stores

Mercadona has fired its benefits but has also closed stores for the first time in years. The reason: the “stores 8”

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For the first time in decades, Mercadona reduced its physical network while firing benefits 37% to 1,384 million euros. No other Spanish chain approaches that figure. The paradox has a name: “Stores 8”, a format that can double profitability but forces to close establishments incompatible with it. What is happening. The chain went from 1,681 stores in 2023 to 1,674 in 2024, closing 49 establishments compared to 42 openings. It is not crisis: it is strategy. “8” stores “need spaces of 1,500 square meters to be efficient, impossible in much smaller stores, why they will work decades ago. “We are a assembly chain and the less variability it has, the better it works,” said Juan Roig in the presentation of 2024 results, according to Valencia Plaza. A well -located store 8 absorbs customers from several nearby small stores, concentrating traffic at more profitable points. It is a calculated cannibalization. In figures: 1,431 stores already function as store 8 (85.5% of the total). 10,000 million invested in 7 years of transformation. 3.88% record marginup to foreign chains such as Walmart (2.88%) or Costco (2.95%). 419 million allocated in 2024 only to adapt stores to the new model. The context. “8” stores “are diaphanous spaces with large corridors, advanced technology and new sections such as” ready to eat. ” They reduce energy consumption by 40% and improve purchase experience, but demand specific locations with good accesses and parking. Roig admits to make “frequently unpopular decisions” closing stores due to “small size, access problems or lack of profitability.” The model prioritizes operational uniformity over territorial capillarity: better few perfect stores than many mediocre. Yes, but. Nor are they “perfect stores.” Roig himself says it And his own name says: they are called that because “to get to 10 they must still incorporate new elements and services demanded by customers.” Deepen. Mercadona is changing its commercial map by store. The objective is to complete the 100% transformation in 2026, sacrificing less efficient establishments to concentrate investment in Premium locations. Operational perfection has become its competitive advantage, even if that means leaving some neighborhoods without a merchant as hand as before. Outstanding image | Mercadona In Xataka | Juan Roig believes that cooking at home has no future. There are eight million Spaniards who are already giving the right

Inditex has discovered that its giant stores are less and less profitable. The problem is that you can’t close them

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Barclays has put his finger on the sore of the Inditex business model. His analysts question whether the megatiendas of the textile giant can continue to generate the productivity improvements that have promoted their growth during the last decade, according to Five days. The origin of the doubts is in its weak growth of the start of the fiscal year, which has slowed that until now it was a strong and almost uninterrupted growth. What has happened. Between 2019 and 2024, Inditex has increased its sales by 37% despite reducing the number of stores by 29%. The average size of its establishments grew 23% to 836 square meters, but sales growth is deflated: 11% in March 2024 to 4% in March this year. Why is it important. The figures show an uncomfortable paradox: While online sales grow with higher margins and minor costs … … physical megatiendas devour resources and generate decreasing profitability. However, closing those megatiendas, in emblematic or high visibility locations, with very high costs that eat a good part of the margin, could be counterproductive. The context. The Inditex megatiendas They are not just stores: they are Showrooms strategic Its real function goes beyond maximizing sales per square meter, they also serve to legitimize online prices. A jacket of 80 euros on the Zara website seems reasonable because the customer can touch it, try it and validate its quality in a store, especially in a 1,000 square meters in the center of Madrid or Barcelona. And because of the fact that this brand is there, conquering that space. In detail. The model works like this: Megatiendas create the perception of premium brand that justifies online prices. It is not something that has invented Inditex or exclusive to fashion stores. McKinsey already talked about this phenomenon Before pandemic. Without that physical presence, Zara would lose some reputational credibility in the face of much cheaper purely digital competitors such as Shein. Physical spaces act as confidence anchors that allow to collect higher prices on the digital channel. Yes, but. The equation is complicated when the profitability of these Showrooms It deteriorates. Barclays estimates that the growth of sales per square meter will decelerate 8% historical annual to 3% in the next four years. Maintaining very expensive spaces that do not generate proportional direct benefits is a bit more difficult to sustain in the long term. Turning point. Inditex will possibly redefine your megatiendas without loading your strategic value. Closed would save costs but destroy a part of the credibility that supports online prices. Keep them as the margins are erodes. The departure is to reinvent them as brand theaters that justify their cost through their impact on the digital business. It is something very similar to what happens with telecos stores, especially Flagship: They maintain strategic establishments in central and privileged locations for a more reputational and Awareness (Brand recognition, perception, prestige) that by pure profitability. Outstanding image | Inditex In Xataka | Wallapop taught us to sell what was used. Decathlon has learned to earn money with it

getting more and less stores get more and less

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Something is changing in Inditex. And it is already very noticeable in your accounts. While the textile giant has closed one in four establishments in Spain since 2019, its digital strategy has triggered online sales to exceed 10,000 million euros for the first time, according to its last Financial results. The context. Inditex is in full and deep transformation of its business model, drastically reducing its physical presence while enhancing its digital channels. In the last six years has closed 25.5% of its stores in Spainbut far from affecting their results, total sales have grown by 36.5% in the same period. Why is it important. The Spanish fashion giant is rewriting its own rules, demonstrating that fewer stores do not mean less sales if the online channel focuses well. That online channel already represents 26.3% of the total business, exceeding for the first time the barrier of 10,000 million euros, until reaching 10,163 million in 2024, 12% more than the previous year. Meanwhile, physical store sales grew only 5.9%. In figures: During 2024, Inditex opened 257 establishments in 47 markets, but closed 129. The year ended with 5,563 points of sale compared to 5,692 of 2023. Its app is already used by 218 million users and its websites received 8.1 billion visits, 10% more than the previous year. The company closed the year with total sales of 38,632 million euros, 7.5% more than in 2023. What’s happening. The group is betting on concentrating their activity in less stores, but larger and strategically located, without losing total commercial area. At the same time, he has strengthened his digital ecosystem in that physical environment with innovations such as the elimination of physical alarms or the payment without a box. Your new technology Soft tag or “soft alarm”, already implemented in all Zara stores, improves the customer experience by eliminating traditional alarms, which generate greater friction. A pilot project in four Spanish stores will allow purchases to any point of the establishment, without going through a box. Personnel can identify garments through technology RFIDcreate virtual baskets and charge with mobile devices. The background. The Inditex strategy combines the selective closure of stores with the technological modernization of which it maintains. I have planned investments of 1.8 billion euros in 2025, mainly aimed at optimization of commercial space, technological integration and the improvement of online platforms. Deepen. Inditex’s vision shows that the future of retail is not in a purely online or exclusively physical model, but in the perfect integration of both channels. According to his CEO, Óscar García Maceirasit is an “integrated model” where both channels are feedback, seeing “growth opportunities in both sales channels and markets.” Despite the growth, Inditex shows signs of deceleration. In the first five weeks of 2025, their sales grew only 4% compared to 10.5% of the previous year, causing a 7.5% drop in its price The day of the presentation of results, its worst decrease since 2020. In Xataka | Mercadona earns more and more money selling money, no food: the effect of interest rates on their results Outstanding image | Inditex

Third -party stores are still insignificant in Android. The Amazon App Store closure is the last test

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Amazon will take goodbye to your Android application store starting next August 20. The company has issued a statement For developers and has detailed on its support website What will happen to the store From this date. The reason is clear and transparent: users were not using the store beyond the Amazon devices themselves. Therefore, they decide to stop supporting Android and turn it into an alternative only for their own products. What will happen to the Amazon store. Amazon App Store will stop working on August 20. As of this date, the company does not guarantee the operation of the applications discharged from it. Although it will disappear on Android, it will continue to be available on Amazon’s own devices, such as Fire TV and Fire Tablet. The goal is to keep the store alive only on the company’s devices. What happens to the COINS? Amazon App Store had its own currency, the Amazon Coins. These are used to make purchases inside the store, but also within the apps unloaded through it. The Amazon Coins balance will be completely reimbursed, so you will not lose the money invested in them. The reason: lack of users. Amazon has alluded to a clear reason: his store was not being used enough (at least on devices outside his ecosystem). “We have decided to discontinue Amazon’s appthore on Android to focus our efforts on the experience of the appthore on our own devices, since it is there where the vast majority of our clients are currently interacting.” There is only a possible rival. Play Store is (and will remain in the short term) the most used store in the world. It is estimated that it has between 2,500 and 3,000 million active users, something logical when pre -installed on all Android telephone. This store covers practically all globable markets, saving some markets such as Chino. Competing against this mastodon is an arduous task, although there are few efforts to achieve it. Huawei, with great support from the Chinese government, is making APP Gallery exceed 600 million active users. There are many more compared to the 100 million estimated for Amazon Store, and that between 10 and 20 million that are estimated at minority stores such as Aurora Store. Not everything is numbers. Although at the level of numbers nobody can cough Play Store, there is much beyond the total number of unique users. Technological giants such as Epic Games have led Android Your application store With a single purpose: avoid Play Store commissions. On the Huawei side, it is not focused on competing globally against Play Store: it wants to be the main app store in China and consolidate the leadership of the company in your native country. Compete against Play Store goes beyond figures, and with The arrival of third -party apps to App Store They have the great opportunity to continue getting with increasing impulse. Image | Xataka In Xataka | This is the first thing I do to verify that an apk is safe

Starbucks continues to close stores in the United States in 2025

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Coffee giant Starbucks faces challenging year in 2025, marked by the closure of several stores in the United States. The company has attributed this decision to the decrease in customer traffic and worker discomfortwhich have put pressure on its operations and finances. ScrapeHero has indicated that Starbucks operated more than 17,000 authorized and operated stores in the North American country before the end of 2024. However, the company faces difficulties derived from a the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, decreased foot traffic in certain key locations, and worker strikes demanding better working conditions. These issues led to the closure of more than 60 stores in 2024 and continue to influence the company’s operations in 2025. Rachel Ruggeri, Starbucks’ chief financial officer, highlighted in the preliminary 2024 financial report: “Despite our increased investments, we were unable to change the trajectory of our declining traffic, putting pressure on both our revenue and bottom line.”. At the end of this month of January, one of the Starbucks stores in New York will close.Credit: valerii eidlin | Shutterstock Besides, Ruggeri mentioned that Starbucks is developing a recovery plan that will include an increase in dividends to generate confidence among shareholders and ensure the sustainability of the business. Stores closed in 2025 Data from Usearch and StarbucksEverywhere, a blog specialized in the coffee chain, have identified the following stores closed or with scheduled closures: California: 99 Jackson St, San Francisco (will close February 9). 1799 Fulton St, San Francisco (closed). 2222 Fillmore St, San Francisco (closed). 145 W. Santa Clara St, San José (closed). New York: 166 7th Avenue, Brooklyn (will close January 30). Pennsylvania: 1851 Bethlehem Pike, Flourtown (closed). Maryland: 1046 W Patrick St, Frederick (closed). Texas: 1201 Elm St, Dallas (closed). Oregon: 1001 N Arney Rd, Woodburn (closed). 12000 Southeast 82nd Avenue, Happy Valley (closed). Kansas: 10201 W 75th St, Overland Park (closed). Illinois: 751 N Milwaukee Ave, Wheeling (closed). A Starbucks representative explained to SFGATE that “as part of Starbucks’ standard course of business, we continually evaluate our business to ensure a healthy store portfolio.” Impact and Projections Store closures not only affect consumers who lose convenient access points, but also employees who face losing their jobs. This phenomenon also highlights the challenges that food and beverage chains face in a changing and competitive economic environment.. In addition to the closures, Starbucks plans to reduce new store openings in 2025. According to statements from the CFO last October, this will allow “accommodating a redesign, while also unlocking capital to support our broader change.” Looking to the future As Starbucks works to overcome these challenges, its success will depend on its ability to adapt to new market demands and respond to the concerns of its workers. With strategies in place and a renewed focus on efficiency, the company seeks to regain its positioning in the competitive coffee sector. Keep reading: ° Starbucks introduces new spring-inspired coffees and creamers° Starbucks changes the rules to be able to be in its cafes° Goodbye to Wifi and free bathrooms?: Starbucks announces a new Code of Conduct

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