Recently, the news that RT Mart has closed stores in Jiangsu, Sichuan and other places has attracted attention. According to incomplete statistics, 13 stores have been closed in RT Mart since 2023. Among them, RT Mart Real Estate Plaza Store in Minhang District also closed in November last year.
Although a small number of closed stores belong to the normal business adjustment of enterprises, the situation that once "a brother of supermarkets" has now been transformed into a prostitute is also a silhouette of the loneliness of hypermarkets. The tide of Internet capital has receded, and traditional hypermarkets are still struggling to "save themselves for the second time".
26 stores in Shanghai are operating normally.
At 10 o’clock in the morning, the reporter came to RT Mart Daduhe Store in Putuo District. In the morning of working days, the popularity of Shangchao, where the supermarket is located, was generally not high, and the flow of people in RT Mart, which is located in the lower-level square, was relatively dull.
RT Mart Daduhe branch
Just entering the door, the reporter heard the salesperson at the door selling the stored-value card of "buy more and send more". Many middle-aged and elderly people chose dishes in the fresh fruit and vegetable area, and the weighing area was also lively. In contrast, there are almost no customers in snacks, grain and oil, department stores and other areas, and only a small number of shop assistants pick goods for online orders. When asked whether the closure of foreign stores affected the Shanghai store, the clerk expressed surprise: "This store is newly opened, and it is impossible to close it so soon."
The reporter learned that RT Mart Daduhe Store belongs to RT Mart Super format and belongs to a medium-sized community store. It just opened on December 28th last year, and it is the first supermarket in Putuo and the second supermarket in Shanghai.
The store covers an area of about 1,500 square meters, and its business categories mainly cover 5,300 SKUs (the smallest inventory unit) such as vegetables and fruits, grain and oil seasoning, drinks, etc. It belongs to the "mini version" of RT Mart. Compared with large supermarkets, the types of goods are greatly reduced, but they are much richer than those in community supermarkets such as Box Horse and Qingmei. In addition, the store’s online home service has been launched, and citizens place orders through channels such as RT Mart Youxian and Hungry, covering residential areas within 5 kilometers.
In response to the recent news of intensive store closures in RT Mart, RT Mart said that this is a normal business strategy adjustment in various regions, and both store closures and store opening are normal business actions. The closure of many stores in Jiangsu and Sichuan, on the one hand, is due to the property, on the other hand, it is the adjustment of local operation strategy, such as the transformation and upgrading to M member stores.
"RT Mart’s 26 stores in Shanghai are operating normally." Relevant persons in RT Mart told reporters that the closure of stores in other places did not affect Shanghai. However, the reporter learned that the RT Mart Real Estate Plaza store on Dongchuan Road closed in November last year due to the expiration of the lease.
It is understood that RT Mart opened its first large supermarket in Shanghai in 1998. At present, there are 26 stores in Shanghai, including 24 in RT Mart and 2 in RT Mart.
Embrace internet capital
RT Mart, under the leadership of founder Huang Mingduan, once created a "legend" of not closing stores for 19 years. The number of stores expanded from 1 to 500+, and the sales once exceeded 100 billion yuan, which was called "the first brother of supermarkets".
RT Mart official website shows that by 2021, RT Mart has successfully opened nearly 500 comprehensive large-scale supermarkets in Chinese mainland, covering five major regions of East China, North China, Northeast China, Central China and South China, serving more than 230 cities in 29 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), with more than 100,000 employees and more than 100,000 shopping guides, and serving more than 5 million customers every day.
However, with the end of the era of supermarkets, RT Mart’s "highlight moment" has gradually faded. Although RT Mart explored the e-commerce platform "flying cow net" early, its development was not as good as expected and it was at a loss for a long time. Especially in 2016, the revenue of RT Mart stores gradually declined. Almost at the same time, Ma Yun put forward the concept of "new retail" and advocated the integration of physical commerce and online platforms, which was Huang Mingduan’s dream that he wanted to do but failed to achieve.
Under the manipulation of Zhang Yong, in November 2017, Alibaba took a stake of HK$ 22.4 billion, directly and indirectly holding 36.16% of the shares of Gaoxin Retail (the parent company of RT Mart), and won the seat of the second shareholder. In October 2020, Alibaba invested HK$ 28 billion and continued to increase its 72% stake in Gaoxin Retail. Since then, Alibaba has become the controlling shareholder of RT Mart. Subsequently, Alibaba Vice President Lin Xiaohai served as CEO of RT Mart, reporting directly to Zhang Yong.
In a store in RT Mart, citizens are waiting in line to weigh.
Gaoxin Retail, Intime Department Store and Box Horse have become the three most critical pieces in Ali’s new retail matrix. At that time, Alibaba also announced that 484 stores of Gaoxin Retail in RT Mart and Auchan Supermarket had been fully online, and they were connected to Hungry, Taoxianda and Tmall Supermarket to share the inventory business. All stores provide one-hour delivery within 5 kilometers of the store, of which 180 stores support half-day delivery within 20 kilometers.
However, no matter how perfect the "marriage" is, it is hard to compete with the changes in the economic cycle.
After more than six years of integration into the Ali family, Gaoxin Retail has been in the channel of declining revenue. The net profit loss of returning to the mother in fiscal year 2022 expanded to 739 million yuan. In fiscal year 2023, the net profit of returning to the mother turned losses into profits, hovering near the breakeven line. Then, the semi-annual report of fiscal year 2024 showed that Gaoxin’s retail performance turned losses again. Not only that, the share price of Gaoxin Retail has plummeted in recent years, and its market value has shrunk by more than 70 billion yuan.
Bet on the "second growth curve"
RT Mart is by no means the only one in the throes of the curtain call in the era of hypermarkets. After the 2023 earnings season, domestic retail listed companies are even more "wailing".
Everyone in the "First Share of Private Supermarket" warned that the net assets at the end of 2023 are expected to be negative. According to relevant regulations, the company’s shares may be warned of delisting risks. Renrenle explained that due to the superposition of many unfavorable factors in the external market and internal operation, the income continued to decline and the operating performance was less than expected.
Backgammon, a leading retail enterprise in Hunan, also announced that it is estimated that the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies will be 1.32 billion yuan to 1.96 billion yuan in 2023, and there is still the risk that the company will be declared bankrupt by the court due to the failure of reorganization.
Carrefour’s business in China continued to be weak, which caused serious performance losses in Suning.cn. According to the disclosure, Carrefour China’s "slimming" brought about a sharp year-on-year decline in sales revenue, and increased the amount of compensation and other expenses incurred by the closure of the store. At the same time, it conducted impairment tests on long-term assets including goodwill. "Limited by the financial situation of Suning Tesco, it is difficult to quickly solve the liquidity problem of Carrefour China, and it needs to be adjusted and planned from a longer-term perspective."
Wal-Mart, an international giant, can’t escape the situation of "losing the hypermarket". Since 2016, Wal-Mart, which has more than 440 stores in China, has gradually reduced its stores in China, closing dozens of stores every year, and has closed 15 stores since 2023.
If you are poor, you will change, and if you change, you will pass. After the warehouse-style member stores such as Costco (Market Opening Guest) and Sam Member Store became a hit, the "Apprentice" Box Horse X Member Store also expanded rapidly, which made the traditional hypermarkets find a "lifeline" and RT Mart is also carrying out the second "self-help".
In the Daduhe Road store in RT Mart, citizens are shopping for goods.
It is understood that M member store is a high-end paid membership store under Gaoxin Retail, and it is also the second growth curve of Gaoxin Retail. There are about 3,000 pieces of goods in M member stores, more than 10% of which are self-owned brand products. At the same time, it also provides delivery service within 5 kilometers of the store.
Since the opening of the first store in Yangzhou in April last year, the total number of M member stores has reached 120,000. At present, three stores have been opened in Yangzhou, Changzhou and Nanjing, but they have not yet entered the first-tier cities such as Beishangguangshen and Shenzhen.
"Starting in March, RT Mart will open stores in Sichuan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Hainan provinces and cities, and reinstall and upgrade the old stores. This is another acceleration of Gaoxin Retail after opening 12 new stores in 10 cities across the country in January this year. " RT Mart replied in writing that it will open 21 new stores nationwide, complete the reconstruction of version 2.0 of 90 stores which have been rebuilt in RT Mart for more than 10 years, and some of them will be directly upgraded into M-member stores. In the future, Gaoxin Retail will continue to increase investment in member stores and accelerate the expansion of stores. It is estimated that five new stores will be opened in FY 2025, and 15 stores are expected to be opened within three years.
Lin Xiaohai has publicly stated for many times that "multi-format omni-channel" is the company’s long-term development strategy, and the accelerated opening of its M member stores and medium-sized supermarket Super does not mean the contraction of the hypermarket format in RT Mart.
"Now we are back!" In recent days, Alibaba’s foreign propaganda shows confidence, but time is running out for RT Mart.
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