Steve Montgomery

Carrefour Looks to Reinvent the Hypermarket

August 30, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Carrefour is testing a new hypermarket concept as Western Europeans buy groceries closer to home or head to department and specialty stores for apparel and beauty products. Do large-format superstores in the U.S. face similar challenges to Carrefour's hypermarkets in Europe?      [more...]

The structure of retail in the U.S. and Europe are not the same. While it is true that some of our big box retailers are located on the edges of our cities others are found in the cities and the suburbs. The European hypermarkets were almost all built on the edge or outside the cities. This means that their customer have to travel further that does those of the U.S.'s HVRs. As noted by Mr. Goldberg, while we may think fuel is expensive in the U.S. it is far less costly than that in the UK or Europe.

Changing formats is something that is common with all retailers to one extent or another. Target, for example, is again revamping its grocery section as is Wal-Mart. The rationale is simple, either adapt to the changing needs or your customers or perish.