This week @hivesucre presented what I believe is a pretty significant development for the growth of the local HBD-based economy. They onboarded from my understanding their first supercenter into the network.
A supercenter is a shopping center that includes a supermarket, but also places of playground for children, serving meal, pharmacy and so on. So a much larger place than the usual proximity businesses onboarded so far, from my understanding and the vibe I felt from the team, who seemed pretty proud of themselves.
You can read and watch the associated video on their post.
Screenshot from the video
Now, besides the size of this Hola Supercenter and the likelihood that more HBD would be spent there and more non-Hivers could learn about Hive in a place like this from people shopping there and paying with HBD, I believe there is an even higher, so far probably untapped potential.
I'm going to use the example from my own country, but things may be quite similar in this regard.
Proximity Shops Buying at Supercenters
Here's what I have in mind. In our town, but this is likely a general practice, small businesses tend to buy from large businesses in bulk at a discount and resell to end customers.
Sometimes large businesses offer discounts for bulk purchases or small businesses hunt discounts as they happen like every regular person would, and then refill their stock. And then sell at the normal price or slightly below at their proximity shops and so they afford to stay in business, even if they are in the shadows of these giants.
I imagine the same thing happens or can happen in Venezuela.
What would be the benefit to HBD and Hive?
If proximity shops accept HBD from their customers, and they refill some of their supplies from a place like Hola Supercenter, then they don't need to sell HBD to fiat and buy with fiat from other suppliers, they can pay directly in HBD where it is accepted. I don't know if it makes sense economically for them, if the price difference is big enough at Hola Supercenter, but it can be for certain products or when there are discounts.
This way, HBD starts to gain some velocity in the Sucre's economy before it exits to fiat, which is an important factor to determine how successful HBD becomes in that economy.
We also likely talk about bigger HBD purchases at this supercenter when small businesses start to supply from there. Other supercenters should quickly follow suite, since they rarely waste time when competition comes up with something new that drives customers to their place. And that's how HBD and HIVE spread!