U.S. based retail¹ giant Costco Wholesale² opened its first brick-and-mortar store on the Chinese mainland on Tuesday.

 

美国零售业巨头好市多在中国大陆第一家实体店周二开业。

 

The 14,000-square-meter store is located in southwest Shanghai, with 3,400 stock-keeping units of 60 kinds of goods including household appliances, fresh food, daily necessities and travel accessories.

 

Customers can enjoy commodities with larger pack volumes and lower prices in the warehouse³ after paying a membership fee of 299 yuan (about 42 U.S. dollars) a year.

 

Prices of general merchandise in Costco are 30 to 60 percent lower than market prices and the food sold there is 10 to 20 percent cheaper, according to the retailer⁴.

 

The store embraced surging customers on its first day, with customers spending up to two hours queuing to check out or waiting three hours to find a spot among the 1,200-space parking lot.

 

Tens of thousands of Chinese customers have registered memberships since July, which was beyond the store's expectations.

 

"I will drive to experience the new store with my family next weekend," said Liu Zheng, living in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, which is more than 170 km from Shanghai.

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