Avenue Supermart owned DMart hypermarket chain was no exception and witnessed diminishing footfalls in its stores during COVID-19 as social distancing is keeping customers away from crowded locations. It also had lower sale of general merchandise and apparel categories perhaps due to deferment of purchases. The company is trying to offset lower footfalls by keeping its stores open for longer hours (24X7 in some cases) to spread out shoppers through the day. D-Mart is also witnessing a shift in the profile of shoppers – the proportion of upper-middle income class customers has diminished more, understandably so as they are less value conscious.
Dmart has not thought about the kirana digitization model. The success of this chain has been its own sourcing and supply chain operations are efficient enough to ensure low costs throughout the value chain. Large stores help the company in two ways: (1) they are more capex efficient on a per sq. ft basis, and (2) they provide a greater runway for (more…)