Map of modern retail in early 2011

At the end of 2010, Romania had 694 modern format stores – cash&carry, discount stores, supermarkets or hypermarkets, over 100 stores more than at the start of the same year, shows a ZF survey based on information provided by MEMRB market research firm.

All these stores are vying with the networks owned by Romanian entrepreneurs (Unicarm, CrisTim, Angst, VelPitar, etc), but also with the over 40,000 grocery stores and kiosks, a 20bn-euro market, which slid 6% in the first 10 months of last year. Romanians’ entire shopping universe now includes around 84,000 stores, according to MEMRB, more than 7,000 less than in 2008.
The 16 networks included in MEMRB survey together total sales ZF puts at 8bn euros, out of which 3.5bn euros-hypermarkets, discounters and cash&carry stores-2bn euros each and less than 700m euros-supermarkets.
Bucharest is the most targeted city, so that it now has 128 modern format stores. The most sought-after counties by modern retailers are Cluj, Prahova, Brașov, Suceava, Timiș and Constanța.