BHG pioneered China's premium supermarket — 20 years later, 6 stores remain

BHG Market Place opened its first store in Beijing's SKP in 2007 — one of China's first premium supermarkets, selling imported food and quality fresh produce to affluent locals and expatriates at premium prices. At its peak it ran more than 20 stores in Beijing and expanded to Tianjin, Hefei, Wuhan and Nanjing; in 2017 it still held 15 Beijing doors and was regarded as the pioneer of the format.

The listed parent, Hualian Zongchao, read the ending early. After net profit fell 590% and the company swung to its first loss in 2016, it sold 100% of BHG Market Place to Kaida Bochuan for ¥294 million in June 2017, writing in the announcement that high-end supermarkets had 'limited future development space.' The buyer kept running the stores while the model's foundations eroded: cross-border e-commerce and price transparency killed the information asymmetry the imported-goods markup had rested on, and Sam's Club and Costco sold the same quality cheaper.

The closures came in a string. Shunyi Euro Plaza shut in 2024; the BHG Mall supermarkets in Shunyi and Tiantongyuan closed, Walmart taking both sites. In December 2025 Meituan opened its first Xiaoxiang Supermarket in the former Wanliu BHG space. On July 31, 2026, the DT51 store shut after three and a half years. BHG now runs four stores in Beijing plus one each in Xi'an and Nanjing. The formats moving into its old spaces — Walmart community stores, Wumart Chaozhi, JD discount supermarkets — run the opposite model: smaller footprints, lower prices, faster turnover.