retail - Lianhua turns to top-end

a Lianhua store

This morning I had a bit of a shock when I visited the just reopened Lianhua supermarket at the Grand Mall Plaza in Xujiahui. Gone were all those elderly ladies who were too busy chatting, so they never really had time to clean the place. Men in suits were standing now in front of what was called 'the premier supermarket'. A large number of these men were Japanese too, and also the Chinese men bowed like Japanese to greet me.
That was already enough to let me feel uncomfortable: in supermarkets I would rather like to be ignored. Gone were also the cheap goodies that had made Lianhui so competitive and made them win from for example the Dutch Royal Ahold, who prefered to ignore the wishes of their Shanghainese customers.
Not sure whether Lianhua is on the right track, but I discovered that they have already since 1997 Mitsubishi as a joint venture partner. They have even expanded to Belgium. I rushed off and did my shopping in a neighboring supermarket. Guess I have become too local.

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