The Biggest Store We've Ever Seen

Maybe I've mentioned the Auchan store in Suzhou....and maybe not.  In any case, it deserves a posting all its own.

Auchan is a supermarket chain from France.  When we lived in Strasbourg, the local Auchan was Theresa's favorite place to hang out.  The Auchan stores in France are comparable to a Super-Target or an upscale Super-Walmart.  Big, brightly lit, good prices, and everything you could ever want.  I think the Auchan was the biggest supermarket in Strasbourg.  Actually, the store was located in Illkirch-Graffenstaden.  And actually, Auchan calls its stores "Hyper-Markets" instead of supermarkets.

Turns out, Suzhou has an Auchan Hypermarket. When we arrived to Suzhou, all the wise old-timers told us to go to the Auchan...but never go on the week-end.  Thinking that nothing can be that bad, Theresa and I decided one Saturday to go see for ourselves.

It is the biggest store I have ever seen in my life.  I am not fibbing or stretching the truth.

Biggest.  Store.  Ever.

We've been going there, off and on, over the past year now.   These photos were shot from my cell phone just before the Chinese New Year holiday.  Unfortunately, the photos don't provide a lot of depth perception.  (The hanging lanterns and banners don't help either).  The top photo shows a sea of people going back as far as the eye can see.  The photo below shows the line-up at the checkout counters.  You should be able to easily see the sign marking checkout lane #79, just left of center.  There are 110 checkout lanes in total.  On this day and most week-ends, all 110 registers are open.

I've been trying for a while to find some hard statistics regarding the size of this store.  I haven't had a lot of success, but here is what I've found.  (Remember, you can't trust the Internet!)

• Auchan opened it's first hypermarket in China in 1999.  It now has over 100.
• Suzhou's Auchan is the largest of the Auchans in China.
• It is the second-largest Auchan in the world.  (I would hate to see #1)
• The floor space is around 15,000 square meters.  (about 3.7 acres)
• The store averages 25,000 customers per week day, 30,000 per week-end day, and can hit 60,000 per day in holiday periods.

Note that the customer figures above were from a document written in 2004.  I suppose traffic might have gone downward, but I really doubt it.  Especially when you consider the population of Suzhou has probably doubled (or more) since then. By my math, the photo above shows an average of 10 people waiting at each of 110 checkout lines.  That's 1100 people just in that little section of the store.  And you could barely move through the aisles in the normal shopping areas because of the crowds.

Even though the brand is French, Auchan caters to the local tastes and is the most popular shopping place amongst the Chinese people that I know.  If you walk through the electronics or the clothing departments, you might not be able to tell that you are in China.  Once you get to the grocery, however, you will know immediately you are not in Kansas anymore.  You will see (and smell) dried-salted-chickens, dried fish, live fish, live frogs, live turtles, fried duck, and just about every part of the pig you can think of.

Not much cheese to be found, though.  That was the great thing about the Auchan's in France - the cheeses would cover two or three full aisles.  In the Suzhou Auchan, the cheese aisle barely stretches 4 or 5 feet.