Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that the first Carrefour store in Shenzhen and the second in China ceased operations on June 10. This old store located in the Nantou area of Nanshan has been with the Shenzhen people for 27 years. Just last month (May), Carrefour’s first member store in China, the Shanghai Chengshan Road Store, also suddenly announced it was closing its business. China’s hypermarket crisis has intensified, and Carrefour has been closing its stores nationwide on a large scale. In the first quarter, 33 stores were closed, including the first member store in China. This is just one of the many stores that Carrefour has closed recently. At its peak, Carrefour had a total of 321 stores in China, with sales of RMB 49.8 billion (around US$6.99 billion). Its number of stores, each single store’s performance, its revenue, and other factors., once surpassed its top rival Wal-Mart. As of the end of March, Carrefour China had 114 stores left. Carrefour opened its first foreign-funded supermarket chain in China and became the originator of hypermarkets. In September 2019, the Chinese company Suning spent RMB 4.8 billion (around US$674 million) equivalent to Euros to acquire 80 percent of Carrefour China’s equity, and Suning should have completed the acquisition of all remaining equity by the end of 2022. The transformation and upgrading of Carrefour China may not be worth looking forward to.
Japanese Supermarket AEON also closed its Beijing store, the first one it opened in China back in 2008. US Economist David Huang told the Epoch Times that, based on his visits, retail business in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Wuhan cities is running poorly and sales at many supermarket stores are just at the same level as those in the COVID period.
Sources:
1. Sina, June 11, 2023
http://news.sina.com.cn/s/2023-06-11/doc-imywxhhi3381882.shtml
2. Epoch Times, June 19, 2023
http://cn.epochtimes.com/b5/23/6/19/n14019252.htm