Supermarket logistics

Author: Liu Lianhui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-02-01
Features: Modern Logistics Series Textbook. People have gradually realized that while transforming sales formats, they should also reform logistics methods, viewing logistics as the last hurdle to improving corporate profits. This book addresses this field, offering insights on aspects such as commodity procurement management, storage, distribution, distribution centers, logistics management information, and performance evaluation, serving as a foundational guide for supermarkets to establish logistics systems. In the final chapter, the book provides case studies of three successful enterprises for reference. Finally, it is suitable for logistics students and also applicable to large supermarket managers.
As a new retail format, supermarkets have brought about the second revolution in retail commerce with their "customer self-service, one-stop shopping model, focusing on mid-to-low-end goods like food and daily necessities, implementing a high-rotation, low-margin, affordable-quality sales strategy." They have earned the title of "price destroyers," not only changing traditional sales and shopping methods but also people's lifestyles, significantly boosting commodity circulation. Since their birth in the United States in 1930, supermarkets have become the leading force in global retail commerce.
In recent decades, supermarkets of all sizes have sprung up in cities across China, threatening to eliminate countless small shops and cornering large department stores. As traditional retail and department stores decline, competition among supermarkets has intensified. Supermarkets focused solely on sales format changes have begun to feel the pressure and crisis of fierce market competition. People have come to realize that while transforming sales formats, they must also reform logistics methods. Logistics organizational models, procurement technology, distribution technology, store logistics technology, and logistics information technology have become the focal points of supermarket operations, with logistics regarded as the last hurdle to improving corporate profits. In the 21st century, whoever controls logistics controls the market. As a result, some financially strong large supermarkets have begun to build their own logistics supply chain systems, exploring new organizational models, expanding through chain stores, and investing heavily in modern logistics (distribution) centers to enhance their logistics capabilities.
Furthermore, with China's entry into the WTO, large foreign supermarkets such as Germany's Metro and the United States' Walmart have begun to enter China's retail market, opening stores in various cities and causing significant disruptions to urban retail structures. A fierce retail competition and transformation is about to unfold across China, creating a sense of urgency. Chinese commercial workers increasingly recognize the need to build corporate logistics core competitiveness.
Given the scarcity of specialized literature on supermarket logistics operations and its importance as a core technology in supermarket management, to help supermarket operators better understand and master the operational principles and key points of supermarket logistics in response to market demands, some teachers from the Logistics Department of Hunan University of Engineering, under the guidance of China Materials Publishing House, have compiled the book Supermarket Logistics based on years of teaching experience. It is dedicated to readers as a foundational guide, aiming to inspire further research on logistics in commercial retail enterprises.