Supermarkets in Hong Kong- In Search of an Eventual State?

Abstract The supermarket technology, since its inception in Hong Kong in the mid-1950s, has undergone some internal structural changes with the aim to better serve the consumers. Despite achieving a 40% share of the food retailing business, the supermarkets are unable to challenge the uncontested position of the wet market as a place preferred by consumers to buy fresh foods. By experimenting with introducing the wet market operational mode to sell fresh foods in some of the supermarket outlets, consumers' perception of the supermarkets' performance as a suitable outlet to sell fresh foods was enhanced. The author contends that a partially wet-marketised supermarket format may likely prove to be the end-state of supermarketing in Hong Kong.