 | |
| Company type | Anonymous Society |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1942 |
| Products | Supermarkets |
| Website | www.wong.pe |
Wong (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈwoŋg]) is a supermarket chain in Peru. Known until 2005 as E. Wong, it was started as a small store in 1942 by Chinese Peruvians in a residential area of the Miraflores District in Lima.
In 1942, Erasmo Wong, a Chinese-Peruvian, opened a small store at a corner in the Av. 2 de Mayo, in a residential area in San Isidro. Originally a family business, the store kept growing and in 1983, the first store of the present-day Wong supermarket chain was inaugurated. The next store to be opened was located in Ovalo Gutiérrez, in Miraflores. Some years later, stores in Santiago de Surco were also opened; by 1995, Wong had five stores all around Lima.
Wong's growth was characterized by going against market trends, being more customer service-oriented instead of the more usual self-service and investing during some of the Peruvian economy's hardest times.
Wong focuses on bringing customers product variety and a highly personalized service.
It is widely known that Wong treats its employees and customers very well.[citation needed] For instance, instead of calling them “workers”, they call them “collaborators”. Therefore, it has earned several awards for the excellence of its service.
The Gran Corso de Fiestas Patrias, a large parade held annually a few weeks before July 28, the day of Peruvian independence, is organized by Wong and attended by more than 100,000 people. The parade is usually celebrated in Miraflores and ends with a fireworks display.
On December 16, 2007, it was announced that Wong was being bought out by the Chilean company Cencosud for $500 million; this was originally denied by the chain’s founder himself mere months earlier and was also taken very negatively by the Peruvian populace, marking the beginning of a slow decline in the chain’s overall market share.
The 2008 Independence Day Parade was viewed by many as a fiasco as a result of the buyout since Wong no longer had the required "nationalism" to hold such an event; however, its attendance still overshadowed a copycat event by rival Supermercados Peruanos.
