---
title: "Yonghui's Store Revamp: Removing Inflated Prices, Making Shelves a Test of Product Strength"
description: "On August 7, Yonghui's Zhengzhou Hanhai Haishang revamped store opened, the second Yonghui store adjusted by Pangdonglai. The revamp focused on product structure, pricing, environment, and employee management, removing 10,841 SKUs (81.3% of the original) and adding 12,581 new ones. Four months later, the store shows significant changes: wider aisles, reduced displays, lower prices on standard items, and a shift toward brand strength over promotional tactics, while also impacting suppliers and distributors."
author: "汪海"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2024-12-29"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/yonghui-s-store-revamp-removing-inflated-prices-making-shelves-a-test-of-42d346c9/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/yonghui-s-store-revamp-removing-inflated-prices-making-shelves-a-test-of-42d346c9.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/_hh6ehiYwQw61QbulZVsXA"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E6%B0%B8%E8%BE%89%E8%B0%83%E6%94%B9-%E4%BB%B7%E6%A0%BC%E5%8E%BB%E8%99%9A%E9%AB%98-%E8%B4%A7%E6%9E%B6%E6%AF%94%E6%8B%BC%E4%BA%A7%E5%93%81%E5%8A%9B-42d346c9.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/yonghui-s-store-revamp-removing-inflated-prices-making-shelves-a-test-of-42d346c9/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Yonghui's Store Revamp: Removing Inflated Prices, Making Shelves a Test of Product Strength

> On August 7, Yonghui's Zhengzhou Hanhai Haishang revamped store opened, the second Yonghui store adjusted by Pangdonglai. The revamp focused on product structure, pricing, environment, and employee management, removing 10,841 SKUs (81.3% of the original) and adding 12,581 new ones. Four months later, the store shows significant changes: wider aisles, reduced displays, lower prices on standard items, and a shift toward brand strength over promotional tactics, while also impacting suppliers and distributors.

On August 7, Yonghui's Zhengzhou Hanhai Haishang revamped store opened, the second Yonghui store adjusted by Pangdonglai. Similar to the first store, the core of the second store's revamp remains focused on product structure, product pricing, environment, and employee management. According to media reports, the store removed 10,841 SKUs, a removal rate of 81.3%. The re-planned SKU count is 12,581, with new items accounting for 80% of the total. Due to its relatively small area, on the opening day, a large influx of customers crowded the supermarket, especially in the deli and bakery sections. Four months have passed since the revamp; how is the store now? Last Wednesday, I visited the Zhengzhou Hanhai Haishang Yonghui again, and this article shares what I actually saw.
The supermarket is located on the basement floor of the mall. Taking the escalator down, you reach the entrance of Yonghui Supermarket. At the bottom of the escalator, you can see the deli area, fresh produce area, and fruit-cutting area. The entrance also added cash registers for customer convenience. I visited in the afternoon around 3-4 PM, but at the entrance, there were still young people queuing for fried chicken and middle-aged and elderly people selecting vegetables. Compared to many hypermarkets' fresh produce sections, Yonghui's fresh produce area is very tidy, without noise or hawking. **The fresh produce and deli area at the entrance, along with the cash registers, are among the most visible changes in the revamp, breaking consumers' stereotypes of traditional supermarkets.** In earlier years, high-frequency purchase items like fresh produce in traditional supermarkets were usually placed at the deepest part of the store, mainly to increase customers' walking distance and expose them to more products. Moreover, the entrance and exit were clearly defined, with cash registers typically at the exit, so even if a customer just needed a scallion, they had to walk a long loop through the store. This made traditional supermarket shoppers mostly retirees over 50 or 60, while younger consumers seeking speed, savings, and bulk purchases became increasingly reluctant to shop there. The revamped Yonghui not only removed the original forced traffic flow but also widened the aisles between shelves. The aisles are now about 2-3 meters wide, eliminating the previous crowding. Shelves were adjusted to a height of 1.6 meters, giving me the impression that the store looks more open and transparent overall. **Another direct observation in the store is the significant reduction in floor displays.** A Yonghui supplier told me, "In the revamped stores, most floor displays have been removed; the few remaining ones are just for expanded product display, not like before when each display had a promoter doing promotions and selling new products." The change in traffic flow and the reduction of floor displays make the shopping experience more free and smooth. However, this change also requires attention from brands. Traditionally, floor displays were "products" that supermarkets sold to brands, who had to pay for them. During holidays, floor displays were always a "battleground" for brands to promote new products or boost sales. But this adjustment means many brands' channel fees have nowhere to go, and it also means **the brand power of the product itself becomes more important in the supermarket channel.**
In the revamped store, if there is a main traffic item, it is undoubtedly Pangdonglai's DL private label products. Every consumer's shopping basket in the store contains some DL items. **To combat recent incidents of purchasing DL products on behalf of others, Yonghui also displays purchase limit labels.** For example, Pangdonglai Delicious Crispy Cake (big mooncake) is limited to 2 pieces per person, DL Oat Crisp series items are limited to 2 bags, Pangdonglai Craft Wheat Beer is limited to 12 bottles per person, Pangdonglai Juice is limited to 1 piece per person, DL Fragrant Laundry Beads are limited to 2 boxes per person, and DL Baofeng Free Love Baijiu is limited to 1 piece per person. Unlike the opening period, now the store has a relatively ample supply of Pangdonglai private label products, with almost no out-of-stock situations. The vegetable and fruit areas are basically wrapped in plastic wrap. Vegetables, meat, and seafood not only have their origin labeled but also have a detailed regional introduction attached. As the "first stock of fresh produce," Yonghui is now following Pangdonglai's guidance to redo its fresh produce area. In front of the standard product shelves, I observed for a long time. Some high-circulation products, compared to the past in KA channels, **when sold normally without promotions, have significantly lower prices.** For example, Nongfu Spring water at 1.8 yuan, Oriental Leaf tea at 4.2 yuan, etc. Besides lower prices, I also noticed that **in terms of product structure in each category, almost all are first- or second-tier brands or some imported brands; the former third- and fourth-tier brands are hard to find.** "The revamped stores now inherit most of Pangdonglai's operational thinking. Previously, some third- and fourth-tier products were priced at 19.9 yuan, but with promotions and special offers, they were sold at 9.9 yuan to make consumers feel they were getting a bargain. Pangdonglai's thinking is that the same product should have a consistent price in the store, and that price is set after removing inflated pricing," the supplier told me. **For the revamped stores now, product prices have been stripped of inflation, and shelves have truly become a 'battlefield' where brands compete on brand power.** With shelves becoming a battlefield for brand power, the supermarket, as the referee, naturally must set fair and reasonable rules. Yonghui has abolished entry fees and display fees. Therefore, in terms of display, I found that each category is basically allocated shelves evenly. Taking the personal care area as an example:
Brands like Darlie, Crest, Colgate, Saky, Canbo, and Sensodyne each occupy an average of 2-3 columns of shelves. Additionally, the toothpaste area has introduced imported brands like MARVIS and Lion, providing consumers with more choices.
A daily chemical distributor told me, "Actually, before Yonghui's revamp, we had planned to exit the supermarket channel, but Pangdonglai's assistance gave us hope for the future." I learned that although Yonghui's revamp did not deliberately emphasize removing distributors, **the result of the revamp is that orders flow to a few distributors with comprehensive categories and cost advantages, while many distributors are forced to exit.**
Besides its private label products, Pangdonglai's other trump card is its ultimate employee service, which is also evident in the revamped Yonghui. Each area of the supermarket has at least 2-3 staff members. It is reported that Yonghui has also eliminated promoters along with display and floor display fees. "Now staff basically do not do promotional work, nor can they place products in consumers' hands; they only provide simple introduction and explanation services, unlike before when the focus was on sales." When I walked to the dairy section, a staff member restocking shelves gave me a brief introduction to the products, such as where they were produced and when. I could feel that, unlike before when staff in each area would introduce products as great and cheap, they now serve more as guides providing explanations. The store's business hours are from 9:30 AM to 9:30 PM, and the staff's demeanor looks quite good. At the self-checkout area, staff still help with bagging. The deli area also provides toothpicks, tissues, wet wipes, and some even have magnifying glasses for elderly customers to read labels.
**Final Thoughts**
During my visit, I kept thinking: Why are traditional supermarkets so struggling? Is the revamped Yonghui a good supermarket? **On reflection, traditional supermarkets seem to have never found their true positioning!** They always talk about being "big and comprehensive" or "one-stop," but in reality, anyone with money can put products on the shelves, and they have never truly configured products based on consumer needs. Regardless of how Yonghui's revamp will fare in the future, its firm step forward has already brought a glimmer of new life to China's long-silent traditional supermarket industry. However, **"a slight move in one part may affect the whole situation," and changes in the rules of the retail game will inevitably pose challenges to upstream suppliers.**
> 1. FMCG brands, especially second- and third-tier brands, will see their survival space in the supermarket channel severely squeezed; 2. The traditional way of promoting new products by buying floor displays and running promotions in KA channels may become difficult to continue in the future; 3. A large number of regional distributors will have to exit the supermarket market, and the regional distribution system will inevitably suffer a shock.
The transformation of the retail industry is far from over, and the adjustment of the FMCG supply chain is just beginning...
**【New Order · Symbiosis】The 10th China FMCG Innovation Conference**
**Time: March 17-19, 2025**
**Location: Chengdu, China**


---

## 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