The curse of store closures is spreading among large retail supermarkets. On October 10, RT-Mart, which had been a myth in the industry for never closing stores, finally could no longer maintain its record of no closures for 19 consecutive years in mainland China, confirming the official closure of its store at Weiyi Plaza in Weifang, Shandong. Shortly before that, the first Ito Yokado store in China, Shilipu, also closed after 18 years of operation. In fact, similar closures of large supermarkets have been happening all along. As the main retail format, large supermarkets once expanded aggressively across the country. But in recent years, these stores have gradually shown signs of fatigue, with declining profitability and performance, leading to frequent closures and suspensions. Meanwhile, their competitors are rapidly encroaching on their former living space. The Chill in Traditional Supermarkets Although RT-Mart's breaking of the "no closure" myth was confirmed to be due to property disputes, apart from property issues, it was also significantly affected by the overall downturn in the retail industry. In fact, after the 2008 economic crisis, retail enterprises have felt the chill to varying degrees. "The pace of opening new large physical stores by major supermarkets is slowing down or even stopping," said Gao Xiaotong, co-founder of Wuhan Daoyuan Commercial Management Consulting Co., Ltd., in an interview with China Enterprise News. According to the "2015 China Shopper Report," since 2013, most retailers have reduced the number of new store openings and closed a batch of stores with oversupply and poor performance. In the two years from 2013 to 2014, Yonghui closed 15 stores, Carrefour closed about 25 stores, and Walmart closed around 30 stores. In addition, data shows that in the first half of 2016, among single-department stores, shopping centers, and large supermarkets over 2,000 square meters, 22 companies closed a total of 41 stores. Among them, 15 were department stores and shopping centers, and 26 were large supermarkets. The total business area of the closed stores exceeded 600,000 square meters. The average operating duration of closed stores was 6.84 years, with department stores and shopping centers at 8.67 years and large supermarkets at 5.96 years. Fierce Diversion by E-commerce The decline of physical stores in the retail industry is not unrelated to the impact of e-commerce. Although at the Yunqi Conference on October 13, Alibaba founder Jack Ma publicly stated that the internet developed e-commerce on the basis of traditional commerce and did not hit traditional commerce, there is no doubt that e-commerce has diverted a large portion of consumers. By the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016, Alibaba's China retail transaction volume had surpassed Walmart, which has been in traditional commerce for over half a century, becoming the world's largest retail entity. In addition to large comprehensive e-commerce platforms like Taobao and JD.com continuously occupying the market, the number of vertical e-commerce platforms focusing on fresh produce, overseas shopping, and other fields is also growing rapidly. At the same time, with the increasing frequency of new media such as WeChat and Weibo in people's daily lives, the emerging retail format of "WeChat business" is also gradually encroaching on the traditional retail market. "Convenience" and "cheapness" have always been common consumer perceptions when shopping online. By reducing intermediate links, e-commerce saves costs such as sales venue fees compared to physical supermarkets, which often account for a large portion of the entire product sales chain, thus significantly reducing costs. More and more people are choosing to "tap the keyboard" instead of walking to the supermarket for their shopping experience. What's worse, after witnessing the reality of traditional supermarket operations, some product suppliers have also chosen to "kick someone when they are down." "Now with the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce and WeChat business, many product suppliers have begun to reduce their supply to physical supermarkets, especially foreign brands. The variety of products is continuously decreasing, making supermarkets seem even less vibrant," lamented an industry insider with over a decade of experience in supermarkets in an interview with China Enterprise News. The "Siege" of Convenience Stores In addition to e-commerce, the development of convenience stores is also showing great vitality. According to data from the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, by the end of 2015, 62 convenience store companies had a total of 83,000 stores, a year-on-year increase of nearly 10%, with sales growth of 15.2%, in stark contrast to the 0.7% decline in department stores. It is estimated that in 2016, China's convenience store market size will reach 100 billion yuan. This light shopping model of convenience stores, which serves "at the doorstep," allows consumers to meet most of their daily shopping needs right at their doorstep, better aligning with the shopping habits of the younger generation. The reporter observed that in first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, large supermarkets are only seen in a few bustling central areas, while convenience stores are ubiquitous. According to Nielsen's recently released "2016 China Hypermarket and Supermarket Shopper Trends Report," e-commerce and convenience stores are continuously "stealing" traffic from hypermarkets and supermarkets. The penetration rates of convenience stores and online shopping have risen from 32% and 19% last year to 38% and 35%, respectively, far outpacing the recovery rate of hypermarket and supermarket penetration. The rapid growth of convenience stores is besieging traditional supermarkets. Taking Shanghai as an example, by the end of 2015, Lawson had 461 stores, while FamilyMart, under Ting Hsin Group, had nearly 1,000 stores in Shanghai. These convenience stores, visible on every street corner, have severely reduced foot traffic to large supermarkets. Regarding the future path for large supermarkets, Gao Xiaotong believes that the main development direction for future supermarkets is format segmentation, by focusing on a specific industry or category, and better meeting consumers' higher-level needs with advantages such as specialization and refinement. In addition, in terms of business philosophy, supermarkets need to study customers, change the traditional one-size-fits-all product structure, change the mindset that price is the core competitiveness, focus on the needs of the post-80s and post-90s generations, and enhance the in-store experience and shopping pleasure.