Xinhua Net Financial Observer | Offline "Hard Discount" Supermarkets Gain Popularity

During the National Day holiday, Aunt Wang, who lives in Beijing's Shijingshan District, discovered a new discount supermarket near her community. The milk she often buys was even cheaper than online, and the production dates were very fresh; the prices of eggs, fruits, and vegetables on the shelves were so affordable that she couldn't resist buying a few extra items.

Reporters have noted that in recent years, this type of supermarket focusing on low prices has been appearing more frequently in neighborhoods. Unlike the periodic "special promotions" of traditional supermarkets or the "soft discounts" that rely on near-expiry or end-of-line products, they achieve "everyday low prices" through "hard discounts" by restructuring supply chains, reducing intermediate links, and optimizing operational efficiency.

The involvement of internet companies has continued to boost the popularity of the "hard discount" model. On September 30, Alibaba's Hema's affordable community supermarket "Chaohésuàn NB" welcomed a new wave of store openings, with 13 stores launching on the same day. By the end of September, the total number of stores had reached nearly 330. On the same day, Meituan's hard discount brand "Happy Monkey" opened its third store in Hangzhou, with each store offering about 1,200 products, including over 300 private-label items. JD.com's JD Discount Supermarket follows a "large store + wide assortment" strategy. Its store in Zhuozhou, Hebei, covers a business area of 5,000 square meters and offers more than 5,000 products, focusing on one-stop family shopping. On September 25, the JD Discount Supermarket in Gu'an, Hebei, opened for business, marking the sixth store JD.com has opened nationwide since August.

Regional supermarkets are also accelerating their transformations. Wumart has opened eight "Wumart Value" stores in Beijing, with each store carrying no more than 1,300 products, over 60% of which are private-label items. On September 26, Zhongbai Group simultaneously opened 51 "hard discount" stores in core areas such as Wuhan and Huangshi in Hubei Province. The number of products per store was reduced from over 3,000 to about 1,400, with an overall price reduction of 20%.

In fact, "hard discounts" are not a new concept in some overseas markets. For example, the German retail brand ALDI was founded as early as 1913 and has been operating for over a century. After entering the Chinese market in 2019, ALDI expanded in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and other areas, and has opened 77 stores as of this year.

In some regions, "hard discount" supermarket brands have gradually achieved scale. The Hunan brand Lerle has opened over 1,000 stores since its establishment in 2011; "Ai Zhekou," originating from Tianjin, has opened about 50 stores in Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, Anhui, and other provinces; and "Tiaoma Wholesale," which focuses on the Chongqing market, has established about 200 stores.