Published on July 16, 2005

Consumers are now buying items for daily use in larger quantities to reduce the number of shopping trips they have to make and thereby save on transportation costs, according to an executive of Big C Supercentre Plc.

Jariya Chirathivat, vice-president for marketing and communications, said there was an obvious change in buying behaviour in that consumers now tended to buy products in bigger amounts and shop less frequently. The average billing per customer had risen by 10 to 15 per cent from last month, she said.

The company introduced a new concept for its “Leader Price” stores at its fifth branch in the Navanakorn area on Bangkok’s outskirts, which opened in the second quarter this year. The concept store has only 300 square metres of space instead of 1,000 square metres like the other stores, and up to half the products on sale are Big C’s in-house brands.

All five Leader Price branches are in Bangkok and surrounding areas.

Jariya said the larger number of in-house products was to create more customer awareness of Big C’s brands.

The company will assess the response to the new concept after it has been open for six months, and if positive it will apply it in the other four branches before the year’s end.

Jariya said the products available at Leader Price stores were also sold at Big C Supercentre outlets and labelled “Leader Price” on the packaging. These products are between 10 and 20 per cent cheaper than similar brand-name goods, she said.

“Sales of our in-house brands totalled Bt1 billion last year,” she said, adding that revenue from in-house brands had grown 15 per cent last year and was expected to grow 20 per cent this year.

Big C plans to launch three to four new in-house brands this year, including Comforta and Country cloth products, she said.

Big C yesterday launched a “More Shopping, More Discounts” promotion under which customers get a Bt10 discount coupon for every Bt100 worth of goods bought that can be used on their next purchase. The scheme ends on July 27.

There are now between 1,500 and 1,600 products labelled “Leader Price” or “First Price”, another of Big C’s low-price labels, 400 more than last year. These make up approximately 5 per cent of the products available at Big C.

The company’s 42nd Big C Supercentre outlet will open on Phetkasem Road tomorrow. Big C spent Bt300 million on the 6,000-square-metre branch, which it calls compact.

The store is expected to serve 1.5 million customers in the first year and is initially offering Bt40 discount coupons to visitors to build up business.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation

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