Looking for the future of convenience retail? Poland's Żabka Group might be a good place to start. Stephen Wynne-Jones reports. This article appeared in ESM's July/August 2023 edition.
The Polish city of Poznań might not be the first place that you think of when considering the future of convenience retail, but, then again, perhaps you haven’t yet encountered Żabka Group.
The business, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2023, has spent the past few years rewriting the rule book on neighbourhood retailing by developing what it describes as the ‘ultimate convenience ecosystem’ – offline and online platforms that, it claims, ‘make people’s lives easier.’ In practice, this means offering a wide array of hot and cold food-to-go products, and postage, banking and delivery services – and with around three million Poles using its services daily, it appears to be hitting the mark.
