Several grocery retailers have been announcing greater focus on convenience stores. They are also called city stores, local or proximity stores and concern neighbourhood formats developed by different retailers, from large supermarket chains to cooperatives and also discounters. Convenience stores are a hit in the city center, but also in the countryside awakened by the arrival of urban dwellers.
Aldi, for example, wants to increase the number of Aldi Local stores in the UK, especially in London, and is on the look for sites of as little as 460 m2.
In Belgium, the retailer has also launched its first ‘compact’ store in Brussels. According to Aldi, the range is almost the same as in its larger stores, it just had to make the store’s aisles smaller to fit in the space. Prices remain the same.
A study by Aecoc in Spain shows a rise in formats focused on convenience in the country. Retailer Dia has set itself the goal of becoming the leader in neighbourhood stores. It has worked on remodeling its stores so that complete shopping can be done close to customers’ homes in a practical way and with a wide assortment, giving a relevant role to fresh produce.
Asda plans to open 300 convenience shops in the UK in the next four years. It wants to catch up on the format to help drive growth. It expects to create 10,000 jobs with the openings. Waitrose wants to build out its network of Little Waitrose stores, the retailer finds it doesn’t have enough presence in the convenience channel. In the meantime, Sainsbury’s is expanding its Sainsbury’s Local format, which now comprises over 800 stores. Sales in its convenience shops grew 10% last year to £3bn. Tesco has its Express format and currently has a network of 2,000 stores.
In Belgium, data platform Locatus, which specializes in retail real estate has shown that the neighbourhood format is increasing for all leading retailers. Carrefour Express saw an increase in stores and so did Proxy Delhaize and Okay, Colruyt’s neighbourhood banner.
Remarkably, French retail leader E. Leclerc, of which the majority of stores are hypermarkets, is now also testing the smallest supermarket format. It launched Leclerc Relais local supermarkets of around 250 m2 and promises “proximity finally at Leclerc prices.” With the new concept, it wants to get a foothold in the convenience store market where its competitors, such as Carrefour (Carrefour City), Auchan (A2 pas) and Cora (Cora en ville) or Casino (Franprix, Spar, Vival) have already been developing their network.