The tale of two Korean Supermarkets in London

Korea Foods and H Mart.

Both are supermarkets in New Malden serving the local Korean community.

We have visited both supermarkets, and there was different levels of activity. One had a constant queue at the tills, and with the other, it was occasional.

Yet, both have their market segments as they have been at that location for more than 20 years.

So, what is the difference - they are selling the same products at the same price. But one appears busier than the other. Could it be a result of their location?

It is located in a business park. It is at the end of the cul-de-sac with an adjacent car park.

It is within New Malden. It is convenient for customers to go in, make a purchase and leave easily.

Whenever we go there, it is busy, and there is always a queue with the checkout.

Korea Foods:

It is located in a business park by a slip road to the dual carriage A3 highway. You go into the business park on a one-way slip road and exit to the same slip road. This road takes the customer out of New Malden, and this will add another 10 mins to the journey in the complicated network of road junctions.

When we are there, It is not always busy.

It is my inference that retail customers prefer the H Mart because there is less hassle to get there.

Korea Foods claim to be Europe's Leading importer of Korean Foods.

Comment:

When selecting a location for a retail or wholesale business, the ease of access needs to be considered. This is particularly important in a retail business where convenience is important.

There is another case – Costco (Sunbury). To get to Costco, you have to use a slip road to the A316 dual carriage highway. When you leave the store, you have to go to the slip road, join the A316 and use the nearest turn off to return to Sunbury. This inconvenience can add another 10 to 15 mins to the journey. This discourages me from using this store.

I would like to refer you to Tesco's venture in the US. They also made the same error. I visited a Fresh N Easy store on the West coast. It was located on the main highway BUT, it was on the side leaving the City. It was totally inconvenient to the customer.

I later spoke to a land agent there. Tesco had over 100 stores, with quite a few located on the wrong side of the highway. Convenient access to the store is easily forgotten when the decision making is clouded by the market research data. There is a need to get back to reality - convenience to the customer.

The customer makes the final decision!