Shandong's first Metro flagship store opens in Linyi

Metro's Xian Road store in Linyi, East China's Shandong province, opened on Oct 16, becoming the retailer's eighth store in Shandong and its first flagship in the province as the company marks 30 years in China.

Located at 77 Chashan Road in the Beicheng new area of Lanshan district, the project was jointly developed by Linyi City Investment Group and Metro, and is a key livelihood support project and investment attraction project in the area's urban renewal.

Metro has served Linyi consumers for 14 years, from the opening of its Luozhuang store in 2012 to the new flagship in Beicheng, witnessing the city's transition from a wholesale hub to an e-commerce hub.

The new store aims to fill the gap in large warehouse-style quality supermarket supply in the Beicheng new area and support Linyi's pilot program for building 15-minute convenient living circles. The project is expected to create about 185 jobs and boost consumption upgrading in the area.

As a flagship, the Xian Road store mainly serves surrounding upgraded housing, families and parent-child customers. It uses a B2B2C model, meeting household demand for upgraded quality consumption while offering restaurants, hotels, government agencies, schools and local companies one-stop services such as centralized food procurement, employee benefit gift cards and customized holiday gift boxes, using global procurement resources and a mature supply chain to help local businesses cut costs.

In product structure, the store has upgraded its fresh food, bakery and deli sections, adding specialty fruit and vegetables, chilled meat, sashimi-grade seafood and organic vegetables, and expanding Luzhou-style deli items and freshly prepared light meals, while trimming inefficient categories. The store carries more than 20 MSC-certified seafood products, has HACCP certification and holds BRCGS, FSSC22000, ISO9001 and ISO22000 food safety certifications. Its traceability system makes product information verifiable from origin to store.

To extend convenience services, the store arranged instant retail in advance of opening. Its Wuhan Road front warehouse began operating on July 24 and its Lanshan warehouse on Oct 13, serving core residential areas within 3 to 5 kilometers with delivery in as little as one hour. Customers can order through the Metro app and mainstream platforms including Meituan, Taobao Flash Purchase, JD Instant Delivery and Douyin Hourly Delivery. The store has both staffed and self-service checkout, an app-based self-checkout function, 800 parking spaces and 90-day no-worry returns, and non-members may shop freely.

From the Luozhuang store to the Beicheng flagship, and from 14 years of operation to the full rollout of the B2B2C model, the opening marks a shift in Metro's strategy in Shandong from multi-point coverage to flagship leadership, making Linyi an important strategic foothold serving southern Shandong and the Yimeng area.

Editor：韩蒙蒙