Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news

An increasing number of hypermarkets in Shanghai are expected to intensify competition, today's Laodong Daily reported.
Most hypermarkets are located within the city's Outer Ring Road. According to the city's Tenth Five-Year commercial plan, Shanghai is capable of accommodating 60 hypermarkets this year and 100 by 2010.
However, there are a total of 97 hypermarkets to date, and the number is expected to increase to 121 by the end of this year.
The influx of more hypermarkets ahead of schedule has reduced the profits of the whole industry, said an industry analyst. In 2003, while the number of local hypermarkets rose by 27 percent, combined sales volumes increased by 17 percent, each hypermarket's sales volume dropped by eight percent.
In China, Shanghai has the largest number of hypermarkets, with 14 brands. Retailers are currently focusing on expanding their business space, rather than attracting more customers in order to get an upper hand in the new round of competition, the analyst said. With a growing number of large property projects in the city, hypermarkets still have room to develop, but excessive competition should be avoided, he added.