A Giant with Hero’s smile.
About five year
ago..Carrefour open the flagship store and it head office at a strategies place
in South Jakarta . Lebak bulus Intersection. Next to Stadium Lebak bulus. Close to Lebak Bulus bus
station .Opposite to Pondok Indah main gate. The store successfully operate and
gradually hurt two supermarket at our area, Hero Ciputat and Hero Lebak bulus,
that closest to my neighborhood.
My preference switched.
Carrefour became my new favorite place for monthly shopping. But Ayah didn’t.
My beloved husband still loyal with Hero Lebak Bulus. “I hate long queue at
carrefour” was his main reason. He always shopping at Hero for his daily stuff.
How come Hero could sustain among that tough
competition? As I read on it advertising, their try new positioning by campaign
new slogan Think Fresh. Think Hero. Don’t know whether the strategy work out or
not, but I could sense there were a good improvement in their service. The
Cashier always smile .The operation staff were very helpful. It’s a convenience
supermarket for shopping in. No wonder they have loyal customer –like Ayah. The
Customer who willing to pay more for this additional value.
Year by year their tried to
survive….but last two weeks…When I passed by Lebak Bulus Raya-surprisingly
there was no more Hero. A Giant Replace it. Uhm..I felt sorry.. remember many
cashiers , store manager, operation supervisor, did they also replace?
Today, we stop by at that
new Giant Lebak Bulus. At the parking lot my husband mumble “ Gorgeous…I feel sad
about this Hero, don’t you remember that Abang had grown up together with that
store?” Ayah and I remembered how baby
“Abang” – our first son who 12 years old now-had been supplied a lot from this
Hero. Baby Milk. Bottle and Nipple. Diapers. Snack. Minced beef. Toys.Cloth. Baby toiletries, and many more. Everything that
our baby need, was bough at this Hero. Seem like this supermarket had historical
emotional bounding with our family.
“The retail industry had
tough competition.. Honey, Hero had been a market leader for such
longtime..nowdays the trend is change. People prefer hyper mart ..with low
margin from producer..and high operation cost..I think Its hard for Hero to
survive” I tried to explain him.
“Wow !! its yellow..” that
the fist Abang impression for that store ambiance ..its new..its different
brand..no more blue-red Hero identity colour..its yellow giant now..everywhere.
We look around curiously. .tried
to find out some familiar face there..Uhm..I’m glad their still some person in
cashier line…the same operation supervisor..and they still recognize Ayah as
their loyal customer. My husband express his
concern to them by saying “I feel sorry this Hero become Giant now”.
“Don’t worry sir…we’re still
under same management” They reply with positive enthusiasm…. and I could see
that the still serve the customer with hero standard of service, although their
wear Giant uniform now.
Well, by working in FMCG
industry, I truly understand that Hero and Giant belongs to the same company.
They differentiation the brand by put low price strategies for Giant and
convenience service concept at Hero…and now our district have an exceptional
supermarket…a low price Giant served by Hero’s ex-employee…I describe it as… A
Giant with Hero’s smile.
