---
title: "Why Are People No Longer Keen on Supermarket Shopping? The Decline and Way Out for Supermarkets and Department Stores"
description: "Previously, cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou have successively allowed street vending and outdoor seating, with many cities actively exploring commercial outdoor display models. This has diverted some customer traffic from department stores and supermarkets, as people now have more novel and free options for leisure and consumption. In this market landscape, traditional supermarkets and department stores face numerous challenges, and they are exploring transformations such as digitalization, membership warehouse stores, and community-oriented shopping centers to adapt and survive."
author: "炸面"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2023-06-05"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-are-people-no-longer-keen-on-supermarket-shopping-the-decline-and-wa-c4a649c3/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-are-people-no-longer-keen-on-supermarket-shopping-the-decline-and-wa-c4a649c3.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/I--60w_MKrP_wc5YREf5qQ"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%A4%A7%E5%AE%B6%E4%B8%BA%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E4%B8%8D%E7%88%B1%E9%80%9B%E8%B6%85%E5%B8%82%E4%BA%86-%E5%95%86%E8%B6%85%E7%9A%84%E8%B4%A5%E8%90%BD%E4%B8%8E%E5%87%BA%E8%B7%AF-c4a649c3.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-are-people-no-longer-keen-on-supermarket-shopping-the-decline-and-wa-c4a649c3/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Why Are People No Longer Keen on Supermarket Shopping? The Decline and Way Out for Supermarkets and Department Stores

> Previously, cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou have successively allowed street vending and outdoor seating, with many cities actively exploring commercial outdoor display models. This has diverted some customer traffic from department stores and supermarkets, as people now have more novel and free options for leisure and consumption. In this market landscape, traditional supermarkets and department stores face numerous challenges, and they are exploring transformations such as digitalization, membership warehouse stores, and community-oriented shopping centers to adapt and survive.

Previously, cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou have successively allowed street vending and outdoor seating, with many cities actively exploring commercial outdoor display models. Commercial outdoor display is a uniquely attractive form of consumption, ranging from specialty morning markets, night markets, and trunk markets to distinctive themed streets and urban riverside landscape belts. Some outdoor display spots have even become trendy check-in destinations, continuously attracting attention and gathering crowds, which also diverts some customer traffic from department stores and supermarkets. People's leisure and consumption patterns now have more novel and free options.

In such a market landscape, the development path for traditional supermarkets and department stores is fraught with challenges. Many supermarkets and department stores lack innovation and updated marketing methods, failing to keep pace with the times, gradually losing consumer trust and loyalty, and prompting consumers to turn to other retailers or e-commerce platforms. After the waves of elimination, where should they go?

The only constant in business is change, and the essence is survival of the fittest. After the "waves of elimination," how can the supermarket and department store industry cultivate internal strength and better survive has become an urgent issue. They have begun to try innovation and seek breakthroughs, with contraction, adjustment, and transformation becoming common choices. Digitalization and lightweighting have become the mainstream directions for transformation.

The combination of "Internet + traditional retail" is a direction many traditional supermarkets have long been exploring for transformation. For retail enterprises, digitalization is about gaining sharper insights into consumer needs and thereby providing better consumption experiences.

For example, Walmart China has accelerated its layout in e-commerce and high-end membership stores. Online, it has launched the "Walmart Online Supermarket" WeChat mini-program, joined JD.com, and developed the mobile app "Sam's Club"; offline, it has successively opened multiple stores in cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Wuhan. Recently, Walmart released its Q1 2023 financial report, showing that Walmart China's Q1 net sales were $5.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 28.3%, with e-commerce net sales growing 54%. During holidays, these membership stores are packed with people and long queues, in stark contrast to traditional supermarkets with sparse foot traffic. The popularity of Sam's Club's warehouse membership model and high-end positioning has attracted many supermarkets to follow suit, including Jiajiayue, RT-Mart, and Yonghui, who have also tried to join. Transforming into warehouse membership stores is one of the development directions for traditional supermarkets, but not all are suitable, as it requires higher capabilities in merchandise management and supply chain.

In the past few years, the number of small and medium-sized stores such as convenience stores and community supermarkets has grown much faster than the expansion of supermarkets. The supermarket industry is showing a trend toward smaller, community-oriented, and convenience-focused store formats, which is also a reference direction for transformation.

On the other hand, the downturn of traditional department stores has also stimulated the transformation and upgrading of shopping centers, which are revitalizing through expanded consumption scenarios, improved shopping environments, and integration of trendy culture.

Looking at the foot traffic heat maps of various cities, almost all the liveliest places are new shopping centers. Currently, community-oriented shopping centers are particularly favored by the public. In addition to providing regular consumption, these malls emphasize life-oriented, social, and experiential features, strengthening service-oriented consumption. Community shopping centers have higher foot traffic. Leisure dining, life services, parent-child experiences... Consumers are no longer satisfied with just the basic needs provided by shopping centers. Under the "commercial +" model adjustment and upgrade, richer and more diverse experiences are the driving force for them to come to shopping centers. Now, shopping is not just for buying things; photo-taking, leisure exhibitions, brand pop-ups, creative markets, and other experiential activities are the "traffic passwords" that attract crowds. The transformation path for commercial complexes is shifting from shopping centers to lifestyle centers.

For traditional supermarkets and department stores that were once primarily offline, new technologies and models are driving industry change and helping their digital transformation. Embracing the internet, keeping up with the times, upgrading positioning, and being people-oriented to give users a better experience—there will surely be a turnaround. The curse of the disappearance of traditional supermarkets and department stores is just the beginning. In the future, more industries that do not conform to the times will gradually decline, which urges the industry to review, reflect, and change.

But in the final analysis, the market still needs the form of supermarkets and department stores. No matter how developed e-commerce is, offline has irreplaceable emotional elements.

Online shopping tends to solve survival needs, while offline shopping focuses more on life experience. Beyond busy work, during leisurely weekend times, strolling through supermarkets and department stores to feel the warmth of life and human touch is an extremely "recharging" experience.

As offline consumption, which has been dormant for a long time, continues to recover, we look forward to new opportunities for the offline retail industry.

_Tip: Due to changes in the official account's push rules, to get the latest articles as soon as possible, please set the star: Click the business card below "New Distribution" ➤ Click the "..." button in the upper right corner ➤ Set as star ⭐_


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671