Shanghai's getting not 1, but 2 Costco stores by 2022
Photograph: Costco in Taiwan, Wikimedia Commons
Costco's imminent brick-and-mortar presence has been looming over Mainland China's horizon for some time now, just like globalisation's inevitability. Well, here it is, bulk-shoppers.
Idiocracy, via GIPHY
The membership-based warehouse wholesaler will complete construction on a Minhang branch in September 2019, then a regional flagship store near Disneyland some time in 2021, according to reports from SHINE and Q Daily. Soon, you will be renting movers' vans to pick up your year's worth of toilet paper and cereal, bought for less than the cost of a night drinking at Speak Low.
Costco first entered Mainland China's market with a digital store on TMall in 2014, which perhaps served as a toe in the water for Costco's business model in China. Now it looks like the company is confident that the business model that served suburban US markets so well will be alright in China.