Inside China's first Costco, where crowds forced the store to shut down shortly after its grand opening

Áine Cain,Kate Taylor

Aug 27, 2019, 20:45 IST

Inside China's first Costco, where crowds forced the store to shut down shortly after its grand opening

STR/AFP/Getty Images

The calm didn't last long at Costco's first store in China.

Costco opened its first warehouse in China on Tuesday.
The Shanghai location was forced to close early after it became too crowded.
Business Insider spoke to one shopper who described the chaotic scene from within the warehouse.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Costco's first ever Chinese warehouse opened its doors for the first time on Tuesday. A few hours later, the Shanghai warehouse had to shut those same doors early, due to the massive turnout that the warehouse's grand opening attracted.

The company's entry into the Chinese market has been long-awaited. The international retailer operated 762 warehouses located across 11 countries as of 2018. That same year, PwC described China as a "must play, must win" retail market, with brick-and-mortar and e-commerce sales that exceeded US retail sales.

But Costco has avoided jumping straight into China's retail scene until relatively recently. Costco began offering online delivery options to China around five years ago, according to local media.

Costco's senior vice president for Asia, Richard Zhang, previously told the AFP that positive online sales convinced the company to bet on opening an actual warehouse. The company's newest warehouse began signing Shanghai locals up for memberships in April.

And, as it turns out, anticipation for the new warehouse really built up.

Here's a look inside Costco's chaotic and crowded grand opening in Shanghai:

Costco member Natalie Judd told Business Insider about her experience at the chaotic grand opening.

Judd said that the warehouse was "clearly prepped for a massive turnout," but that early crowds ended up backing up traffic on the roads around the store.

She said she was one of the first shoppers to get inside the new warehouse when it opened around 8:30 a.m.

"It was calm for a short amount of time," she told Business Insider.

But the quiet didn't last.

"We cruised every aisle on the food side and by the time we made it back to meat it was sheer chaos," Judd said. "I didn't even try to enter the section."

Photos from Getty Images and early reports from AFP and the Financial Times indicate that the warehouse's meat section was a particular draw for many new members.

"There are discounts as the business is opening now," local Rick Zhou told the Financial Times. "Meat is cheap here."

And the warehouse quickly filled up from there.

Social media posts show newly minted members waiting outside in a line that wrapped around the warehouse, chowing down on pizza, and slipping past uniformed guards to get through the front doors.

Photos and videos posted to social media also indicate that a number of scuffles broke out in particularly crowded departments.

The AFP reported that particularly sought-out products included Costco's famous rotisserie chickens, produce, and meat.

That being said, according to the AFP, there have been no official reports of any injuries sustained during the confusion.

The Shanghai location is also far from the first Costco to get mobbed almost immediately upon opening.

When the company launched its first Iceland warehouse, it deployed search and rescue teams, just to be on the safe side.

Photos of the grand opening in Shanghai indicate that the warehouse boasts its own food court and plenty of classic Kirkland products, including its signature giant teddy bears.

Judd said that the Costco also stocked a number of luxury items in the mix, including "Chanel and Hermès bags" and "a gorgeous Burberry cape."

She also said she caught a glimpse of another Costco mainstay in the warehouse's freezer section: longtime CEO Craig Jelinek.

Judd said that the situation in the warehouse didn't feel dangerous, but that she was "annoyed at poor shopping cart etiquette."

She added that one woman was so desperate to get her hands on a cart that she actually followed Judd out of the warehouse.

Authorities eventually got a handle on the crowd by barring new customers from entering the warehouse and closing the Costco early.

Despite the crowd control issues, the instant popularity of the Shanghai location is surely heartening for Costco.

If the public's reaction so far is any indication, Shanghai is at the very least enthusiastically curious about Costco.

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