My first reaction to Best Buy’s closure of its nine branded stores in China was: not again. Another retailer had leapt into the Chinese market – and fallen on its face.
Best Buy’s stores – familiar to North Americans and Europeans – are arranged by category of gadget and are big on service. But most Chinese are used to buying electrical goods more cheaply from makers’ agents, working in stores owned by established Chinese competitors such as Suning and Gome, or from smaller, local shops.
Home Depot, the US DIY group, recently closed stores in mainland China, having misread the local market. On Monday, Mattel shuttered its six-storey flagship Barbie store in Shanghai, in the face of waning enthusiasm for a doll ubiquitous in its established markets.