Tesco goes compact
Fifteen minutes to drive there, half an hour to walk around its 12,000 square meters: that's the hypermarket experience. Choice means legwork and petrol, so the concept goes.
But now Tesco Polska, one of the many advocates of this expansive shopping idea, is thinking smaller and has introduced one of its 3,000 square meter compact' hypermarket formats to Poland for the first time in the southern town of Opole. This concept, which is already operated, for example, by Ahold Polska and its Hypernova brand in this country, will be further developed by Tesco in Kalisz, Mielec and Glogow, after being tested in nearby Slovakia, where there are five stores of this type.
"We want to develop a format which can offer Tesco to customers in smaller towns, where normally there is no need for the big store you find near the bigger cities," says Wojciech Sokól, Tesco's director of corporate affairs in Poland.
There will also be no need for shoppers to travel to the outskirts of towns to stock up on food. Compact hypermarkets attract frequent customers which means they only need to be a stone's throw away from residential areas.
Geographical imperatives aside, the question does arise as to whether the notion of the big hypermarket, that almost infinite spread of comestibles and other goods, hasn't had its day. Must the average shopper really be compelled to traverse long distances by road and then on foot to come by his/her bare necessities? If compact hypermarkets can freely enter smaller towns, why can't they set up shop in the suburbs of larger cities, for example, where local habits are often hardly dissimilar from the provinces?
"What we are observing is that the very big hypermarkets are declining," says Magdalena Gniazdowska, retail specialist at Cushman & Wakefield H&B. "There isn't the same expansion in Poland as there used to be and they open very rarely these days."
Ms Gniazdowska explains that it was in 2002 that the number of hypermarket launches began to decline and the following year witnessed a boom in city center retail projects, which meant, she adds, that "there weren't as many opportunities to open hypermarkets out of town." In the long term, she believes, "developments in the city center will cut off hypermarkets, which is a very limited concept." In her opinion, the compact format is suitable for towns of around 100,000 inhabitants, where they can "take up a large part of the immediate market and its catchment area. But in terms of medium-sized cities, such as Bydgoszcz and Lublin, for example, city center projects will come first and hypermarkets next."
Wojciech Sokól, however, proposes another version of the shape of things to come as far as hypermarkets in Poland are concerned. "The Polish retail market is very fragmented," he says, "and the market share of hypermarkets and large supermarkets is relatively low compared to other European countries. Polish people like shopping in hypermarkets and up to three million do so every week across the country."
He goes on to emphasize Tesco's own commitment to the Polish market, which he insists the company has always been very supportive of. "Tesco was one of the first retailers to predict future opportunities and we want to maintain this leadership and develop hypermarkets further. We opened one in Lublin, [consisting of 10,000 square meters] in April this year, for example."
But now Tesco Polska, one of the many advocates of this expansive shopping idea, is thinking smaller and has introduced one of its 3,000 square meter compact' hypermarket formats to Poland for the first time in the southern town of Opole. This concept, which is already operated, for example, by Ahold Polska and its Hypernova brand in this country, will be further developed by Tesco in Kalisz, Mielec and Glogow, after being tested in nearby Slovakia, where there are five stores of this type.
"We want to develop a format which can offer Tesco to customers in smaller towns, where normally there is no need for the big store you find near the bigger cities," says Wojciech Sokól, Tesco's director of corporate affairs in Poland.
There will also be no need for shoppers to travel to the outskirts of towns to stock up on food. Compact hypermarkets attract frequent customers which means they only need to be a stone's throw away from residential areas.
Geographical imperatives aside, the question does arise as to whether the notion of the big hypermarket, that almost infinite spread of comestibles and other goods, hasn't had its day. Must the average shopper really be compelled to traverse long distances by road and then on foot to come by his/her bare necessities? If compact hypermarkets can freely enter smaller towns, why can't they set up shop in the suburbs of larger cities, for example, where local habits are often hardly dissimilar from the provinces?
"What we are observing is that the very big hypermarkets are declining," says Magdalena Gniazdowska, retail specialist at Cushman & Wakefield H&B. "There isn't the same expansion in Poland as there used to be and they open very rarely these days."
Ms Gniazdowska explains that it was in 2002 that the number of hypermarket launches began to decline and the following year witnessed a boom in city center retail projects, which meant, she adds, that "there weren't as many opportunities to open hypermarkets out of town." In the long term, she believes, "developments in the city center will cut off hypermarkets, which is a very limited concept." In her opinion, the compact format is suitable for towns of around 100,000 inhabitants, where they can "take up a large part of the immediate market and its catchment area. But in terms of medium-sized cities, such as Bydgoszcz and Lublin, for example, city center projects will come first and hypermarkets next."
Wojciech Sokól, however, proposes another version of the shape of things to come as far as hypermarkets in Poland are concerned. "The Polish retail market is very fragmented," he says, "and the market share of hypermarkets and large supermarkets is relatively low compared to other European countries. Polish people like shopping in hypermarkets and up to three million do so every week across the country."
He goes on to emphasize Tesco's own commitment to the Polish market, which he insists the company has always been very supportive of. "Tesco was one of the first retailers to predict future opportunities and we want to maintain this leadership and develop hypermarkets further. We opened one in Lublin, [consisting of 10,000 square meters] in April this year, for example."
