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Tag: Hero supermarket

  • Hanoi supermarkets limit customer numbers

    Hanoi supermarkets limit customer numbers

    Many supermarkets in Hanoi are starting to impose social distancing, limiting the number of customers and the volume of foodstuffs they buy.

    BigC Thang Long Supermarket stipulated that each customer is allowed to buy a maximum three-egg blisters a day, while the respective rate at MM Mega Market is five egg blisters.

    Aeon Mall Ha Dong announced each shopper could buy 30 chicken eggs each time. Its egg price currently stands at VND3,000 ($0.13) per egg, up VND300-400 against a week earlier.

    In supermarkets across Hanoi, most essential groceries like fresh vegetables and fruits are abundant. Only poultry eggs are insufficient from time to time, so many supermarkets have limited the number of eggs customers may buy.

    A shopper named Le in Cau Giay District said: “After going to the third supermarket, I managed to buy two egg blisters. It is very hard to buy eggs this time,” he said.

    Go!Market Supermarket in Thanh Xuan District announced it had limited the number of people entering its premises at once. Shoppers are required to make health declarations online or via QR code scans, have temperature checks, sanitize their hands, receive coupons, and queue for entry. Every 10 minutes, supermarket staff would guide a group of customers to enter it.

    Supermarkets in Hanoi were taking stricter measures to prevent and combat Covid-19, after some wholesales markets and supermarkets in the capital were closed down due to pandemic impacts.

    Since Hanoi imposed social distancing to fight Covid-19, Thanh, a resident of Tan Trieu Commune, Thanh Tri District, Hanoi has visited the local market or a nearby supermarket once a week. Earlier, she went shopping every other day.

    On Sunday, her residential area gave each household a coupon for shopping at the local market or nearby supermarkets thrice a week at fixed time frames of 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. till 9 p.m.

    Many other districts of Hanoi have distributed coupons to families so they could buy essential goods at markets, supermarkets and convenience stores on odd or even days at fixed time frames.

    Hanoi has recorded 1,457 Covid-19 cases in the ongoing wave. The city is on its 10th day of a 15-day strict social distancing campaign.

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  • Hero Supermarket Indonesian retailer unloads convenience stores

    Hero Supermarket Indonesian retailer unloads convenience stores

    Indonesian retailer Hero Supermarket on Wednesday said it will sell its poorly performing Starmart convenience store business to local food conglomerate Wings Group.

    Hero is selling about 80 Starmart outlets to Fajar Mitra Indah, a unit of Wings Group and the franchisee of Japan’s FamilyMart convenience stores in the country. The move follows the closure of 50 Starmart stores in 2015. In a press release, Hero said it will pull out entirely from the convenience store business. The sale will have no material impact on the company’s finances, it added. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

    A Startmart outlet in Jakarta

    Fajar Mitra plans to convert 50 of the Starmart stores to FamilyMarts by the end of the year, which will help raise the number of FamilyMart stores to around 80, according to a person familiar with the matter.

    Starmart has been struggling to compete against the top two local brands, Alfamart and Indomaret, which run about 10,000 outlets each and are expanding aggressively. Hero’s move comes after Supra Boga Lestari, a high-end supermarket operator, recently announced the sale of its Ministop convenience store business.

    Hero’s core supermarket business, which targets middle-class shoppers, has also faced intense competition from hypermarkets, which purchase large amounts of merchandise and sell at low prices. Combined with slowing consumer spending and rising labor costs, the company’s earnings have eroded quickly. Hero’s net profit in 2014 plunged more than 90% from the previous year, and it slipped into a loss for the nine months ended September 2015.

    In addition to Starmart, Hero has also closed some of its Guardian drugstores. Searching for new sources of revenue, the company became the franchisee of Swedish furniture retailer Ikea, opening its first store in Indonesia in 2014. But its prospects have been clouded by a recently published Supreme Court ruling that allowed a local furniture company to use the Ikea trademark.

    Hero is owned by the retail arm of Hong Kong-based conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings. Jardine, which also controls Indonesia’s largest automaker, Astra International, has been increasing its investment in other countries in the region, such as Thailand and Vietnam.