During the period of Arzan's exit, the food retail market underwent major changes. Such chains as GROS, SM-Market, 7'YA, Vester disappeared. Ramstore achieved its hegemony, having "sat down" in every second shopping and entertainment center and started developing a new format Ramstore Hyper. The first transnational player entered the market - the German METRO, the fourth retailer in the world. And, finally, Magnum won the "audience choice award" in Almaty and Karaganda.
There is a visible trend of "magnumization" of retail. A-Store, which israel cell phone number list opened this year, is the largest hypermarket in the country with a sales area of 14 thousand square meters, is essentially an enlarged Magnum. Arzan also strongly resembles its competitor. Maybe after many years of trial and error, a universal format has been found - a kind of cash&carry?
A more classic version of cash&carry is represented by METRO. In many countries, METRO cash&carry works primarily with SMEs, has its own private labels and fills its assortment with 90% local products. But in Kazakhstan, according to experts, METRO works only as a hypermarket for both businesses and end customers (Retailing in Kazakhstan, Euromonitor International, April 2012). This is partly due to the shortage of domestic producers, some of whom could work with networks on private labels, and partly due to the still significant role of wholesale markets, where our SMEs make purchases.