ParknShop

ParknShop
Supermarket
Industry Retailing
Founded 1973
Headquarters Hong Kong
Number of locations
 300 stores (2015)
Area served
 Hong Kong
Mainland China
Macau
United States (Jusgo)
Owner A.S. Watson Group
Parent CK Hutchison Holdings
Website parknshop.com

ParknShop (styled PARKnSHOP) (Chinese: 百佳; pinyin: Bǎijiā) is one of the two largest supermarket chains in Hong Kong, the other being Wellcome. ParknShop operates more than 300 outlets in Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, and United States, under the name Jusgo Supermarket.

The first ParknShop store opened in Stanley, Hong Kong in 1973. For a decade the store remained a local retailer until the mid-1980s when it began to expand outside Hong Kong.

ParknShop is a member of the A.S. Watson Group, a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings Limited.

Locations

A ParknShop Superstore in Marina Square West
A ParknShop store in Fu Cheong Estate, Sham Shui Po
International by ParknShop in The Peak Galleria
Jusgo Supermarket byParknShop logo
Fusion by ParknShop in Quarry Bay

Hong Kong

ParknShop has more than 300 stores and 9,000 employees in Hong Kong.[1] ParknShop opened the first superstore[fn 1] in Hong Kong in 1996 in Whampoa Garden[2] Phase 12 with a floor space of 4,200 m². The first ParknShop megastore[fn 2] opened in 2002 in Metro City Tseung Kwan O with a floor space of 6,700 m².

A.S. Watson Group also operates a number of supermarkets under different brand names that target higher-income consumers. There is one Great supermarket located at Pacific Place, one Gourmet supermarket at Leighton Centre (Causeway Bay), and Taste supermarkets at Festival Walk (Kowloon Tong), Citygate (Tung Chung), Stanley Plaza (Stanley), Hopewell Centre (Wan Chai), East Point City (Hang Hau, Tseung Kwan O), Maritime Square (Tsing Yi), Olympian City 2 (Tai Kok Tsui), Metroplaza (Kwai Fong, Kwai Chung) and TMTplaza (Tuen Mun). In 2007, another brand, International by ParknShop, was introduced at Happy Valley, Hong Lok Yuen, United Centre at Admiralty and Cyberport which specialises in organic foods.

ParknShop's higher-income stores are billed as a "lifestyle" food stores and stock a large variety of imported goods, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables and many nonfood items. The upmarket stores were launched in November 2004, when the existing 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) ParknShop store located at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong was rebranded as Taste.

Mainland China

In 1984 ParknShop opened its first mainland China store in Shekou, the first foreign retailer to enter the mainland Chinese market. The chain's first mainland superstore opened in 2000 and its first mainland megastore followed in 2001 in the Tianhe district of Guangzhou. There are now about sixty ParknShop stores in northern and southern China, including locations in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Zhuhai.

United States

In 2011 PARKnSHOP opened its first store outside China as Jusgo Supermarket in Houston. The supermarket chain leased 25,000 square feet in Diho Plaza to account for an Asian supermarket, which was built with traditional Chinese architecture elements including green tile roof and sports red posts.[3][4] Jusgo contributes to a major part of Houston Chinatown for grocery along with Great Wall Supermarket.

In Plano, a suburb of Dallas, Texas, Jusgo Supermarket opened its second location in 2011. The location used to be owned by Asia World Market, which had moved there from Richardson. This Jusgo location has multiple stores inside it including a Hello Kitty and a crepe[5] store and is located off Texas Highway 75.[6]

The chain's third location opened in Duluth, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia in 2016 north of Interstate 85 and includes a food court with several traditional Chinese dishes including craft-your-own Sichuan-style dry hot pots, Cantonese barbecue, and Shaanxi-style cuisine.[7]

In 2018, a fourth location was opened in Sugar Land, a suburb of Houston. The store was formerly used by GattiTown, where business was low against nearby Main Event Entertainment. Edward Tsao Architects, Inc., a Chinese-American architecture company, transformed the dated retail park with a modern look. The Sugar Land store is in the same retail park as 99 Ranch Market, offering competition to the Taiwanese-American supermarket giant.[8]

That same year, Jusgo opened a fifth location in Plano in the Park Pavilion Center, north of President George Bush Turnpike. It replaced the Elliot's Hardware store, which moved across the street as it was surrounded by ethnic restaurants, primarily Chinese.[9]

History

Labour outsourcing

In April 2005, the ParknShop chain, including the rebranded Taste superstore in Festival Walk, controversially dismissed 525 employees, when the company outsourced the labour for its fresh foods counter; most of the employees were dismissed just before the Chinese New Year in 2006. The aggrieved employees included many low-paid workers of longtime service. The employees' union complained that although 90% of the dismissed workers were rehired at the same position as before, their wages were lowered (some reportedly by as much as 44%), and their working hours were increased from 10 to 12 hours by the outsourcing subcontractor. The resulting average hourly rate was HK$18.[10]

Proposed sale by Hutchison

In 2013, Hutchison invited bids for the entire ParknShop chain, during "a strategic review" of the ParknShop business, for an expected price of US$3 billion to US$4 billion. The company received eight bids, from: China Resources Vanguard (China / Hong Kong), Wal-Mart Stores (US), Aeon (Japan), Woolworths (Australia) and Wesfarmers (Australia), CP Group (Thailand), and Sun Art Retail (China).[11] However, in October the company announced that it would retain ownership of the chain and focus on expanding in China.[12]

Generic products

ParknShop sells products under generic brands, both what it calls "private label"[fn 3] and "Best Buy"[fn 4] branding. Their group of supermarkets also exclusively carries a variety of Waitrose and Groupe Casino products from the UK and France respectively.

ParknShop participates in A.S. Watson's customer loyalty program, called "MoneyBack" [fn 5].

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Chinese: 超級廣場; pinyin: Chāojí guǎngchǎng
  2. ↑ Chinese: 購物廣場; pinyin: Gòuwù guǎngchǎng
  3. ↑ Chinese: 百佳牌; pinyin: Bǎi Jiā pái
  4. ↑ Chinese: 超值牌; pinyin: Chāo zhí pái
  5. ↑ Chinese: 易賞錢

References

  1. ↑ "Company Overview". Retrieved 30 June 2007.
  2. ↑ PARKnSHOP milestones
  3. ↑ "Real estate transactions". Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Jusgo Shopping Center". Retrieved June 2, 2018.
  5. ↑ Esther Huynh (December 21, 2016). "Crepes For U". Retrieved June 2, 2018.
  6. ↑ Homa Bash (Nov 14, 2016). "Asian Markets Cater to Growing Asian Population in Collin County". Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  7. ↑ Jennifer Zyman (September 5, 2017). "You need to eat at the Jusgo Supermarket food court in Duluth". Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  8. ↑ Edward Tsao Architects, Inc. "JUSGO Supermarket Chinese Supermarket in Sugar Land, Houston". Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Jusgo Supermarket to open second Plano location on Coit Road this year". Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  10. ↑ Wong, Ching (April 2006). "PARKnSHOP Outsourcing adds insult to injury" (in Chinese). U-Beat magazine Chinese University of Hong Kong. Retrieved 25 March 2007.
  11. ↑ Eight bids received for Li Ka-shing's ParknShop, South China Morning Post, 17 August 2013
  12. ↑ RPT-Hutchison drops plan to sell ParknShop supermarkets business, Reuters. 20 October 2013
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