#YONGHUI (永辉): The awakening of a giant

Yonghui Super species (永辉超级物种）: How to gain appetite while doing shopping

A giant with strong partners (#Tencent and #JD.com)

Facts and figures: #Yonghui in 1999 was operating 3 stores, coming from a fruits and vegetable wholesale background.

Nowadays the group is operating close to 500 stores under banners such as: #YonghuiBravo for its supermarkets, #YonghuiFresh for its convenience stores and #YonghuiSuperSpecies for it supermarkets / restaurants.

Tencent owns 18% of JD.com which owns 30% of Yonghui

Tencent also owns directly 5% of Yonghui which has developed its banner Super species the same way #Alibaba has developed #Hema.

Last January Tencent associated with Yonghui have entered into an agreement with #CarrefourChina.

I have spent a couple of hours this weekend in a newly opened “Super species” and I have to say that I am totally under its charm and here is why.

Yonghui Super species (永辉超级物种): A store AND a restaurant

Life is back in the store. The store is a lively show.

Like #Hema they have succeeded in successfully mixing what so many brick and mortar banners have never achieved to do.

What they did is very similar to #Hema and #Eataly. 

But on top of that they have added the magical touch of “mobile payment” which make the hurdle of payment gone for real. Brick and mortar stores have always been over cautious about the fact that some clients will not pay their bill, steal from them… At the end of the day they never succeeded in giving birth to a coffee or a restaurant within their sales area.

Well, I have to say that both #Hema and #Yonghu Super Species. Have found the way.

The store is full, packed, lively, organised. Good vibe. You can believe that you are in one of the many seafood restaurant with live seashells, fishes, cooking stations.

Everything is open to your eyes to select the food you want. The exact one that you selected.

Everything is TRANSPARENT about traceability for the meat and some seafood like lobsters.

You can eat on the spot the exact watermelon you want.They will prepare it for you, weight it and give it to you.

You, as a client you can select anything you like in the store and SCAN IT, PAY with your mobile and either GO or EAT it in the store. You are in control.

Of course there are many CCTV camera but at no time anybody ask for prove of purchase or look suspicious if you have stolen something.

The client is, this time for real, the one in charge (even when it comes to pay)

You feel free in the store trusted, empowered. And at no time the store will take over your power like they usually do when you have to go thru the cashier line. Your are the cashier line. 

This weekend I chose to eat on the spot what I wanted and exactly the same way I enjoyed having a lunch at #eataly, I enjoyed my lobster at #Yonghui Super Species.

The choice is not extravagant but sufficient for either meat of fish lovers.

We have the choice between meat (mostly imported) , seashells displayed in huge fish tanks (also imported lobsters), fresh fruits (local and imports), and a dedicated station for salmon. On top of that you can freely select any grocery item, dairy, drink and of course sushis you want and consume them on the spot at your table.

Every item is pre-packed, ready to be scanned with you mobile.

Because of the strong capitalistic links between Tencent (WeChat) and YH, you can open your YH App thru a WeChat mini program, or directly scan any item in the store directly with you WeChat scan and then pay of course with WeChat pay of even Alipay. Money has no smell and Chinese are extremely pragmatic.

You will not find any cashier desk in the store like #Apple did many years ago… You may find a lot of employees helping user to download the APP and help them to do the payment for newcomers.

You can focus on the pleasure of being there, waiting for your food to be prepared.

The store also has another goal. The same way like in a Hema store, (but without any visible basket conveyors in the store), the store is also a pick up station for home delivery.

The benchmark now in urban China is: Home delivery in less than 30 minutes…

Price positioning:

Honestly prices are quite OK for imported items since the price is not the only driver for purchase.

For the food that you will eat on the spot, prices are far cheaper than any fresh sea food restaurants.

Overall

Will I come back ? Definitely YES

Is YH SuperSpecies superior than #Hema ? I might think yes for the food served.

I nevertheless personally think that showing the baskets conveyors in Hema store is a very smart way to show that the store is a real beehive and that the ordered food will be delivered in less than 30 minutes because you keep seeing staff running all over the place to fulfil the orders.

About #Hema or #Yonghui Fresh you can look at my previous articles on these 2 formats.