This Day, That Year

ItemfromMarch10,1987, inChinaDaily:SupermarketsinBeijinghavebeenlosingconsumers,andsome havecloseddownbecause theyfailedtomakeaprofit.

InFebruary,Haidian Supermarket,theoldestin Beijing,wasfinallyclosed afterfouryears,Market Newsreportedyesterday.

Photoshowsthedeserted Shuiduizisupermarketin Beijing.

After a period of robust recovery, stores are once again losing customers, this time due to the onslaught of online marketplaces.

In November, the 130year-old English retailer Marks & Spencer said it will shut all of its 10 stores in the Chinese mainland.

Also last year, Japanese department store Ito Yokado closed three outlets in Beijing.

Parkson China, the first foreign-invested retailer in the country, has shut down about 10 stores in five cities in the past five years, and the group’s financial reports said that stand-alone department stores’ profitability has been declining steadily.

To meet the changing shopping habits of Chinese consumers, traditional retailers have been investing in e-commerce.

Marks & Spencer opened stores on Tmall and JD, two of the largest online marketplaces in China.

E-commerce has seen explosive growth over the past years, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

In 2015, e-commerce turnover jumped by 27 percent year-on-year to 20.8 trillion yuan ($3.01 trillion), it said.

ESTEBAN FELIX / ASSOCIATED PRESS Hundreds line up to enter a Pablo Picasso exhibition at the Palacio La Moneda Cultural Center in Santiago, Chile, on Sunday. The items on display came from the Picasso-Paris Museum, home to the Spanish master’s most outstanding works.