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By Posted on Posted in 2020, Consumer, Consumer Behavior, Convenience Stores, Retail, Retail Distribution, Russia No Comments

I just finished reading a book entitled “VkusVill: how to a retail revolution by doing everything wrong” by Evgeny Shchepin, an employee of the Russian chain VkusVill (translated as Tasty Town).

I recommend this book to anyone in the consumer retail space for its simple language and mostly the transparency in which the book was written by someone from inside the company and bluntly showing all the errors they made during their scaling and growth process.

We are used mostly to American, Japanese, European, and lately Chinese corporate success stories and books but not anything coming from Russia until I discovered this book, although Russia is one of the world largest consumer retail markets with giants like Magnit, X5 Retail Group and Lenta, to name few with many different store formats and thousands of locations all over the Russian territory.

The book talks about 37 rules that made the success of VkusVill, it really shows “the simple culture” of a company that became a Russian success story and the persistence of the founder and his team to make it work given the good and bad circumstances while keeping a start-up spirit running in the air and without taking 1 single loan and rotating the money generated from actual stores to open new locations!!!

You can download the book from this link: https://vkusvill.ru/en/business/files/VkusVill_Book.pdf

Extracted from their website:

VkusVill started by Andrey Krivenko in Moscow in 2009 as a food retail chain (convenience format; 150 sqm trade area; 2,000 SKUs) offering fresh and healthy food with short shelf life at affordable prices, all under its own brand ‘VkusVill’.

In 2019, the Company reached 1,200 stores in Moscow and other cities of Russia (27 in total), reported $1.3 bn of revenue, and had over 10,000 employees. Explosive growth was always financed with operating cash flow only. VkusVill has always been profitable and cash-positive. No external equity investments and no loans ever since inception.

VkusVill leverages its strong brand equity (healthy products at affordable prices) and its unique IT algorithms which allow for efficient supply chain of products with short shelf life (up to 7 days). It also has super-high customer engagement, achieved via various feedback-collecting channels (mobile apps, social networks, website). ROI when opening a store is over 100%. It all helps the Company to report historical sales CAGR of well over 50% and open stores quickly.

Additional Reading:

VkusVill is planning to launch in the Netherlands & France, read more here

Check the VkusVill store concept by Art. Lebedev Studio at this link

By Posted on Posted in Capitalism, Communism, Retail, Russia No Comments
Photo Credit: Evgeny Feldman
Photo Credit: Evgeny Feldman

The above photo appeared originally on the Mashable website post entitled A Glowing Russia Resurrects Soviet-Era Parade After Crimea Conquest.

When scrolling the post, i stopped at the photo where this old lady is proudly wearing a t-shirt showing in the background the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin and on the front the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev but also at the same time carrying a BILLA bag, a European supermarket chain originating from Austria.

A contradiction. [Difference Between Communism and Capitalism]

When younger, this same lady had to wait for hours to buy a product from a retail store, a block of cheese, some bananas or cigarettes, this is the kind of stories I used to hear when I was a kid about the Soviet block when we used to enjoy living in a free market and had the chance to buy anything we want as long as we had the money for it.

Nowadays she can visit any retailer in Russia to buy anything she likes without having to wait, except at the check-outs, but the question is, can she afford it?

I also remember a Slovak friend, telling me once over a dinner in Bratislava, “when i was a kid during communism, i used to spend time with my friends dreaming about what we might be possibly missing on what is behind those mountains, and now all i have to do is to drive behind those mountains for a dinner or some shopping or anything else”, and what is behind those mountains is Austria.

If you ever visit Russia, you will easily realize on the streets, that it will be hard for the communist system to have its come back, but nevertheless, some have the right to dream about it (what is called Democracy).

And if anyone can translate what the t-shirt of this old lady in the photo is saying , that would be great.