CARREFOUR UNVEILS NEW PLANET

In order to offer customers a new shopping experience centred around making purchases in comfort, friendliness and fun, Carrefour has developed a new hypermarket concept – Carrefour Planet. With two pilot stores in Ecully and Venissieux in France, Carrefour Planet opened its doors to its first customers on August 25.

The new concept stores boast a festive atmosphere of discovery, specialist offers organised into key areas, lower prices, brand new services and new technologies. The format has a range of products that have been completely rethought out and organised into key areas:The Market Area offers a varied range of extremely fresh products, cooking lessons, an expanded delicatessen area, freshly cut fruit and vegetables or sushi being prepared.

The Organic Area has a wide variety of organic products – Carrefour brands as well as other specialist brands. Tastings are held on a regular basis and discounted prices are offered so that everybody can enjoy organic products.

The Frozen Food Area offers an extremely wide range of frozen products, reworked customer flows with an offering that is organised into different areas that follow the order of a traditional meal, closed freezers for greater comfort and cooking demonstrations.

The Beauty Area has been given a complete makeover for the well-being of customers. They can purchase their beauty products at a leisurely pace and get expert advice, as well as enjoy services such as rapid make-up applications and express hairstyling. Among the other innovations is a virtual mirror, which customers can use to test make-up products ‘live’ at interactive terminals.

The Fashion Area, reorganised to include the whole world of fashion, showcases new collections and provides a new range of services, including free advice and alterations.

The Baby Area brings together everything new parents need, from food products to nappies, as well as pushchairs, clothing and furniture. Mothers can enjoy access to a free birth list service and have their more bulky shopping carried for free, as well as benefit from the advice of a paediatric specialist.

The House Area is split into four sections – Kitchen and Table, Home Deco, Practical Home and Home Accessories – with a whole new selection and many colour-coded ranges.

The Leisure-Multimedia Area brings together the culture and multimedia areas, organised according to the brand. All latest technologies are showcased, including 3D TV, touchscreen tablet computers and e-books. A whole new digital store has been created offering customers the opportunity to sign up for digital subscriptions and services, as well as a completely dedicated Apple area.

For certain categories, exclusive partnerships with major brands mean that customers can discover a new offer: for instance, Virgin will have a wide selection of cultural products in the Vénissieux store; Réserves Naturelles will have its own dedicated area in the beauty world for make-up, accessories and costume jewellery.

Carrefour Planet stores also have a new area – of almost 2,000 sq.mt in size – dedicated to Season and Events.