Costco Wholesale’s first outlet in the Chinese mainland enforced a crowd limit and closed early on the very first day that it opened in Shanghai on August 27, due to an overwhelming flood of customers.
The US-based retail giant, famous for its exclusive "members-only" model, attracted many citizens because of its larger pack volumes and lower prices. Customers had to spend up to two hours queuing to check out and there was even a lag when they scanned their QR codes for payment because of the poor Internet signal. The security guards had to stop the customers from thronging into the outlet at the entrance.
Although the store has the largest parking lot for a Costco store in the world, customers still had to queue for three hours to find one of the 1,200 parking bays. Roads in the vicinity were also jammed due to the number of people flocking to the store.
The huge crowd was “beyond expectation,” said a responsible person at Costco.
According to the company, more than 120,000 people have signed up as members since registration started on July 1. Costco plans to open more brick-and-mortar stores in China to seize the huge opportunity of the upgraded consumption demand in the country.