Supermarkets can hold their own against hypermarkets

The general manager of the Mega Image chain believes supermarkets have found their niche on the local market, despite the aggressive expansion of hypermarkets and discount stores.

“The hypermarket and discount store networks are engaged in a very powerful development in Romania at the moment. We supermarkets have our own arguments, though,” believes John Kyritsis, general manager of Mega Image, held by Belgian retail group Delhaize.

He says the prices of the products in the supermarket chains are usually several percent higher than those in hypermarkets or discount stores.

“We do not intend to fight with such store formats in terms of prices.

“This does not necessarily mean that we aren”t trying to offer good prices. However, our argument is the value we offer for a specific product, and especially the accent we put on fresh products,” Kyritsis says.

Fresh products account for 40-50% of the annual sales of the supermarket chain, according to its own estimates.

“Our customers also go to supermarkets like Carrefour. Whereas they buy one week”s worth of products or even more there, they come to our stores for fresh products almost every day. I could say from this viewpoint that we are not directly competing with hypermarkets or discounters in terms of most products,” Kyritsis added.

The strategic differences between supermarkets and the other store formats are also reflected in locations.

“Our advantage over hypermarkets is that we can get closer to customers, because we need smaller surface areas. Unlike discount stores, we do not buy every piece of space we find available inside the city, but only those that provide us with an advantage.

For instance, I can say we will not reach the south of the city with a store, at least not for now, because the purchasing power in that area and our positioning on the market would not justify such a decision,” Kyritsis explained.