A careful young man picks up a leak in the county town “Sam”

author| Leopard becomes Gao Yuzhe

With the change of consumption concepts, county warehousing supermarkets have sprung up, attracting young consumers with low-cost strategies. These local warehouses cancel membership and maintain low-cost advantages through supply chain optimization. But in the game between quality and price, can County Sam truly stand firm?

Young people’s concept of saving money is changing the consumption landscape of the county.

While membership-based warehousing supermarkets such as Sam and Metro were still attacking cities and seizing land in first-tier cities, a group of localized Sam Pingdi had quietly emerged in the county. They do not have high membership fees or carefully designed shopping routes, but with their extremely low prices and rich categories, they are attracting more and more young consumers who are careful.

Young people living in the county have long learned to skillfully collect wool. They squat in the WeChat group after 8 p.m., waiting for discounted products to be sold as soon as possible that day. Even young people from big cities flocked to surrounding counties to sweep goods. Craft beer costs 3.5 yuan and roast chicken costs 9 yuan, allowing them to live a middle-class life in the county.

Nowadays, cost performance has become the consumption keyword of the younger generation. This change in consumption concepts not only brings new opportunities to the sinking market, but also gives birth to a new retail format, county-level warehousing supermarket. How can they achieve sustained low prices? Can we find an innovation path different from traditional membership?

From purchasing to early adopters, young people’s reverse consumption

Every time she returns to her hometown, Wang Qing marvels at the changes in this third-tier city in Shaanxi. In her memory, two years ago, young people here were still keen on Mixue Ice City. Now, walking in Wanda Plaza, Internet celebrity tea drinks such as Xi Tea, Naixue Tea, and LINLEE Forest Handmade Lemon Tea have long become commonplace. But what surprised her the most was a warehouse supermarket called Zku.

On the eve of the Spring Festival, when Wang Qing walked into the supermarket, the huge yellow and blue shelves instantly gave her the illusion of being in Sam. Not only are there Swiss rolls and Thousand Durian layers with Sam’s same model here, but signs showing refund if they don’t taste good can also be seen everywhere in the fresh fruit area. In addition, there are free tasting sites every few meters in the entire supermarket’s baking, drinks, desserts, snacks and other areas.

What is even more exciting is the price: the original price of strawberry box cake in Box Horse is 88.8 yuan, but it only costs 49.9 yuan here; Sam’s original price of 80 yuan is 8 yuan, and only costs 28.7 yuan. In addition to the same hot products, the prices of other products are also equally touching. Wang Qing bought a hydrangea bouquet of 9.9 yuan and cherries weighing 117 yuan and 5 kilograms here. Two or three hours later, she was completely conquered by the dazzling array of goods and low prices.

A similar story is also staged in Suizhong County, Liaoning Province. Li Fei, who had just returned to his hometown, discovered the local Dianlai Global Commodity Discount Warehouse in an inconspicuous three-story building.

Although this warehouse supermarket is relatively remote, it has attracted many consumers with ultra-low-priced products such as 3.5 yuan craft beer and 7.5 yuan French 1664 beer. Compared with the monotony of traditional supermarkets, these warehouse-style supermarkets have a wider variety of products and lower prices, making them a new choice for young people to pick up leaks.

Although in terms of product display, the county’s warehousing supermarkets are not as sophisticated as Sam and more like a large wholesale market, it is this down-to-earth model that allows ordinary people to enjoy the fun of ultra-low-priced shopping. There is no need to pay membership fees here, no low consumption requirements, and you can experience the shopping experience of a middle-class trial for tens of hundreds of yuan.

The rise of this consumption phenomenon reflects the change in young people’s consumption concepts. After experiencing the baptism of brand consumption, more and more people are beginning to return to rational consumption. Some people even drive from large cities to surrounding counties to purchase, using reverse consumption to find cost-effective products.

Membership system is not working, and the main focus is low prices

In recent years, it has become a consensus that consumer brands compete to sink the market. The consumption of young people in the county also needs the adjustment of new brands and new models. Some online celebrity restaurants settled in low-tier cities earlier, but only large warehousing supermarkets such as Sam and Costco have been vacant. Due to the mismatch between supply and demand, the purchasing business of Sam, Hema and Pang Donglai gradually developed into an industrial chain.

It is this kind of market opportunity that gave birth to the rise of county warehousing supermarkets, and the sinking market began to spontaneously replicate local Sam. From 2024 to the beginning of 2025, honest people’s supermarket chain in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province will successively open two warehousing supermarkets at its headquarters in Xianyang and Baoji. Star retail supermarket discount cattle in Zhengzhou, Henan Province invested tens of millions to open its first large-scale warehouse.

Although these local warehouses are very cost-effective, compared with traditional supermarkets of the same brand, they are still targeting the local middle-class population.

A warehouse staff member of Honest Man revealed to Leopard Transformation that the Xianyang store is located close to the villa area. Discount Cattle said that the location of warehouse stores is more convenient for families with cars to visit, and the customer unit price of warehouse stores is higher than that of traditional retail stores under the brand.

On the road to copying Sam, the first hurdle in the county’s warehousing is to cancel the paid membership system. In counties that focus on cost performance, consumers are particularly sensitive to membership fees. Previously, a warehouse store in Gaobeidian, Hebei Province had an annual fee of 199 yuan and could not be used with ordinary supermarkets under the same brand, which was questioned by consumers. Judging from the number of warehousing supermarkets that have emerged in recent years, at least at this stage, membership fees are difficult to apply in low-tier cities.

Storage supermarkets can only carry out localized transformation according to local conditions. Take the Discount Cattle Wholesale City Center in Zhengzhou, Henan Province as an example. This warehouse supermarket covering an area of more than 10000 square meters has a warehouse like display style like the IKEA version of a large supermarket. One of the characteristics of the entire warehousing is that it covers multiple categories and follows the low-cost route.

In order to catch up with the head warehousing model, local warehousing is also developing self-operated products, such as discount cattle launching self-operated eggs, rice noodles, milk, etc. These self-operated products also emphasize cost performance. At discount, one kilogram of thick milk cheese only sells for 13.9 yuan, and one kilogram of yogurt only costs 5.9 yuan.

How to maintain low prices without membership fees? The staff of Discount Cattle told “Leopard Change” that maintaining low prices requires continuously optimizing the supply chain, reducing intermediate links, and increasing the proportion of self-operated products.

In terms of supply chain, they directly cooperate with factories in the form of cash purchases, and reduce terminal prices through centralized procurement. Large-scale procurement can reduce costs. The prices of traditional supermarket chains with discount cattle are 20-25% lower than those of ordinary community stores. The prices of warehouse supermarkets are mostly lower than Sam’s Box Horse in terms of basic daily necessities and fresh food.

In addition, compared with Sam and Box Horse, local warehousing supermarkets do not have the high labor costs and various marketing routines of first-tier cities. They only pass on the most practical low prices to consumers, and become a haven for leaks in the eyes of young people.

Copying popular models is difficult for long

Under the trend of new consumer brands being transmitted to low-tier cities, Sam has shouted the slogan of layout and sinking the market in recent years, and opened county-level stores in Kunshan, Jiangsu, and Jinjiang, Quanzhou. From a geographical location, these two locations are quite clever. Kunshan connects Shanghai and Suzhou, and is close to Xiamen and other cities. These stores are more likely to cover the overflow crowd in surrounding big cities than to truly touch the sinking market.

This gives local warehousing supermarkets opportunities, but it also faces challenges. A consumer from the northeastern county town told “Leopard Transformation” that the local storage supermarket is indeed cost-effective, but it is filled with popular Internet celebrities whose quality may not meet the standards, from a thousand layers of durian for less than 20 yuan to a taste that matches the original. The Swiss roll of Earl Black Tea, which has nothing to do with it, reveals the flavor of copycat everywhere.

The overwhelming number of purchasing has brought Sam, Box Horse, and Pang Donglai’s Internet celebrity products to various regions. In the early days of business, local warehousing relied on Durian Melaleuca and craft beer produced by the OEM to attract the first batch of young people in the county. However, once the front line is lengthened, product reputation will become particularly important.

Leading retailers have long realized the importance of self-operated products. As of the end of 2022, the sales of Hema’s self-operated products accounted for 35%, and the proportion is expected to reach half in 2025; Sam’s private brand sales accounted for more than one-third; Pang Donglai worked overtime as a reformer and did not forget to introduce self-operated products.

Only by increasing the proportion of self-operated products can the brand be more differentiated and competitive. This is also the reason for the emergence of a large number of overseas purchasing products. For consumers, these products cannot be purchased through other channels.

In contrast, the proportion of local warehousing and self-operated products is relatively low. A customer of Baoji Z Warehouse said that although there are many fresh food, aquatic products, and imported fruits here, even more than box horses, there are few impressions of self-operated products. Staff of the Discount Cattle Supermarket Chain revealed that the proportion of self-operated products in its traditional supermarkets currently only accounts for 10%-15%. In the future, the company will focus on increasing the proportion of self-operated products in warehousing stores.

For small warehouses in the county, the challenge is even more severe. They have to face multiple challenges such as the diversion of purchasing and community group buying, as well as the extreme sensitivity of sinking markets to prices. This has also led to unsatisfactory operating conditions in many counties.

Local warehousing has indeed filled the gap in the sinking market, but to achieve sustainable development, it is not enough to rely solely on copying hot money and fighting price wars. How to combine local consumption habits to create differentiated competitive advantages may be the way for the small city of Sam to break through.“”

Do you think the county warehouse supermarket is fragrant?