Toy Story 3 bear and Maotai draw crowds to new Costco store in southern China

Hong Kong
CNN
—

More than four years after Costco’s controversial first store in the country, shoppers in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen flocked to the US retailer’s newest store on the Chinese coast this week.

Costco opened a new 44,500 square meter store on Friday in the city, dubbed China’s “Silicon Valley,” drawing crowds looking for bargains and imported goods.

It will be the U.S. retailer’s sixth store in the world’s second-largest economy, on the country’s southern coast, which is home to the headquarters of Chinese tech giants such as Tencent and DJI and is home to a fast-growing middle class. This will be our first foray into the area. Shenzhen alone has a population of over 17 million people, and according to the local government, its GDP will reach $460 billion in 2022.

Shoppers who spoke to CNN said some of the popular items Costco offered at the store’s opening included discounted fruit such as cherries and berries and Moutai, a Chinese distilled liquor.

Many people waited in line for more than an hour to get in.

Images posted on Chinese social media show customers filling the islands of the 15,000 square meter shopping space, many with full carts.

Lots-o-Huggin’ Bear, the fluffy villain from Pixar’s Toy Story 3, was also in high demand.

Social media was filled with images of people bringing home giant 5-foot-tall bears. The smaller version, less than half the size, sold out within hours.

“I didn’t expect so many people to come,” Kim Lin, one of the first shoppers to arrive Friday, told CNN.

Lin, who had been in line for an hour, said she was impressed by the staff who helped her remove fruit from the high shelves.

“We have shop managers who hand us cherries and they were very gentlemanly,” she said.

Another regular customer, Orin Wang, praised the selection on offer. “Costco feels very special because they import brands that you can’t find anywhere else,” she said.

In China, Costco faces stiff competition from online shopping platforms such as Taobao and Pinduoduo in a market where consumers are accustomed to online retail. It also faces competition from rival U.S. brands like Walmart’s Sam’s Club. Sam’s Club already has four branches in Shenzhen.

When Costco opened its first store in Shanghai in 2019, it had to close early on the first day due to the number of shoppers.

The chaotic scenes showed people lining up for hours, crawling under store gates and fighting over bags and rotisserie chickens. Traffic on surrounding roads came to a halt, and cars lined up in parking lots created traffic jams on the streets.

Since then, Costco has expanded in China, mostly with two stores near Shanghai, China’s economic and financial center.