More men shop at supermarkets
More men shop at supermarkets
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
To kill time while waiting for his internist to show up in a
hospital, 53-year-old Achmad decided to make a quick visit to a
nearby hypermarket.
"Knowing that my son wanted a DVD player, I went to Makro to
check out prices. I bought one right away because it was cheap,"
said Achmad, who frequently goes to hypermarkets for monthly
grocery shopping with his family.
Achmad said he enjoyed going to hypermarkets because they
provided more complete household goods than other modern retail
outlets, such as supermarkets and minimarkets.
"Whenever I enter a hypermarket, I go straight to the
electronic and hardware sections and my wife to the personal care
and food sections," he said, adding that he prefers going to a
hypermarket located inside a shopping center or mall.
Men living in cities in the country, just like Achmad, have
begun to discover the benefits of shopping in the increasing
number of hypermarkets, according to a recent survey by market
research firm ACNielsen.
ACNielsen's 2004 ShopperTrends survey -- which interviewed
1,029 Indonesians aged 15 to 65 with a monthly expenditure of
more than Rp 800,000 (US$83) between September and November last
year -- revealed that the number of men shopping at hypermarkets
had increased by 5 percent in the last seven days to 39 percent.
In contrast, the number of women declined by 5 percent to 61
percent.
The survey -- conducted in Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya --
showed that besides enjoying staying in a cool, clean and
comfortable space, the men could find various items of interest
or just sit back and relax in the food court while their spouses
were shopping.
ACNielsen Retailer and Business Development Director Yongky
Surya Susilo said for married men, shopping was a way of spending
quality time with their families and served as a media for self
actualization in establishing their role as head of the family.
As for singles, he said, it was more of a way to show off their
capacity to buy expensive things.
The combination of routine grocery shopping and family
recreation has shaped the Indonesian trade structure and
behavior. Today, Indonesian shoppers from the middle and upper
income bracket shopped at hypermarkets twice a month and went to
supermarkets, as often as weekly or once in two weeks, he said.
Due to the trend, Yongky said advertising agencies were
focusing their services more on helping large-format modern
retailers, especially hypermarkets, to increase competitiveness.
"They have to compete by increasing efficiency, driving prices
down, improving product supply, and creating innovative
merchandising and a consumer-focused operation," he said.
ACNielsen projected that by the end of this year, Indonesia
would have 100 hypermarkets, a 32 percent increase from 68
outlets as of last year. Currently, there are six hypermarket
companies operating here, namely Carrefour, Clubstore, Hypermart,
Alfa, Makro and Giant.
"This year Carrefour is to build five or six more outlets to
add to its existing 15, as will Giant which currently has 10
stores," said Yongky, adding that Alfa would also add one or two
outlets to its existing 35 and Hypermart 11 to its existing four.
Even though Achmad found shopping at hypermarkets a pleasure,
there were negative impacts he found hard to control like
purchasing "nice to have but unimportant" things.
"My wife got a little upset when I bought an air compressor
and an electric drill, which I then rarely used," he said, adding
as he bought too many goods at hypermarkets there tended to be an
oversupply at home. (001)