In 1843, Shanghai opened its ports to international trade. European and American traders came to Shanghai, bringing foreign products and ideas both good and bad, and letting capitalism sprout in the Chinese city. By 1907, there were four large British-owned department stores in Shanghai, catering mainly to foreign customers and a small number of upper-class Chinese.
They were the Hall & Haltz Co, the Weeks & Co, the Lane Crawford & Co, and the Whiteawag, Laidlaw & Co, and were found on the eastern part of Nanking Road ( today’s Nanjing Road) , near the Bund. All were owned by British businessmen. Most Chinese businessmen at that time were still running traditional shops or companies that only sold one or a few varieties of products.
This changed when 4 Chinese businessmen from Guangdong Province decided to take over the lead. All of them started their merchant careers in Australia and brought the experience to the mother land. What they created, were not just stores for shopping. They each offered on their premises hotels, restaurants, teahouses, theaters and….originated the trend for Shanghai’s rooftop parties!
1. SINCERE
Officially opened : 1917
Founder: Ma Ying Piu, who made his first bucket of gold in Australia selling fruit and vegetables, and after that founded the first Chinese department store in Hong Kong in 1900
Location: Nanking Road at the junction of Chekiang Road (now Zhejiang Road). It was near the tram stop that brought tourists from the train station, and to the south lived some of the richest people in Shanghai.
The baroque-style building complex originally had five floors and was a giant compared to the other one- or two-story shops on Nanking Road.
More than 10,000 products were sold in the 40 departments in the store, even more than in the Hong Kong headquarters. On its opening day, fireworks were heard up and down Nanking Road and Shanghai residents crowded onto the street, wanting to look at the new store. By 1918, there were 1,000 employees working for Sincere.
Sincere was the first of the four to open a rooftop amusement area called The Sincere Paradise, and later the other stores followed suit.
The rooftop offered the public theaters for Chinese opera and variety shows. At first only customers who had spent a certain amount of money at the store were given free admission to the rooftop park. But the shows proved increasingly popular, and with the entertainment industry blossoming in Shanghai, in 1917, the top two floors of the building were turned into an indoor entertainment area with seven theaters showing Peking and Yuju operas, Chinese and Hollywood films and variety shows. People danced in the ballroom and played snooker in the billiard rooms. Fortune-tellers, palm readers and street vendors provided extra color for visitors.
Another groundbreaking movement of the company was..hiring women!
At that stage in China, it was considered very unconventional - most shop assistants were male and most women were housewives.
When Sincere advertised for female shop assistants, nobody dared to apply. Sincere's boss Ma's wife volunteered to be the first female assistant, showing that women could do the job and to attract young women to apply for the work. Many did, but still they accounted for just a small percentage of the shop assistants. According to records in the 1930s, women made up just 10 percent of all the shop assistants in Shanghai.
Ma Ying Piu later wrote that his inspiration for founding the Sincere Company had been to change the old ways of doing business in China. He said that living in Australia had opened his eyes to large-scale business organization and strategies. He believed that China would regain its national strength if Chinese businessmen would modernize their practices to compete in international markets. They did.
2.Wing On
Officially opened : 1918
Founders: brothers Kwok Lok and Kwok Chuen, who had started the Wing On fruit store in Australia in 1897. In 1907 Kwok Chuen founded the Wing On Company in Hong Kong, the second Chinese-owned department store in Hong Kong, and later established its Shanghai branch.
Location: Nanking Road, across from Sincere. In 1930, an extension was built next to it and it was one of the first, modern ‘skyscrapers’ of Shanghai.
Wing On was the first shop to introduce vouchers which could be used to purchase items at the store, a modern technique for a shop to increase cash flow and attract more customers.
A large flashing neon sign at Wing On proclaimed: "The customer is always right."
Its motto was "Dedicated to selling global products and everything needed in daily life."
After its establishment, Wing On became a fierce competitor of Sincere, but the two companies managed to make it friendly, at least on the surface. The companies kept their charges at the same level, avoiding price wars, and agreed not to hire employees that had been fired or had resigned from each other.
However, the competition was unavoidable. During the construction of Wing On's store, when the executives of Sincere learnt that it would be six-story tall, they reconstructed Sincere, adding a sixth floor to their building. Wing On, in response, built a tower on top of its sixth floor to make the building higher.
In 1930, the total profits of Wing On totaled 10 million Hong Kong dollars ($1.29 million), four times its original capital.
3. Sun Sun
Officially opened: 1926
Founder: Liu Xiji and Li Linzhou
Location: Nanking Road , next to Sincere Department Store
The only one that was registered with Chinese Government ( the other 3 were registered at Us and UK).Towering at 10 stories, the shop was the largest of the four. Sun Sun had its own radio station which broadcast for the first time on March 18, 1927 and was on air six hours a day, promoting its products and broadcasting performances from its rooftop garden. Famous Chinese opera singers of the day were guests on air and customers could see how the station worked by looking through the large windows as the announcers, technicians and performers went about their tasks (locals called it the "Glass Station"). It was rebuilt after the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) and renamed "the victory station" to mark China's victory.
4. Da Sun
Officially opened : 1936
Founders: two Cantonese brothers Choy Hing and Choy Chong
Location: Nanking ( today East Nanjing) Road at the junction of Xizang Road
The largest and most lavish of the 4, rising 10 stories above Nanking Road. Da Sun was the first store to install escalators which ran from the first to the second floor and from the second to the third and these became major attractions with thousands of people coming just to watch or try the escalators.
The quality of its goods was impressive, its counters piled high with cigarettes from all over the world, Cuban cigars, American made cotton shirts, Swiss watches and German fountain pens.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, all four department stores were nationalized and their names and ownership have changed many times since. Today, beside the Shanghai First Food Store (the former Sun Sun Department Store), the former building of the Sincere Department Store is now the Shanghai Fashion Store, selling clothes. Da Sun has become the Shanghai No.1 Department Store. Only Wing On still uses its former Chinese name, although it is now run by the State-owned Bailian Group and no longer uses Wing On, a Cantonese translation, as its English title, but Yong'an, the pinyin version.
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