Tongxiang Leather City Business Bleak, Merchants Evacuated

September 2006, Tongxiang, China

Yesterday, the reporter came to Tongxiang leather city and found such a big one.

There are only 3 operators.

Yesterday afternoon, the reporter came to Tongxiang leather city to investigate.

Because there is no light on the first floor, there is no commercial atmosphere here.

Suddenly, the reporter heard a voice, followed by prestige, and two or three people chatted together.

When someone came over, a woman immediately approached and said, "shoes are cheap, and come in."

Then she went into the shop and turned on the light.

Only then did the reporter notice that there were many shoes on the cupboard.

"There is no business here, but the electricity bill has to be paid, so when no one comes in, they have to turn off the lights so that they can save electricity."

The woman said.

"A little bit of competent merchants have moved away. I really have no place to go. So many goods have been pushed forward, so I can't move to the street to set up a stall. I have to take a chance here," the merchant reluctantly told reporters.

Reporters then came to the two floor, turned a whole circle down, it was difficult to find 2 stores still in business.

One of the shops set up a table at the door, and there was an electric rice cooker on the table.

The sign on the shop door is also replaced by a red paper.

"There's no business, so it's very empty, so you can cook here.

I'm going to insist on leaving at the end of this month. "

The owner of the shop said.

In contrast, its "Golden leather goods line" on the opposite side is a little bit alive. The shop is streaming with melodious music, "making some atmosphere for itself, but there is no customer coming all day."

The shop assistant said.

Further up, all shops on the third floor and the four floor are closed. In such a huge shopping mall, only 2 shoe shops located on the two floor and 1 shoe shops on the first floor are still struggling to maintain.

The landlord thinks he is the most bitter.

"The business here was very good, so we got a lot of goods, but soon the business went down.

A group of prescient merchants withdrew early, and the agreement signed by most merchants expired in August 31st last year.

Ms. Chen, who once ran leather garments in Leather City in Tongxiang, said that many people did not renew their contracts and chose to leave after the expiry date.

After the evacuation, there were not many businesses left, and businesses were even more depressed than without merchants.

To date, there are only 3 merchants.

Even under such circumstances, the landlord came to collect the rent on time, and the price was not low.

On the first floor, the merchants who were still selling shoes shops said that the landlords had to charge 20 thousand yuan a year for rent, so she changed to the present shops.

"This is an acquaintance. I'll show you a little bit later."

Reporters contacted several landlords who bought shops in the leather city of Tongxiang.

"We were the biggest victims, and we were deceived to this place."

A landlord said that at that time, he heard the developers' publicity and bought shops, but he was put to death here.

Now, the loan in the bank has to be paid back, but the shops here have no profit, but they can only watch it depreciate day by day.

Ms. Zhou also bought a shop in Tongxiang Leather City, but soon afterwards she learned that she was worried about the world trade center on the plot that was only a few hundred meters away from the leather city of Tongxiang.

Soon, the world trade center, which dominated luggage and leather products, began attracting investment.

"This is not enough. The North Zhejiang tourist shopping center, which is 5 kilometers away from the leather town of Tongxiang, is now open for business, and now it is also known as the" leather square of Northern Zhejiang ".

In such a situation, it is reasonable for Tongxiang leather city to come to this stage today.

Mrs. Zhou sighed.

Why go from bad to worse?

Tongxiang leather city has been a high-profile external publicity, it belongs to the new generation of leather professional market.

The market has a total construction area of 170 thousand square meters, with a total investment of about 650 million yuan, of which the first phase project is about 96 thousand square meters, with a total investment of 350 million yuan.

It opened in September 23, 2006, when it settled in about 500 brand stores, with an opening rate of 100%.

In the supporting area of the market, the international brand chain hotel "MOTEL168" and Shanghai's well-known restaurant "Merrill Lynch" have also joined in and first entered.

However, one year after the opening of Tongxiang Leather City, it changed hands.

In November 2007, Zhongsheng group bought Tongxiang Leather City as a whole.

This move has doubled the confidence of many merchants, because Zhongsheng group has said that it is necessary to build Tongxiang leather city into a fashion leather city.

"But three years later, Tongxiang leather city is" Wang Xiao er's new year, one year is not as good as a year. "

Ms. Zhou said.

Yesterday, the reporter contacted the relevant person in charge of Zhongsheng Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., Shanghai Zhongsheng group.

The responsible person said that after the Zhongsheng group took over the leather city of Tongxiang, it identified a development strategy, decided to introduce fashion elements and take the wrong way of competition. However, these ideas still did not change the situation of Tongxiang leather city.