The Carrefour brand opens Wednesday a new store of "soft discount", Supeco. With these places better arranged but cheaper than hypermarkets, large retailers hope to revive.

INVESTIGATION

There was Renault with its range of low-cost cars Dacia, the SNCF with its trains Ouigo, Air France with its company Transavia ... It is the turn of Carrefour to launch a new chain of shops at low prices. The brand opens Wednesday in Valenciennes (North) his first Supéco - diminutive "economic supermarket" - a store that is more "soft discount" than "hard discount". Five stores of 1400 square meters on average should be ready by the end of 2019.

The "soft discount" is the new concept thanks to which large retailers hope to revive. Like Carrefour, the Casino group opened in 1988 Leader Price and Intermarché, the hyper Netto line in 1991. Forget the hard discounters of the 1980s as Lidle or Aldi, whose stores looked like big warehouses, with a pale light and bulk products on pallets. Place to the refined and well arranged shops. At Supeco, there are products from organic farming, a bakery and even a butcher's department.

Objective: sell cheaper to attract customers

Unlike conventional supermarkets, at Supeco there are far fewer products. It records nearly 2,000 references, against more than 10,000 in a hypermarket. The shelves give a large place to the products of the distributor, with however some great brands to attract customers. At Lidl, for example, these represent only 10% of the offer.

The goal: sell cheaper to capture customers always more attentive to prices. The Supeco offer is 10% cheaper than elsewhere. But to succeed in selling at more attractive prices, you have to trim all the costs.

Lidl, leader of the "soft discount"

Carrefour follows the example of Lidl, a leader in the soft discount market. The German brand, which buys for 11,000 stores worldwide, has completely reinvented itself in recent years. Its concept influences all the brands. Casino has just repositioned Leader Price by gradually relooking its stores. We even talk at home of "discount pleasure". Intermarché, with Netto, will bet on destocking. Their goal: to propose the bargain of the moment for shopping pleasure.

But the leader of the segment, Lidl, is not worried. "We will of course move to see these new Supéco," says Michel Biero, marketing director of the brand. Lidl officials also went to buy Supeco products to test them.

According to relatives of the management, Carrefour would be ready to strike a big blow and develop massively this concept of "soft discount".