The shock of Costco and Aldi’s opening to Chinese people is huge.
On June 7, Aldi, a Fortune 500 company and a German retail giant, relied on its own products to set the world’s first store in Shanghai. Then, in August, Costco, a membership-based warehouse supermarket, opened its first mainland store in Shanghai. It only opened in 3 days, and Costco sold more than 100,000 membership cards.
Although in fact, Aldi has also entered Shanghai. Many people in the industry have been inspired by it, but the impact is limited to those in the circle. But Costco shocked everyone from industry veterans to grandpas and aunts. People did not expect why in the year when foreign retail sales had been wound up, why did they have such a powerful role.
The entry of these two foreign-funded retail outlets, regarded by many Chinese retail companies as guilds, is at the crossroads of retail history. Behind them is the end of the two giants.
Carrefour, Metro’s “Back”
On June 24, 2019, Suning Tesco announced that it would acquire an 80% stake in Carrefour China for a consideration of 4.8 billion yuan in cash. Carrefour, a supermarket with more than 10,000 stores in more than 30 countries around the world, has exited decently in China.
Three months later, another mystery is revealed. On October 11, Metro, Wumart and Multipoint Dmall jointly announced that Wumart has signed a definitive agreement with Metro Group on the acquisition of a controlling stake in Metro China. After the transaction is completed, Wumart Group will hold 80% of the shares in the joint venture established by the two parties, and Metro will continue to hold 20% of the shares. Multipoint will become a technology partner of Metro China (For specific reference, Tiger Sniff article “ The darkest moment of foreign retail, Zhang Wenzhong’s Normandy