International retailers’ networks, however, have quadrupled in size to 1,700 hypermarkets, supermarkets, discount and cash&carry stores. Moreover, they started opening convenience stores in recent years, driving small traditional retailers out of business.
Modern retailers say their expansion is not destroying 100% official traditional retail but the informal and ‘gray’ retail that stood at one third of the total traditional retail two or three years ago, according to the information available.
“Profi takes civilized and taxed retail and the comfort of modern retail to the most diverse areas (…) the Romanian market is far from saturated,” says Daniel Cirstea, general manager of Profi supermarket chain, the second largest chain in Romania by number of stores.
On the other hand, Feliciu Paraschiv, the owner of Paco network, which numbers seven stores and generates RON50 million revenue, says ‘any economy, no matter how developed it might be, still has an informal or gray component. We in Romania, need to weigh which is better, have an informal retail component which means money spent in Romania that stays in the country’s economy or 100% formal modern retail with chains like Lidl that repatriate their whole profit?”
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)