Galeries Lafayette lost Beijing twice — its 2013 Xidan flagship closed in May 2026

On May 14, 2026, Galeries Lafayette announced on WeChat that its Beijing Xidan flagship would close on May 27. The store had opened in 2013 — a 13-year run that made it the French department store's second attempt at Beijing, after its 1997 Wangfujing store closed within about a year. Its departure marks the second time the 130-year-old Parisian retailer failed to hold the Chinese capital.

The store's decline began around 2017, when luxury and trendy brands started leaving. An expansion plan announced after the opening — 16 stores in five years — collapsed; only one additional store, at Shenzhen's UpperHills, ever opened. After the Beijing closure, Galeries Lafayette China will have just two stores: Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Retail analysts cite several reasons: luxury brands pursuing a 'one city, one store' strategy no longer need mid-tier department stores; Xidan drew customers who never matched the light-luxury positioning; and a buyer-model store, relying on imported brands and commissions, lost to directly-operated flagships and experience-driven competitors. The revenue-shared lease with owner 金融街集团 had cushioned losses for years, but both partners concluded the space no longer worked. 金融街集团 now seeks a new tenant — more than 30 foreign department stores have closed in China in five years.

Alexandre Liot, COO of Galeries Lafayette's China business, told 中国商报 that consumer behavior had changed fundamentally and that the single-format, single-store model could no longer respond to the market. Analyst 柏文喜 noted that the brand's failure in Beijing was rooted in its positioning: 'neither high-end nor affordable' — squeezed between luxury flagships and local e-commerce.