The crowds of shoppers cramming into US retailer Costco’s first store in China this week, forcing it to close early on its opening day, were in stark contrast to a stampede of foreign supermarket owners out of the country.
In June, French chain Carrefour agreed to sell a majority stake in its China stores to local company Suning for $700m, following in the footsteps of Britain’s Tesco and Spain’s Dia. German wholesaler Metro is selling its China business.
The largest remaining wholly foreign supermarket chain in China is US-owned Walmart, which after more than two decades has more than 430 stores in the country, but just a 1.7 per cent share of the $692bn Chinese grocery market, according to data provider Euromonitor.
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