The owners of small shops near apartment buildings complained a year ago that the international groups, which opened about 300 stores in Bucharest and around it, had left them without customers and their only salvation was that they were open around the clock. The foreign supermarket chains are now expanding into that time interval, too.
“We now have several stores that stay open until 11 p.m. or midnight, and have recently started testing 24/7 service in two stores, Mega Image Piata Muncii and Mega Image Lizeanu. Depending on the results of the tests and the specificity of the area, we will consider expanding 24/7 service to more stores,” says Mihaela Blaj, communication coordinator with Belgian-held Mega Image.
Mega Image operates three store formats in Romania: supermarkets by the same name, Shop&Go convenience stores and frozen food store AB Cool Food.
Another retailer testing around the clock service is Profi, a supermarket chain controlled by private equity fund Enterprise Investors, which keeps five stores open around the clock.
The first retailer to stay open twenty-four hours a day was Real, with its hypermarket in the AFI Palace Cotroceni mall. Rival Carrefour was next with one of its stores in central Bucharest.
They are not the direct competitors of traditional stores because most nighttime customers usually go to a small shop next to their apartment building to buy cigarettes, soda or a loaf of bread, not to do their weekly shopping. Therefore traditional shops are battling supermarkets over this customer segment.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)