areas, which concentrate on giving all customers access to healthy products and supporting local communities through charity partnerships. All these activities together contribute to the overall vision of making sustainability affordable to every customer and applies to the eleven countries of the ALDI SÜD Gruppe. “Our ambitious goals require close cooperation with both our business partners and the retail industry. Together we can overcome global challenges and ensure that ALDI can contribute to the democratization of sustainable products, make them affordable, and bring them into any household and onto everybody’s plate.” #AnkeEhlers, Managing Director of Corporate Responsibility International at the ALDI SÜD Gruppe Building a new strategy on strong foundations A responsible approach to the environment and natural resources as well as the adherence to social standards and human rights have been an integral part of the ALDI SÜD Gruppe business activities for over a decade. For the implementation of its new ten-year strategy, ALDI will further build upon its experience in sustainability partnerships, responsible purchasing and efficient operations, as the following examples show: Our two Corporate Responsibility offices in Asia (Hong Kong and Bangladesh) enable close cooperation with our suppliers to ensure compliance with our high social standards in Asian sourcing countries. Our ALDI Factory Advancement (AFA) Project places factory workers and managers at the centre of its activities to find sustainable solution for improving workplaces. To date, approximately 85,000 workers and their managers in 40 participating factories have experienced positive change. Our ALDI Detox engagement has reduced the negative impacts of chemical-based production processes in the textile and footwear industry on workers, local communities and the environment. Eleven groups of hazardous chemicals used in the manufacturing processes were phased out or replaced with safer alternatives. Our ‘Science Based Targets’ for climate protection published in July 2020 aim to reduce our overall operational emissions by 26% by the end of 2025. Our business partners are encouraged to also work towards setting science-based emissions targets. Our strong belief is that the best way to protect the people and the planet is through joint initiatives and partnerships. For this reason, we engage in more than 30+ multi-stakeholder-initiatives, 15+ working groups with other industry stakeholders and we have initiated more than 10+ projects in the origin countries of our products. Examples include Fairtrade projects to improve working conditions for cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire, coffee farmers in Honduras, or cotton suppliers in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and other projects to strengthen labour standards such as in the Vietnamese cashew nut supply chain. Our ALDI Academy supports the development of colleagues and the Global Employee Engagement Surveys gather views and feedback, so that we can provide a healthy, safe, and diverse working environment. See here for more: https://cr.aldisouthgroup.com/en/responsibility/news/sustainable-products-everybody-aldi-announces-its-global-corporate

Discount Retail Chain Tiendas 3B (owned by Anthony Hatoum and PE Group #Quilvest Capital Partners) plans to close the year with 1,350 points of sale, while expanding its coverage thanks to electronic commerce, through Mercado Libre. Supermarkets grew during the coronavirus pandemic and Tiendas 3B was no exception. In 2020 this chain of mini-supermarkets increased its number of customers, increased its sales to double digits and will maintain its expansion rate during this year. Anthony Hatoum, Lebanese founder and CEO of the chain, affirms that the company's revenues increased more than 25% at the end of 2020, as a result of its business model, which is committed to keeping prices low. This scheme, he points out, has allowed it to register similar growth in the last seven years. "In this year, which is going to be possibly difficult, any customer who is looking for value and who wants his money to go more, is a potential new customer for 3B Stores," he says. 3B Stores opened its first unit in the country's capital in 2005, after Hatoum moved to Mexico from Turkey. Now, its stores, which do not exceed 300 square meters, are located in the colonies of 12 states of the Mexican Republic, among them Guanajuato, Querétaro, Jalisco, the State of Mexico and Guerrero. This year, the chain is preparing to open 150 more stores to add 1,350 at the end of the year, in addition to its nine distribution centers. Without revealing the investment amount, Hatoum explains that the location of these branches will follow the organic and “circular” growth that has caused the company to expand through the central region of the country from Mexico City. The founder of the chain considers that proximity was one of the keys that led to attracting new customers to his sales floor during the lockdown. In other words, it was easier for consumers to buy basic products in their mini-supermarkets, without leaving their neighborhoods to visit other larger-format stores. “You can walk to a 3B Store and you can go every day,” he says. Tiendas 3B "Good, nice and cheap" are the 'three bs' that Mexicans look for when buying a product. The director of 3B Stores considers that the value offer of its business model is based on offering good quality products at low prices. To achieve this, the company maintains a restricted range of products so that consumers can only find items from the leading brands in their best-selling format on their shelves and, along with them, private label merchandise from 70 business partners at a still price. lower. We recommend: The supermarket does not offer offers for buyers and accepts only cash payments, to save the commission of banks or other digital payment platforms. “This is our policy. Always give the customer the best that we can. It's part of gaining customer trust, ”he says. Proximity stores are a format that large chains such as Walmart, Soriana and Chedraui have also explored in Mexico, with their Bodega Express, Soriana Express and Supercito formats, respectively, and that allow them to approach shoppers looking for the lowest prices . This is a scheme that, in fact, they have promoted during the last year. Walmart closed last year with 1,133 Bodegas Express, the format that has driven its growth the most, as happened in the last quarter of 2020, when it opened 20 units of this format out of a total of 35 new units. Until September of last year, Soriana had 104 Soriana Express and Chedraui had 39 Supercitos, according to data from the latest financial reports filed with the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV). “Mexico is a very competitive market in this sector, much more than any other country I know. But it is such a large country, with such a large, dynamic market that there is room for two, three or four players in this area of ​​local stores. There is room for everyone and this benefits the customer at the end of the day, ”declares Hatoum. The surprise of e-commerce Online sales are a segment that Tiendas 3B boosted with the contingency of Mercado Libre. The online store within the company's marketplace achieved strong growth because it had a very small base, but what has surprised the Lebanese businessman the most is that they have orders from cities where they do not have coverage, such as Tijuana. Even with good results on the digital platform, Hatoum explains that for now it will not launch its own online store. The businessman points out that the costs of the logistics chain would be a barrier to his low price policy. “I prefer to sell in stores at the lowest price. I think that the market for the moment is here, it is what the client asks for. But the day you ask to buy more online, we turn to that channel in two seconds," he warns. See here for more: https://expansion.mx/empresas/2021/02/22/tiendas-3b-abrira-150-tiendas-mientras-mira-al-e-commerce-de-reojo

Discount Retail Variety Chain Ross Stores remains committed to growing the national footprint of its two store banners in fiscal 2021, but at a more modest pace compared to recent years when it routinely opened some 100 stores annually. The off-pricer opened four Ross stores and three dd's Discounts stores across five different states in February and March. The openings are part of the approximately 60 new stores, 40 Ross Dress for Less and 20 dd’s Discounts locations, that Ross plans to open during fiscal 2021. “With regard to our expansion plans, we remain very optimistic about our longer-term growth opportunities,” stated CEO Barbara Rentler. “That said, we planned a more moderate pace of store openings this year, especially in the spring.” On the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call, Rentler said that, looking long-term, Ross and dd's are both well-positioned in the off-price sector as consumers continue to favor retailers focused on delivering both value and convenience. Ross Stores currently operates 1,866 Ross Dress for Less locations and dd's Discounts locations across 40 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam. “As we look out over the long-term, we remain confident that Ross can grow to 2,400 store locations and dd's Discounts can become a chain of 600 stores given consumers' ongoing focus on value and convenience,” said Gregg McGillis, group executive VP, property development. Last week, Ross reported that its sales for the fourth quarter totaled US$4.25 billion, down from US$4.41 in the year-ago period. Same-store sales fell 6% amid the upsurge of COVID-19 during the holiday selling season. “While our fourth quarter sales exceeded our expectations, the upsurge of the virus resulted in lower traffic, especially in California, our largest state, where we were subject to more stringent occupancy and operating hour restrictions,” said Rentler. The company’s board has authorized the reinstatement of the quarterly cash dividend at a rate of US$0.285 per share. This quarterly dividend is payable on March 31, 2021 to stockholders of record as of March 16, 2021. “The resumption of our dividend payout in 2021 reflects our strong cash position and confidence in the company’s long-term prospects,” Rentler said.

Retail group InRetail (OTC PINK: INREF) continues to invest massively in its Tiendas Mass discount store format in the Peruvian market for the next three years, despite the current COVID19 situation. According to its financial plan for 2021-2023, InRetail reported that it plans to open 450 Tiendas Mass stores in the next three years. Each hard discount store has an average of 200 square meters of sales area. For this 2021 the firm plans to launch 150 new points of sale and the same number will open in 2022 and 2023. During its last quarterly report, InRetail announced that during 2020 it managed to open 67 new Tiendas Mass stores, reaching a total of 472 points of sale. These formats are present in Lima and Arequipa. With these actions, Tiendas Mass has become one of the fastest growing discount stores in Latin America. In its stores it has a basic range of groceries and a high penetration of its own brands, mainly its Mass and Bells labels. This, together with an efficient store operation and supply chain, allows Tiendas Mass to sell products at a better price than its competitors. The Peruvian retailer InRetail has been giving greater strength to its chain of Tiendas Mass stores. For this reason, by the year 2023 the discounter will have approximately 922 stores. His plan is also to reach new regions of the country. Tiendas Mass represents 8% of InRetail's sales in its Food Retail business division. And with the acquisition of Makro in 2020, the cash and carry format now represents 24% of its sales. Finally, Plaza Vea and Vivanda represent 68% of sales. See here for more: https://www.peru-retail.com/peru-inretail-preve-abrir-450-tiendas-mass-en-los-proximos-3-anos/

Discount Retail Chain Lidl Serbia (owned by the German Schwarz Gruppe) plans to start the construction of a large logistics center in Lapovo in the coming months, the Tanjug agency reported. The company became the owner of a plot in Lapovo on which it will build its second logistics center in Serbia. The first is located in Nova Pazova and covers an area of more than 45,000 square meters. The investment in Lapovo will have 60,000 square meters and that logistics-distribution center will be one of the largest in the Balkans. Showing the success of the Lidl format in Serbia after entering the country in 2018. See here for more: https://instore.mk/record/9/10666/lidl-kje-gradi-golem-logistichki-centar-vo-lapovo

Step-by-step Alibaba, what is going to be the largest retailer of all time, is creating a physical brick-and-mortar footprint. The retail of the future has to have a robust online, and off-line presence, for shoppers. The stronger the physical off-line presence, the more your online business will grow, and vice versa. It does not make sense to talk about channels anymore, a holistic ecosystems around shoppers have to be build. Here an overview of Alibaba's off-line presence: 1. China is a country of tea. There are hundreds of thousands of tea houses. Almost all traditional. Alibaba knows it. On March 25, Tmall's first new West Lake retail tea shop opened in Hangzhou. Traditional teas combined with black technology to make tea houses "smart." The Tmall teahouse is equipped with automated tea machines, interactive shelves, and a new generation of a smart vending machine. The smart vending machine needs the Alipay scan code to buy products, and automatically charge your Alipay account. Additionally, the teahouse uses AI to interact with consumers in the form of games, allowing them to experience the brand. 2. The Alibaba's Tmall stores are flooding China. Besides, others store chains not owned by Alibaba, but integrated into its digital ecosystem through its LST platform, are a fundamental part of Alibaba's physical store footprint. Here we are talking about 1.5 million neighborhood stores in 2021. Shao Xiong, omnichannel director of Tmall FMCG, mentioned that next year, Tmall will open 1,000 stores on campus, enter 1,000 universities across the country in three years, serve 20 million university students and create a new retail university ecosystem. According to statistics from the Ministry of Education, there are currently 2,631 colleges and universities nationwide with 26,958 million university students. 3. Intime department store, known as the first testing ground department store for new retailers, has been intelligently digitized and transformed with Alibaba technology in recent years. "Intime department store is no longer a traditional department store now." Alibaba's Jiang Xinjie recently said. In China the number of smart stores such as Intime department stores have transformed and/or cooperate with Alibaba have reached 114,500. 4. Alibaba's brick & mortar IKEA style furnishing store concept Taobao, is now also present, outside mainland China, in Singapore and Malaysia. 5. Alibaba's completely robotized off-line restaurant, Robot.He 6. The new physical fast-food concept of Alibaba: the store concept is called Freshippo Pick'n'Go. Alibaba announced that it will open 6 in strategic areas of Shanghai as a test. With Freshippo Pick'n'Go shoppers can pre-order on the Hema APP and redeem it with a mobile phone quick response code upon arrival. The average area of ​​these stores does not exceed 30 square meters, and each store has 24 trays and the average preparation time is only 130 seconds per order. The next step will be to open another 60 stores along Shanghai subway stations, covering high-density headquarters buildings, business districts, and communities, allowing more Shanghai residents to enjoy the new online economy. Alibaba will expand its physical footprint on the life path of Chinese consumers. And from there a large-scale deployment throughout mainland China. 7. Alibaba has further hundreds of off-line Hema supermarkets, in multiple formats and cities. Recently, Alibaba announced to open more than 100 convenience Hema Mini stores the upcoming months. 8. Physical Tmall car repair workshops are also opening across the country. Alibaba already has more than 100. So it can be concluded that Alibaba's theory of the physical store no longer makes sense, is completely undermined by its strategy. The best way to define the strategy of Alibaba is keep the rest unknown and become big enough to take it all. Click here for more: https://retailnewstrends.me/la-teoria-alibaba-de-que-lo-fisico-ya-no-tiene-sentido/

Discount Retail Chain Aldi China is using its high quality import product category Wine to position itself as a high quality discounter and attract the middle class customer to its stores and/ or e-commerce WeChat Mini-program. In the difficult and very competitive Chinese market, Aldi China has these irresistable deals on a wide range of delicious wines to celebrate this year’s 99 Festival (double 9), so Chinese customers can throw an unforgettable house party! This promotion can be bought in the 7 Aldi China stores or via the ALDI WeChat Mini-program.

As the world works together to overcome the COVID-19 outbreak, ALDI China continues to do its part to support the community. ALDI’s stores remain open and its teams are working hard every day to serve consumers, and ALDI is exploring more ways to give back to the community. Here are some actions that ALDI has taken to ensure the health and safety of its customers. Stores ALDI China has made it compulsory for its store team to wear masks while at work and to wash and sanitize their hands more regularly. In addition, ALDI China encourages all customers to wear masks while shopping in store. All public surfaces as well as the handlebars of the stores’ shopping trolleys are disinfected every two hours. ALDI China has also increased the frequency of cleaning the dining areas and condiment stations. Online platforms ALDI China has seen a large rise in online orders during the outbreak. To support its customers and keep ALDI’s online platforms running smoothly, ALDI readjusted the manpower of its pilot stores, hired more part-time staff and increased the manpower of its online order processing team. The customer service call center is also available during store operating hours to offer after-sales service to customers. Supply chain ALDI China is working closely with its long-term and trusted partners and vendors who share ALDI’s values and quality standards to provide high-quality products at great value for consumers. All parties have increased efforts on all fronts to support the rise in demand and keep ALDI’s stores stocked with daily necessities. ALDI China Red Cross donation As part of ALDI’s corporate social responsibility initiatives, ALDI China has donated 1 million yuan (US$140,000) to the Red Cross Society of China to support the association’s efforts in combating the COVID-19 outbreak. The donation will help people in two ways: First, part of the donation will be used to purchase 200,000 bottles of chlorine that will be distributed to hospitals and communities in Wuhan, which would benefit around 200,000 people. Second, another part of the donation will be used to purchase sterilization equipment that will be used in various districts in Wuhan and key areas such as the makeshift hospitals. Support from ALDI Global Just like how the world has banded together to fight COVID-19, so has ALDI as a global company. ALDI China received messages from ALDI offices all around the world offering support and encouragement during these difficult times, demonstrating ALDI’s unity as a company. Click here for more: https://www.shine.cn/biz/company/2003103870/

Discount Warehouse Retail Chain Winco Foods (owned by its own employees) plans a large-scale overhaul of its Boise general offices building. Winco will spend US$2.17 million to remodel the building on Armstrong Pl. off Emerald in West Boise, according to a building permit issued last month. The 71,964-foot office building will see new skylights, reconfigured walls and partitions, new exterior siding, new doorways, and a pair of exterior overhead doors. The building will also see updated interior finishes. Winco first built the building in 1999 and last updated in 2012, according to property records. The company operates more than 130 large warehouse-style grocery stores across the US. It started with a single store on Overland Rd. in Boise under the Waremart brand in 1967. Ralph Ward and Bud Williams launched the company and after their deaths, employees purchased it and formed an employee stock ownership plan in 1985. The chain at the time included 17 stores. Now, after changing its name to Winco Foods in 1999, includes 20,000 employees and operates from Oregon to Texas. It is the nation’s third-largest employee-owned company. See here for more: https://boisedev.com/news/2021/02/17/winco-foods-boise/

Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona, the market leader with a market share of 24.5%, has moved up and is thus lowering the price of some products, mainly fresh ones, such as meat, fish or vegetables, but also some white-private label packaging (see here more on private label development). The decreases are between 10 and 25% approximately and, according to the company, these are "selective" movements, which are mainly due to stock management. "At Mercadona, our daily struggle for 40 years has been to provide our bosses (the customer in the company's jargon) with products with strong quality at unbeatable prices," they explain from the company. As they say, "Always Low Prices is our strategy to have competitive prices without entering into promotional battles or aggressive offers, which in the medium term do not benefit the sector." Mercadona is forced, in any case, to make a move, so as not to lose market share, especially considering that both Lidl and Aldi are carrying out very strong sales and promotions, to which the rest of the market is also joining. Although, according to data from the consulting firm KantarWorldpanel, Mercadona maintains the first position in the market, it closed with the first drop in its history, of 1.1% points. Lidl, on the other hand, won half a point and took third place from Dia, reaching 6.1%, very close to Carrefour, which maintains the second position with 8.4% share. Florencio García, Director of Retail at Kantar, has no doubt that the increases in the price of the shopping basket in recent months are going to give rise to a very different situation. Before new descents "We expect to see price wars in the coming weeks," he says, explaining that although a greater promotional pressure is already being seen in the market, although "the consumer has not yet perceived" that drastic drop in prices, especially after the increase in prices registered. during the pandemic. NielsenIQ data show, in fact, that during the last year, and due to increased costs and logistics difficulties during confinement, the price of fresh products rose by 5.5% and that of packaged by 0.4 %. Lidl has made permanent drops of up to 50% in more than 360 own brand and manufacturer products, the assortment of which will also expand in the coming weeks, according to the company, "to further facilitate purchases by Spanish households." From the group they insist that "these drops complement the policy of discounts and promotions that the supermarket chain already applies on a regular basis to always offer its customers the cheapest shopping basket" and in the market they fear that they may go every time more, thus forcing a general reduction in margins. In the same vein too, Aldi has announced strong drops. From this chain they explain that "while the prices of packaged products increased on average in 2020 by 1.5% due to inflation, in Aldi prices were contained and inflation remained at 0.6%, this being the most market drop. " In data from the company itself, which analyzes the price of all its products compared individually, during the last year there was a reduction of 0.75% compared to the previous year. Dia, which is remodeling its stores and seeks to distinguish itself from the image of hard discount, has fallen for the moment to fourth place, losing 0.6% points and keeping 5.8% of participation. Regional chains Those who are best managing the current crisis situation, in any case, are not the chains specialized in discounts, but regional ones, such as Uvesco, Alimerka, Ahorramás, Gadisa or Consum, among others. Kantarworld panel does not break down its participation individually, but together these companies add up to 14.3%, which is 2.1 points more than a year earlier. In the sector they explain that "due to the mobility problems that have occurred, they are the ones that have come out the most strengthened, with growth in sales and profits." See here for more: https://igomeze.blogspot.com/2021/02/mercadona-baja-precios-pero-descarta.html?m=1