Costco Expansion Across 10 Chinese Cities...

2 Minute Read

• Costco is the largest chain membership supermarket in the United States. The first store opened in Chinese mainland in August, 2019 in Shanghai. The store was stormed by excited shoppers during the opening, and they even had to close their doors early!

• A few days ago, Costco published the first batch of national urban layout plans including Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou and several other cities (see map/ list below).

 New Costco stores coming to... 

Beijing

Chengdu

Chongqing

Hangzhou

Nanjing

Qingdao

Shanghai

Suzhou

Wuhan

Xi'an

 About Costco 

Costco is the second largest retailer in the world after Walmart with over 776 stores worldwide; 678 of which are in North America. The company also ranks 15th on the Fortune 500, so the original move into the Chinese market is a big deal.

Costco isn’t like many other retailers you may know, they operate as a members-only ‘warehouse club’. The idea is that customers pay an annual membership fee to shop at the stores in exchange for reduced prices on items (normally sold in bulk). This means that most of Costco’s profit actually comes from the membership fees and not from the selling of actual products. Costco prides itself on keeping their members happy and reports that 88% of members choose to renew their membership last year.

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Would you shop at Costco?

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