Thousands of Convenience Stores, Dozens of Hema Markets Coming

The retail industry is looking to target Beijing's vast market by opening thousands of new convenience stores and dozens of Alibaba-affiliated supermarkets in the near future.

Alibaba announced Wednesday that it intends to open 30 Hema Supermarkets in the city before the end of the year at locations including Xizhimen, Guan'anmen, and Shuangjing.

Currently providing 30-minute delivery to residences located within three kilometers of its stores, Hema intends to expand its offer to all Beijing residents once it sets up outlets throughout the city.

Beijing currently hosts five shops of the three-year-old supermarket chain including east-end Shilipu, Dacheng, Dongba, Xiaoying, and Yizhuang.

Hema Supermarket has made a name for itself with Chinese consumers for its seafood offerings, famously selling some 10,000 Alaskan king crabs in one day during September of last year. The high-tech store exclusively caters to cashless consumers who can use their phone to track the freshness of every single item on sale in its stores.

Already the biggest online spenders in China, Beijing consumers are ready to welcome the Hema expansion seeing as they've made its Shilipu location the store's busiest in China.

The aggressive development would double the number of Hema stores, currently totaling 25, and spread throughout seven Chinese cities.

Meanwhile, city lawmakers have announced a new policy that may pave the way for thousands of new convenience stores to open in Beijing within the next three years.

Rent subsidies are expected to help bring some 3,000 new convenience stores to Beijing by 2020, 2,000 of which are likely to open in the city center. Half of the new stores are expected to be open 24 hours.

Last year saw a wave of staffless stores sweep into the city as cashless operations become more popular with the public.

Images: BJ.News.163.com

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