Giant American wholesaler Costco has opened its sprawling warehouse in not-so-distant Suzhou, making the city the first other than Shanghai with a Costco in China. The discounted-bulk-buying brand is also on its way to Nanjing, with an even bigger store.
There were scenes of chaos outside the new Costco in Suzhou New District yesterday as opening time neared. Some had queued from 3 in the morning.
Concerned for possible dangers to life and limb, local authorities had dispatched ambulances to the site, while drones patrolled overhead, monitoring the crowd for potential flashpoints.
As a further hint of what was to come, more than 10,000 people applied for a ¥199 membership card back in August, not only surpassing the Shanghai record set 2 years ago, but also breaking Costco’s global record for sales of first-day memberships.
And then the doors opened. The Beijing News has remarked that the chaotic scenes in Suzhou were little different from those when the first store in Shanghai opened. As The Washington Post reported at the time, “They fought over Birkin bags and Moutai liquor. They wrestled for detergent and grabbed at a piece of pork with their bare hands, even as the butcher was trying to cut it”.
The world’s newest Costco is also on a par with the first Shanghai store in terms of size. In April of last year, Costco’s subsidiary in Suzhou spent more than ¥140 million on the 52,000 square-metre plot for the new warehouse.
At a time when China-US trade is supposedly on the wane, Costco has become more and more ambitious in the Middle Kingdom market. The Seattle-based, big-box retailer has plans for southern China and all over our very own Yangtze River Delta.
And this is the year it all starts. In April, Costco signed a deal with Guangzhou; in June, it was our turn with agreements reached for not only our beloved Nanjing, but also Hangzhou and Ningbo.
But there is still quite some time to wait before we can shop ’til we drop in Costco Nanjing. The relevant investment agreement, signed on 25 June with Jiangning High Tech Zone, shall locate Costco Nanjing in the Fangshan part of Jiangning District.
And the Nanjing store could also turn out be the biggest in China, with a total construction area of about 54,000 square metres. Costco Nanjing is planned to open at the end of 2023.
