Articles by 胡春才

Is Physical Retail at a Dead End, or Has It Lost Its Fundamentals?

Physical retail has enjoyed such good times that it has lost its basic skills. Since founding Shanghai Shangyi Consulting in March 2010, I have interacted with hundreds of small and medium-sized retail business owners over five years, and a common feeling is that retail used to be too easy to make money. Fifteen years ago, opening a supermarket in central and western China could fill sacks with cash; ten years ago, just opening a store meant counting profits at year-end without worrying about losses; five years ago, though business was getting harder, most stores were still profitable. But in the last three to four years, especially since 2013, new stores have mostly lost money, and even previously profitable stores now earn little or nothing.