Lotte China closes stores

South Korea’s Lotte is finding the Chinese retail market tough to crack.

Lotte Mart, the supermarket arm of South Korea’s Lotte Group, is to close four underperforming supermarkets in East China’s Shandong Province, according to the China Business Journal newspaper.

Lotte is said to be losing market share in Mainland China unable to differentiate itself in the middle ground between local retail chains and the growing power of online retailers such as Alibaba and JD.com.

Two of the stores to close are located in Qingdao, a second tier city located on the coast. A third is located in Weihai and the fourth in Weifang, an industrial city in central Shandong.

Another source observed Lotte Mart did not provide a compelling food offer with its supermarkets.

“For young people, Lotte Mart is not a good choice if they want to eat out as well as shop. There are not many fancy restaurants in Lotte Mart compared with other markets,” the customer told The Global Times on Sunday.

Lotte Mart has 120 stores in China, 116 in Korea, 39 in Indonesia and 10 in Vietnam.