Carrefour Planet is the new store concept created by Carrefour, the second largest retailer in the world. For quite a while now the hypermarket format is going in limbo. France has always been the land of the "everything under the same roof" concept, which was actually invented by Carrefour. As a matter of fact, even Sam Walton, founder of Wal Mart acknowledged he had the idea of Wal Mart while visiting some Carrefour stores in Brazil.Hypermarkets have thrived on the automobile boom. "No Parking = No business" was the motto. But with the high cost of gas right now, and with dramatic consumption behavior changes in France, the hypermarket marketshares are plummeting.
Hence Carrefour Planet seems to be the answer designed by Carrefour. Here are some of the new ideas that are in it:
- Some brand booth has been designed: In order to get some specific know how in certain areas, Carrefour has set partnership with leaders like Virgin for cultural products, Apple to set an Apple booth, or L’Oreal to design its cosmetic department.
- New services are proposed to customers: A hair dresser for 10€ for example.
What is for sure is that Carrefour has made a remarkable communication strategy around it. The day of the stores opening the French magazine "Que Choisir" released an article on how French customers were unsatisfied with hypermarkets. Carrefour made a remarkable job leveraging this article that made the headlines of French newspapers to provide evidences on how Carrefour Planet will solve those issues.
I can't wait to see this concept.
