Twenty-four hours after the Lunar New Year holiday ended, Uniqlo’s Chinese workforce was still at home. That was February 1. By February 3, every single store in the country had its shutters down.
The company’s parent, Fast Retailing, had ordered the most comprehensive retail shutdown of any foreign brand in China during the Covid-19 outbreak. Now, seven weeks later, 720 of those 750 outlets have flicked their lights back on.
The reopening did not happen all at once. It started in Shanghai and Shenzhen two weeks ago, then crept inland to Chengdu and Xi’an. By mid-week this week, only Hubei province remained dark.
That leaves 30 stores still closed — the final holdouts in the outbreak’s epicenter. The company’s share price, which has dropped almost 30 percent since January, closed Monday at 46,000 yen.
Management told investors cash reserves are adequate to ride out the disruption. The scale of the February freeze was brutal. All 370 stores in the Yangtze River delta locked up on February 1.
Two days later, the rest of the network followed. The shutdown coincided with Beijing’s extended holiday, imposed to slow the virus. Inventory that should have moved during the gift-buying season sat in regional distribution centers.
Spring deliveries were deferred. The hole punched in second-quarter revenue is still being measured.
Now the company is taking it slow. Stores operate on shortened hours. Staff get temperature checks before shifts.
Fitting rooms stay closed. Checkout lines keep customers one meter apart — rules posted at every door.
A Fast Retailing spokesman in Shanghai said Friday the company is following government guidance to the letter. “Safety comes before sales,” he said, “but every reopened store is a step toward normal life for our 30,000 Chinese employees.” Foot traffic tells the real story. Store managers told local media that customer numbers are still down roughly 40 percent compared with the same week in 2019.
That is not a recovery. It is a cautious first step. Chinese consumers are not flooding back.
They are trickling in, one meter apart, past temperature checkpoints, past closed fitting rooms, past signs they have never seen before. The broader context is simple.
Uniqlo’s reopening mirrors China’s own slow emergence from lockdown. New local virus cases have tapered off outside Hubei. The government is pressing for normalcy.
But normalcy does not mean crowds. It means empty aisles, cautious shoppers, and a company that burned through a month of lost sales to prove it would follow the rules.
Fast Retailing’s decision to shut everything in February was among the most sweeping of any retailer in China. It was also the most expensive. The company took the hit on revenue rather than risk its reputation or its staff’s health.
Now it is taking the same cautious approach on the way back. Every reopened store is a signal — but the signal is weak. 30 stores still dark. Foot traffic still down 40 percent.
Fitting rooms still locked. The company’s 30,000 Chinese employees are back at work, mostly.
But the work is different. The routine is different. The customers are fewer.
The company says cash is adequate. The share price says investors are not convinced.
The stores are open. The question is how long it takes for people to walk back in.
