Foreign Department Stores Once Dominating China Close One After Another... 'Into History'

Following France's Printemps, the Japanese Isetan department store has also disappeared from China. The rise of e-commerce and sluggish consumption have combined to worsen the business environment.

According to local media such as China's Pengpai News on the 30th, the Isetan department store located on Nanjing West Road in Shanghai closed its doors that day. Customers who had used the department store, the Japanese representative of the store, and Chinese employees gathered together to commemorate the final day. The scene was bustling with coverage from both Japanese and local Chinese media.

Isetan Department Store located on Nanjing West Road, Shanghai, China (Photo by Baidu)

Opened in 1997 on Nanjing West Road, the Isetan department store was a comprehensive department store selling clothing, cosmetics, beauty devices, food, and furniture. In 1998, the Year of the Tiger, it gained attention by featuring a tiger in the store's plaza, and in 2000, the Year of the Dragon, it was known for notable marketing activities such as being the first to display dinosaur fossils in the plaza inside the department store.

Isetan once operated six branches in China, but closed two stores in Chengdu, Sichuan Province at the end of 2022, and in April of this year, it shut down two branches in Tianjin. With the closure of the Shanghai store, only one Isetan department store, which opened in Tianjin three years ago, remains.

Not only Isetan, but foreign department stores have recently faced repeated difficulties in China, leading to a series of closures.

The Taiwanese Taipingyang department store, which opened in 1993 in Shanghai's Xujiahui area, closed last year. Previously, the same brand's Shanghai Huaihai and Buyueting branches also closed in 2016 and 2020, respectively. The three Shanghai stores operated by the French Printemps department store also closed one after another in 2019 and 2020, disappearing from the market.