With coronavirus and home office, Hirota launches market for condominiums

The Hirota supermarket chain has just launched a new model of stores, aimed at residential condominiums. The store, without any human contact, will be opened by reading QR code and purchases will be made by self check out.
There are more than 500 items aimed at convenience, from charcoal to barbecue to drinks, snacks and traditional ready meals of the chain.
The expansion plan foresees 12 more stores by the end of the year and the goal is to reach 100 stores of this model by 2025. For this purpose, the network has partnered with OMA Administradora de Condomínios, which manages more than 500 projects. Condos earn a percentage on sales.
According to Hélio Freddi, director of the network, the store model was initially born to serve people who did not leave their homes during the pandemic. "But we realized that all the residents received the project very well. We want to bring a differentiated shopping experience to condominiums that offers comfort, safety, healthy environment and innovation in technology", he says.
The supply will be made from the nearest stores, by a repository that will visit the store daily or every two days.
Two stores will be inaugurated in July, one in the Cambuci region and the other in Tatuapé, each in a condominium with profiles of different social classes. "We want to understand what the audience responds to, how this model works for each social class," says the director.
And if a store does not have a profitability, just move to another condominium: the spaces are built inside containers that can be moved. The investment per store is also less than the Express format, of 150,000 reais. The expectation is to bill about 50,000 reais per month.
Bringing the market closer to consumers was already the goal of the network before the pandemic. It was thinking about this that she created, a few years ago, the Express format, with ready meals, ATM and other amenities that already has 24 units in São Paulo, in addition to the 16 largest supermarkets.
The convenience format has also reached corporate offices, with markets at banks such as Itaú, Santander and Bradesco, and there are plans for new markets in Mercedes Benz and Vivo offices. It was also expected to take the market to the São Paulo subway, with the opening of a unit at eucalyptus station, lilac line, later this year.
These expansion plans were delayed because of the pandemic of the new coronavirus. "There are no more people on the streets or in the offices and the Express format lives off day-to-day sales," freddi says. Convenience sales fell 60%, while supermarkets grew by 15% to 18% in the period.
There are plans to open four more supermarkets in the next two years and new office stores – these, only when people return to work physically.
In addition to the markets in residential condominiums, the company also invested in the e-commerce of the pandemic. From a minimum stake of 0.6%, e-commerce now accounts for 8% of sales. Present in the platforms iFood, Rappi, Supermercado Now and Cornershop, the network is preparing to launch its own application.