The story
Early years (1997–2004)
In 1997, Wing Fung Group, one of the famous pharmacy groups in Macau, opened their first Royal Supermarket in Mercado de S. Lourenço. Royal Supermarket intended to target the customers who had high purchasing power, so they usually sold their products at higher prices by comparison with other local supermarkets.
2005–2007
When Jeff Chang finished his study in Australia, he went back to Macau and was designated to be the chairman of the Royal Group. He discovered that there were some problems in the company, such as the slow product turnover rate, low efficiency of the employees, and the old image of the company. He knew that the company needed a revolution to be "The supermarket for Macau people." In 2005, the new logo of the Royal Supermarket was released. At the same time, employees' new uniforms, new price tags, and new plastic bags were released in order to bring a fresh image to Macau people. "People not only come to Royal to shop their products, but also the shopping experience," he said. In 2006, Royal's seventh branch in Venceslau dé Morais, the largest supermarket in Macau, was opened. What came into his mind was he would like to spread the target customers level. He tried to encourage teenagers to shop at Royal. This is quite different from the ancient view that supermarkets always targeted housewives. Moreover, in 2007, Royal Supermarket accepted the famous electronic payment Macau Pass in all of its branches, Royal being the first retail corporations to accept Macau Pass at that time.
Growth years (2008–2012)
Although the Subprime mortgage crisis attacked the economy in Hong Kong and Macau, Royal's business was still growing at a steady rate. Royal expanded its branches boldly in 2008, nearly located a new branch every month. The most successful stores are the branches near the Praca das Portas do Cerco. For example, the Royal 15th branch was located in front of the thoroughfare to ZhuHai, China. Many customers from mainland China always did rush shopping there, especially in peak hours. Long waiting lines can always be seen there even if Royal has placed more cashiers in that store. The operating hour was from 10:00 to 23:30 in the first month though, later on it had extended immediately.
In 2012, Royal has promoted many functions such as the “Scratch and Snatch Travelling Prize," "Royal Taiwanese food festival," and "Royal Japanese-Korean food festival" to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Royal.
Target the high-end years (2013–2014)
Royal Group has opened two new brands of supermarkets in Macau. They are used to target wealthy customers. One is called "Supreme Food Market," which is mainly selling imported goods and ingredients; the other one is called "Grand Mart," which only sells Japanese goods. Grand Mart even has fresh stalls selling sushi and sashimi in order to be of a similar operation to a Japanese supermarket.
Until Feb 2014, Royal Group had 30 branches in Macau and 4 branches in Mainland-China. It has the largest supermarket-chain in Macau, compared to their major competition Parknshop which has 15 branches and San Miu Supermarket which has 14 branches.
From Wikipedia’s article on Royal Supermarket, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3