【The Savior of 'Shopping Refugees' to Close After Only One Year】
Last September, an 'A-Coop' supermarket affiliated with the JA (Agricultural Cooperative) closed down in a town in Tottori Prefecture, leaving residents, especially the elderly, with no place to shop. When a local supermarket, which can be considered a lifeline, disappears, daily life suddenly becomes extremely inconvenient.
In response, a council made up of local residents and others rented a nearby city hall branch building to attract a new supermarket. They managed to open the store by outsourcing operations to a company in Maniwa City, Okayama Prefecture.
👤 Hearing this far, I thought:
・The business that responded to the request to open must have had a strong sense of mission, right?
・The local residents who were troubled by the loss of the store must protect it by shopping there actively!
I sent cheers to both the customers and the store, along with memories of when I did the same thing (opening stores in the vacant spaces of closed supermarkets: 12 locations).
☝️ However, this is the news that this store will close in one year.
To summarize the roundabout article:
① Even the local residents who wanted a store so badly didn't go shopping there that much
→ If there is no store, customers (the elderly) will somehow manage to go to alternative stores to shop
② The store didn't have the products customers wanted + the prices were higher than expected!
→ Even though they lamented the 'presence or absence' of a store, and a successor finally arrived, their evaluation changed to 'cheap or expensive' and 'good or bad' (I won't call it selfish, but...)
👤 That is exactly it!
Contrary to the wishes of the store side and the people who attracted it, customers “will not frequent a store they are not satisfied with.” That is what it means.
In a ruthless competitive society, the intentions of the administration (Do something because the residents are making a fuss!) and the easy 'schemes' of the opening side, such as 'Can we get a lot of subsidies?' or 'We can improve our image through community contribution,' disappear in an instant.
As someone who understands the feelings of the business operator to some extent, I agree with the early closure to prevent further bleeding.
This is different from a Lopia opening after a Yokado closes. I, too, have been laughed at many times, being told,“There is no way you will succeed by running a supermarket after one has already gone bankrupt!”
At that time, I thought 'Just you wait' and worked hard (even declining subsidies), but looking at my current situation, that was indeed the wise choice (^^;
It may sound harsh, but I want you to rethink setting up another supermarket just because there is one that has already closed due to falling sales. If it closes in a year like in this case, it's all for nothing. 'Shopping refugees' are also managing somehow on their own. No one has starved to death because of it.
Local governments should also realize that the town is no longer viable as a commercial area. Even if the store they wanted is built, customers will never be satisfied.
(Please forgive this radical opinion from someone with experience 🙏🏻)