Convenience Store OurHours Punches out After a Brief Second Life

Original Joey Knotts theBeijinger

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After closing 400 locations in Beijing early last year, convenience store OurHours (全时) was barely hanging on for life. Now, apparently unable to keep up with competition from similar stores, the chain will finally disappear from Beijing and Tianjin once and for all, its parent company announced Monday.

Though it might come as a surprise to anyone who has roamed their pallid aisles of untempting products, the brand once represented the most ubiquitous convenience store in the city, according to reporting by Beijing Business Today.

Video shows the emptying shelves of an OurHours location

Forise Holdings, which previously owned OurHours, decided in 2015 to capitalize on the store’s success by expanding it to cities throughout China with plans for 10,000 new stores. The next few years, however, were marked by financial struggle, forcing Forise to off OurHours.

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Big-time corporations from Suning to Nestlé expressed interest in purchasing the chain, but in the end, the holdings were split up between several buyers. Japanese convenience store giant Lawson took control of the stores in Chongqing, while Tianjin-based firm Shanhai Lantu, took over the Beijing and Tianjin locations.

Despite pouring RMB 300 million into the purchase, Shanhai Lantu ultimately decided that the investment was not worth continuing. The company released a notice on WeChat stating, “Due to the adjustment of the company's business strategy, all OurHours stores in Beijing will be closed at 24:00 on May 20, 2020." The notice was later deleted.

Beijing locations will continue to stay open during that time, and although the stores have been notified that supply has been discontinued, they have also been instructed to sell their entire remaining stock at 40 percent off. As a result, some stores have already become partially barren-shelved wastelands as customers rush to make their final discounted purchases.