In the past two years, discount stores for temporary products have become one of the most popular offline retail formats. Evian mineral water for 1 yuan, Yuanqi Forest sparkling water for 3 yuan, Oreo for 6 yuan, Frappuccino coffee for 11.9 yuan... attract young people to buy. Many people regard it as a kind of leisure and entertainment behavior, "finding happiness in saving money" and improving the quality of life to a certain extent.
According to the report of iiMedia Consulting , the market size of expired food alone (referring to food that has entered the critical period of shelf life but is still within the safety range) reached 31.8 billion yuan last year, and is expected to maintain a growth rate of 6%. It will exceed 40 billion yuan by 2025.
Some research institutions predict that the narrow market space of China’s discount retail (excluding discount products of comprehensive e-commerce) will exceed 400 billion yuan. On this 100 billion track, a large number of brands are emerging, such as Heitegou, Dongluoxisou, Boom Boom Mart, Xiaoxiang Life and so on.
hotmaxx is one of the best. It has raised 5 rounds of financing in less than 3 years. Investors include Jinshajiang Venture Capital , Wuyuan Capital, etc. As of the end of last year, its valuation had increased more than 100 times, reaching US$500 million. To give a brief introduction, this is a specialty store chain brand under Shanghai Xinguo Technology. It was formerly known as "TuiTuiMou". Its business is mainly online distribution, but its operating conditions are mediocre.
In April 2020, the company transformed its offline stores into Duotou with a discount store atmosphere, and planned to clear out the remaining goods. As a result, it sold for 100,000 yuan the next day, and the popularity lasted for more than ten days. The team that was originally planned to be disbanded unexpectedly survived and triggered the rapid expansion of a new business model.
In the early days, Good Deals mainly relied on the sales of discounted and expired food. The open warehouse sales attracted batches of passing customers. With the continuous enrichment of its own products and the rapid growth of the number of stores, it is no longer a temporary food store, but a multi-category discount retail chain.
As Fan Zhifeng, a member of the founding team of Haoteemai, said: "If the temporary food store only sells temporary products, it will be the sewer of the brand." Simply put, the temporary label is just a means of diversion, and daily chemicals, skin care, liquor and even blind brands Boxes are a powerful tool to increase customer unit price. This move can be described as "killing three birds with one stone". It collects the merchant's promotion fees, profits from product price differences, and income from expired food. Annual sales have reached billions. In
's stores with good sales, only a small part of the products are actually expired products, and the shelf life is not short. The products are mainly snacks and drinks, supplemented by skin care products, daily chemicals, drinks, condiments, etc. Most of them are second- and third-tier brands, including Hongtaiji, Yangshengji, Liziyuan , Xinnonge , etc., as well as some lesser-known foreign brands.
According to the "Top 20 Chinese Discount Store Chain Brands in 2022", Haoteai ranks first. It currently has 416 stores in key cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, and plans to open 5,000 stores in the next three years. Home.
It is worth mentioning that in January 2022, Suning.com opened its first discount supermarket in Ma'anshan, Anhui, and plans to open 100 this year. In addition, supermarket giants such as Yonghui , Jiajiayue , Renrenle , and Hema are also making plans.
Of course, while the industry is rapidly expanding, it is also facing many uncertainties, such as food safety and quality issues, and the unstable supply of goods has become increasingly prominent. The operators of discount stores have a weak voice in the industry chain and can only bear the one-way products that are eliminated by the upstream. As big data analysis becomes more mature, dealers and retailers’ sales estimates become increasingly accurate, and the trend of out-of-stock products is irreversible. When some brands with guaranteed quality and familiarity to consumers are often out of stock, good sellers can only place their hope in white-label and imported brands with lower costs and greater room for premiums. This is both an opportunity and a challenge.
In the final analysis, food on expiry date is not a new concept, it is actually the last stock on clearance. However, with the emergence of discount stores, the long-standing industry pattern of no brand and low concentration may be rewritten.But how long this wind can blow remains to be seen.
