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one place for all your basic needs and more!
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Within the last decade, the Klang Valley has seen the birth and invasion of such hypermarkets as Giant, Makro, Carrefour and Tesco.These hypermarkets continuously advertise offering the lowest prices with the widest product range, which is true to a certain extent: they conveniently omit the fact that not all products offered are of the lowest prices. Nevertheless, it has its desired effect of attracting the crowd, which does not bode well for the smaller supermarkets and retailers. We all know that once the crowd is at one hypermarket to purchase the products on special, human nature is to just buy whatever else they may need there, even if it means paying a little bit more. Its all about convenience. So, the hypermarkets retain their customers and thrive. Plus, it helps that hypermarkets are generally located in suburbs and residential areas. So, with any industry that fares well, more will hop onto the bandwagon, and the fourth and latest to join the fray will be the British chain Tesco which is scheduled to open in May 2002.
Next came the hypermarket chain from The Netherlands, Makro, which operates on a club membership method offering purchasing in bulk. As we all know, buying in bulk is always cheaper. Similar to Giant, Makro offers perishable to non-perishable products as well as their own in-house brand merchandise: Fresh Pack (meat products), High Style (fashion items) and ARO (household products).
Realizing this, the
hypermarket quickly added more local merchandise to remain competitive.
In addition, this hypermarket chain has also brazenly come up with the
tag lines of "Lowest Prices Guaranteed - We'll refund you TWICE the
price difference!" and "Refund NO questions asked…"
Mighty brave of these guys! Nevertheless, since its first outlet then,
there are currently six Carrefour hypermarkets throughout the Peninsula.
Nevertheless, since that first little store, Tesco has mushroomed to 979 stores worldwide with over 260,000 employees. In the 1990s, they decided to expand beyond the shores of Great Britain and opened a Tesco in Hungary in 1994. This was followed with store openings in Poland, Slovakia, the Czeck Republic and the Republic of Ireland. To date, there are Tesco stores in 10 countries in Asia and Europe. In Asia, Tesco can be found in Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and now Malaysia! Already a worldwide household name, Tesco now brings its quality products to Malaysians. In line with Tesco International's business objectives, Tesco Malaysia offers up to 86,000 food products ranging from perishables to non-perishables. What's more, in addition to the local brands, this hypermarket is also stocked with roughly 2,000 of his own label of products, which are surprisingly very affordable! This is certainly good news for shoppers. In total, Tesco plans
to open 15 hypermarkets throughout the country within the next five years
with investments totaling RM1.2 billion. With one in Puchong, Malacca,
Klang and another coming up in Mutiara Damansara, that leaves 11 more
outlets to go. Lets keep our ears and eyes peeled out for the next one!
Giant Hypermarket
Tesco Hypermarket
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