Uptown supermarket reopens w/ new look

As Cebu’s retail industry flourish with the opening of new malls and retail shops, competition also intensified in the city so Robinsons Supermarket in the uptown area renovated its store to keep up.

“We decided to renovate to follow the design format of Robinsons’ stores nationwide. We also did this to provide more customer convenience and so we can serve them much better,” said Robinsons Supermarket Corp. operations manager for Visayas and Mindanao Michael G. So in an interview.

 Go said that pre-renovation stage, their aisles used to be narrow for their big pushcarts but now their new floor plan enables their customers to walk through easily and find what they look for as the sections are more highlighted and well arranged.

The renovation of the supermarket has been started last April this year and Robinsons had a re-launch last August.

“The store now looks more spacious, well lit and aisles are wider for customer convenience. So far, there have been a lot of positive feedbacks from our shoppers and mall goers and they have been very appreciative of the new concept,” said So.

The entire store measures around 2, 300 square meters and around 30 percent of its floor area has been allocated to their fresh section composed of meat, poultry, fresh fruits, vegetables and other fresh produce.

Robinsons Place Cebu has been established in 1985 and in terms of sales per square meters, the supermarket ranks around second to third in their Robinsons Supermarket nationwide operations in terms of sales, said So.

“The branch is able to attract huge customer traffic and make big sales even if it is compact,” said So.

So agreed that currently, competition is tough but he stressed that their store is already well established and it has its own huge following because of its accessibility.

“Competition-wise, it is really tight right now so we keep our prices competitive and we also have aggressive marketing programs,” he said.

 With today’s glooming crisis and the incremental increases on food prices, So is still optimistic to achieve positive sales this year. — Rhia de Pablo