With the Arrival of Spring, Autu

Racing north on a bicycle, I wished to cast a glance on the hypermarket and other shops and cafes and restaurants which used to make up a quite brilliant and cheerful scene in this relatively quiet and old part of Shanghai.

To my surprise, I found the entire building was dark except one hamburger and fried chicken chain store which was ablaze with light and where a few customers were siting at table quietly munching, and a delivery person dressed in a blue helmet and blue uniform was waiting at the counter.

A few customers still came to the front gate of the building, but was surprised to be barred from entry, as the building was padlocked, and a piece of A4 document was pasted on the wall, which stated that the hypermarket had been officially closed down on 1 February.

I recall that Tesco, a Lotto Mart belong to a Korean company had closed down way before the Covid-19 set in, and Christine, whose physical outlets were ubiquitous in the city and one could stumble upon one outlet almost at an average five-minute walk. At present, only Da Run Fa, in whose holding company, Gaoxin Retail (高鑫零售), Alibaba invested USD2.9 billion and held 36.1%, in November 2017. Besides Da Run Fa, the holding company also owned Auchan in China.

The hypermarket, entitled as Century Mart, is part of the Shanghai Bai Lian Group (600827.SH), a state-owned company established in 2003, combining several retailers and related companies. Operating on two floors of the five-storey building, it has been around for around 20 years. In 2003, e-commerce was still in the early days, when Eachnet, which was acquired by Ebay, had a cutthroat war with Alibaba’s Taobao. Ebay quit China a few years later.

Shanghai Bai Lian Group’sales revenue reached its plateau in 2019, at RMB 50.5 billion (USD 7.4 billion), and then the three-year Covid-19 pandemic raged, its sales declined to RMB 35.2 billion in 2020, further to RMB 34.7 billion in 2021, and RMB 24.5 billion for the first three quarters of 2022 (whole-year sales may just hover around RMB 30 billion.)

The Shanghai retailer’s bloody path was also experienced by its counterparts across the country. Carefour, Walmart have been no exception. Even a relatively young and late comer, Yong Hui Supermarket (601933.SH), established in 2001, saw its number of outlets decline to 1033 as of end of January 2023, from its heyday of 1440 in 2019. Its market capitalization declined some 70% to RMB 30 billion.

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