Farewell : Hefei Carrefour Supermarket Shuts Down for Good

Yesterday , a notice was posted at Hefei Sanli an Carrefour Supermarket stating that the store will be moving out for good .

Carrefour customer service confirmed to reporters that Carrefour (Hefei Changjiang Road store) is indeed in a state of suspension of business. Whether it will continue operation is uncertain.

Carrefour’s collapse in Hefei had long been predictable . Last year, Carrefour supermarket at the intersection of Ma’anshan Road and Nanyi Ring Road in Hefei also closed. “We are helpless, too.” “the stores on Changjiang Road are now in a mess and there is nothing to sell,” a worker said.

In March 2022, Carrefour officially closed its doors in Beijing’s Zhongguancun, an 18-year old hypermarket that was once Carrefour’s largest flagship store in Asia. According to statistics, from 2017 to 2020, Carrefour’s China revenue fell for four consecutive years, and the highest decline was 12.6% in 2020.

Since November last year, Carrefour supermarkets in many places across the country have been exposed to the phenomenon of “limited shopping card consumption, and some shelves are vacant.”

In Hefei, Carrefour Hefei Baoye store and Carrefour Hefei Changjiang Road store both have limited shopping card consumption and some shelves are vacant. Some staff said that the current consumption card can not be returned, it is recommended to shop as soon as possible.

In the 1990s, Carrefour, together with Wal-Mart, RT-Mart, Tesco and other foreign hypermarkets, entered the Chinese mainland market one after another, which can be described as “veterans” of the retail industry.

According media reports, Carrefour opened its first store in Anhui in 2004 – “Hefei Guogou Changjiang Store.” Since then, it has opened stores in six cities in Hefei, Bengbu, Maanshan, Huainan, Anqing and Suzhou, with a total investment of 600 million yuan.

However, with the rise of local supermarkets and the upgrading of the user experience of retail business, the glory of the former retail giants has gone forever.