Retailers shop around for right opportunities

SHANGHAI: Many may view the recent announcement by Japanese department store Huating Isetan of its closure in Shanghai as a reprieve from slumping sales, but the market can still be considered to offer rich pickings for other players.

The high-end Japanese store, which drew 3.6 billion yen ($34.8 million) at its peak in 1996 during its third year in the city, has seen growth scaled back for several years and posted a straight net loss in 2006 and 2007. Its latest closure marks the shutting of its second outlet in China, following its store in Jinan, Shandong province, in September last year.

Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd, the Shanghai outlet's parent company, said that Huating Isetan, the company's first Chinese store, would close in November due to "slumping sales", Japanese wire service Jiji Press reported.