Announced, postponed to finally be... canceled?
Mere's arrival in France seems to have taken a back seat in recent days.
The Russian hard-discount brand, which promises on its site prices “
10 to 20% lower than those of competitors
”, including compared to Aldi or Lidl, no longer gives any sign of life.
The opening of the first store in Thionville (Moselle), initially announced in October 2021, then in January 2022, is again postponed to an unknown date.
On the side of the municipalities concerned, these incessant reversals of situations have ended up tiring.
Read alsoMere, the Russian hard discounter who wants to set up in France
"
A file at a standstill
", on the side of Pont-Sainte-Marie (dawn), one of the three locations selected to host the first stores, the mystery is total.
Same thing in Thionville, where “
we have no information
”.
"
Nobody knows anything
", clarifies Olivier Dauvers, specialist in distribution and mass consumption.
For him as for all the actors, the subsidiary of the Svetofor group (traffic light in Russian), originating from Krasnoyarsk, in Siberia is a mystery.
An attitude at odds with the ambitious objectives announced by the group on the internet.
"
The company plans to open stores in all major cities of France
" and "
we are happy to cooperate with the owners of the premises for the stores, with the manufacturers of products, the producers as well as with the entrepreneurs
", writes Mere.
A place to take
To succeed in offering prices that are clearly lower than the competition, the chain adopts the codes of hard discount by reducing the operating costs of its sites as much as possible:
“The store has no shelves, counters or sellers.
The goods are sold in pallets or crates”
, explains the chain.
The number of references is also reduced to a bare minimum.
The importation of products from abroad and especially from Eastern Europe is commonly used.
Finally, the structure intends to pay the suppliers only for the goods sold, returning to them those which are not.
Read alsoLidl and Aldi on the offensive in France
The brand is already well established in Eastern Europe (Romania, Poland, Lithuania, etc.) and has been opening stores in the west for several years.
However, its strategy raises questions: “
when you want to conquer a new region, you target a country and go all out with several stores.
Once you are established, you move on to another country... Mere opens four stores in Spain, four in Germany, now France and the United Kingdom...
”, points out Olivier Dauvers.
Erratic behavior that seems to reflect a lack of vision at the top of the group, according to the expert.
Read alsoThe Zouari consolidate the discount sector
Yet “
a place for a hard discounter
” exists in France, he underlines.
“
Aldi and Lidl have moved upmarket and aim more for value for money than for the cheapest price
,” explains Olivier Dauvers, “
but there is always a clientele ready to make any sacrifice for the price
.”
He therefore considers the arrival of a new hard-discount player to be inevitable.
Only the date of implantation is subject to discussion.
But if Mother doesn't take the opportunity, someone else will.
