The truth turns out to be...all the shops under People's Square have been closed? Shanghai Rumor Refuting Platform conducts on-the-spot verification
Recently, a netizen posted that "all the shops under People's Square are closed" and shared a photo of all the shops closed, which triggered a lot of discussion. Is this true?
The Shanghai Rumor Refuting Platform visited and verified on the spot and found that the real situation is not what netizens said in their posts. Although some areas have been adjusted due to business format adjustments, other areas are still operating normally and have considerable passenger flow.
The poster of the relevant post said, "I didn't see many people walking through the passage at noon on weekdays. It felt eerie when walking alone. I remember it was quite lively down there before" and accompanied it with a photo. The shops on both sides of the underground passage in the photo are closed, and there are no pedestrians. A "big V" on Weibo forwarded the screenshot and commented, "It's so bleak."
Judging from the photo, the shooting location was the "Hong Kong Famous Store Street" underground in People's Square. This commercial street was put into use in 1995 and has a history of nearly 30 years. At that time, it was known as Shanghai's longest underground pedestrian commercial street, with a wide variety of merchandise. After several iterative upgrades, it has become a gathering place for "two-dimensional" culture together with the interconnected Dimei Shopping Center next door. However, in April last year, Hong Kong Famous Store Street issued information stating that it would temporarily close due to the expiration of the contract and the upgrade of the business format.
The management also stated that due to changes in consumption patterns, customer groups, business formats, and business concepts, Hong Kong Famous Store Street will conduct commercial linkage with Dimei Shopping Center, coordinate the renovation style, and implement differentiated business layouts based on the project structure and location characteristics to create a Shanghai-based shopping mall. A new commercial landmark underground in the center.
Therefore, some netizens pointed out that the relevant blogger was "pacing": "I just went there yesterday afternoon. Basically everything was open and there were a lot of people." Hong Kong's famous shopping street was ready to be renovated and renovated when its lease expired in the middle of last year. In the past, Dimei was still open and crowded. "
As some comments said, seeing the situation is still necessary to believe it. Therefore, the reporter went to the place mentioned in this Weibo to conduct on-site verification.
One working day evening, the reporter came to the famous shopping street in Hong Kong where the photo was taken. There were indeed very few pedestrians on the long underground commercial street, and the shops on both sides were closed. Notices were posted outside some shops, indicating that the store had moved to Dimei next door and the First Department Store on Nanjing East Road.
But walking through Hong Kong's famous shopping street and walking into Dimei, all the shops here are occupied by merchants and are open for business. There are no shops posting notices such as subletting. The business items of these stores include animation peripheral products, toys, cosplay clothing, etc., as well as makeup, manicure, catering, video games, games, secret rooms, script killing, etc. The owner of a store said that the customer base here is mainly young people. They have to go to school and work during the week, and many activities are also held on weekends, so there are not many people visiting during the week. But "when I come back on weekends, it is completely different." ".
On Sunday afternoon, the reporter visited again. From the subway entrance leading to Hong Kong's famous shopping street, you can see some young people dressed as anime characters. After entering the famous shopping street, more and more young people are coming and going.
After walking through the passage and entering the Dimei Shopping Center, as the boss said, it was crowded. There are several customers shopping at the same time in almost every store. Temporary stalls have been set up in the corridor. Starbucks, KFC and other restaurants are full of people. There are also many customers in the aisles and halls, most of whom are young. people. The reporter also noticed that some stores have posted recruitment notices, which shows that the business situation is relatively stable.
"Sometimes I invite my classmates to relax during the holidays. It's always very lively here." Xiao Shen, a college student, walked out of the video game city carrying a bag with a doll. He told reporters that he had been coming here when he was in middle school. In his impression, the weekend business here has always been good. Although some shops have opened and closed and new ones have been opened, the popularity has not diminished.
All the above show that although it is true that the shops on Hong Kong's famous shopping streets have been closed collectively, it does not mean that "all the shops under People's Square are finished." Over the years, physical commerce has indeed encountered many challenges, both related to e-commerce and costs, as well as changes in people's consumption habits. However, field visits revealed that both the management of commercial streets that have temporarily closed down and the merchants that are currently operating are working hard to adjust and respond to new consumer demands. Many of the stores are doing pretty good business.
The adjustment of shopping malls and commercial streets is a normal business behavior, and the adjustment and upgrading is also to a certain extent to better serve consumers. However, for some time, some bloggers have exaggerated their claims and frequently linked business adjustments to economic depression, which is obviously neither accurate nor objective. What's more, they deliberately collect this kind of information, promote negative arguments, pessimize the economy in order to gain traffic, and exaggerate a pessimistic atmosphere. As a consumer, you should treat it rationally and not be led by some people with ulterior motives.
