Retail chains faced with uncertainty as supermarkets surge in neighbourhoods
By Seun Johnson
Fuelled by fervent business move to replicate the city experience in towns and villages, supermarket operators are beginning to leverage their financial war-chest to unseat the traditional retailers and take advantage of the untapped business opportunities in neighbourhoods.
Supermarkets are purposely established to provide day-to-day goods and services that make the society thrive and comfortable to live in. It enables consumers the opportunity to purchase goods from varieties that are displayed on the shelves and offers them discounts on whatever they buy. It is usually a one-stop shopping center where confidence, consistency and centricity are engraved in minds and memories of customers.
Over the years, this brands of business are only concentrated in the cities where movers and shakers of the society are primarily targeted for patronage. They are people believed to have had the financial wherewithal to engage in heavy shoppings and boost supermarkets’ prominence within their domains. Aside this, city dwellers also use big stores as venues for meetings, appointments and networking.
For instance, retail chains like ShopRite, Spar and Just Rite are regularly buzzing with activities by customers apart from the traditional purpose of converging to purchase goods. The narrative is almost related in every other major supermarkets located in the cities.
Recently, operators in this business sector are noticeably taking a leap further to disrupt the retail market as traditionalists are now made to face uncertainty as the trend continues.
The upsurge of big stores in towns and communities is a testament to the speculation about days of traditional retail market gradually coming to an end as successful businessmen are constantly leveraging the minimal rate of competitors and business opportunities that abound in those areas to spread their entrepreneurial tentacles.
Unfortunately, this development is biting hard on the retailers who have over the years carved a business niche for themselves through their relationship with customers. Before the emergence of big stores, traditional retailers are the kings of the rangers who regularly supply the demands of consumers within their financial capacity.
With credit sales, helping customers to make decisions on the right product and considerably handling of feedbacks, traditional retailers have been able to maintain and solidify robust relationship with customers.
However, with the surge of supermarkets that provide varieties to customers in communities, gradual erosion of traditional retail markets is becoming obvious as retailers are either forced to accept their fates or bow out of the market for the big stores.
As the trend continues unabated, the possibility of local markets fizzling out of the system in a matter of years from now is non-negotiable.
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